The Birth of the Beat

Given the challenging month we've had with boat repairs, it seemed that (in a karma sense) we'd earned something positive. Last night was it. We traveled into Port of Spain with the indomitable Jesse James MaxiTaxi and seven other cruisers to do some "liming,”  which is basically just hanging out and listening to music. We were searching for a pan yard where Trinidad's famous steel pan bands practice leading up to Carnival. And we hit the mother lode.

Nestled up against one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the world (Laventille) was a nondescript door in an industrial area. We were quickly hustled in (too dangerous to be out on the street) to a large outdoor space lined with steel pan band set-ups. It was the Trinidad version of a "battle of the bands" featuring the Uni Stars, Phase II Pan Groove, the Trinidad All Stars, and the world famous Renegades Steel Orchestra (this was their pan yard). According to one of the cruisers these were three of the top steel pan pans in Trinidad. The show began with a moment of silence for two band members shot the night before. As I said, this is a very tough neighborhood.

Tom and Sabrina from Honey Rider, Jesse, and Meryl enjoying the evening.

An early history (mid 1800s) talks about how the Trinidad slaves, a mixture of West Africans and French creoles, were not allowed to take part in the French tradition of Carnival. They, in turn, formed their own celebration called canboulay.  The African tradition of stick fighting and African percussion music was banned in 1880, along with canboulay, and the slaves replaced the stick fighting with beating bamboo sticks together to form a rhythm. According to Wikipedia, “the bamboo sticks were themselves banned in turn. In 1937 they reappeared in Laventille, transformed as an orchestra of frying pans, dustbin lids and oil drums.”

Close up of steel pan showing the pads representing various notes on the pad.

These are baritone pans, evidenced by their larger pads (deeper notes)

The steel pans are traditionally made from 55 gal. oil drums whose tops are pressed down using a dropped cannon ball (called “sinking”) to form pads, the larger the pad the lower the note. Areas of each pad are tuned (now using a strobe tuner) and the edges of the flat can represent sharps and flats of the note. The pans are played using wooden sticks with balls on the end, called mallets.

These baritone pans are mounted vertically for easier access.

This artist was playing ten different bass pans (with very large pads) mounted in a vertical rack.

A steel pan band can have from several to hundreds of the following pans:  Single Tenor, Spiderweb Lead, Invader Lead, Double Tenor, Double Second, Double Guitar, Quadrophonic (four pans), Quadduet, Triple Guitar, Cello, Tenor Bass, Six Bass, Nine Bass, and Twelve Bass. The deeper the notes, the larger the pads. Some of the bass pans have only three or four pads, meaning the bass players have to play up to twelve pans arranged in either a circle around them or placed in vertical racks. In turn, the soprano instruments can have 10 to 20 notes on a single pan, making playing of the higher pitched pans a very precise process, especially given the tempo of calypso songs.

Tom, a percussionist himself, tries tries the car wheel with members of the Uni Stars.

Other percussive instruments include drums, a cheese grader-type instrument played with an African American hair comb, and an “iron,” constructed of a car wheel drum and hit on all sides with a small metal rod.

The beautiful lady in the front was captain of this line for The Renegades. She had an infectious smile and incredibly high energy playing a treble pan.

The steel pan bands practice during the year in pan yards leading up to their major performances during Carnival in February or March. On occasion they invite other  bands to perform with them. Notice of these performances are circulated through hand bills and posters in the neighborhoods, hence our difficulty in finding them.

Meryl "liming" with a group of locals.

As our kids say, Big Wally and JoMamma having the time of their life.

The nine of us cruisers were the only Caucasians in the crowd of several hundred locals. Despite the dangerous neighborhood, we felt totally welcomed and protected inside the pan yard.

The lady in the blue was an incredible dancer. Here's she's chippin to the energetic beat of the Trinidad All Stars.

This gentleman was full of energy chippin all around the front of the bands. Here he is with the Phase II Pan Groove band. The female bass drummer in the front was very helpful explaining the intricacies of the steel pan to me.

The amazing Renegades had arguably the most precise sound of all the pan bands.  They've won a number of championships at the annual Panorama.

The rest of the evening was pure magic. I've never heard such purely joyful, happy music that came from the soul. No sheet music, no agenda, no schedule. We stood in the front row of each band’s performance to get the full effect. Our bodies literally vibrated with the beat of the drums and tinging of the steel pans. Some of the women and men were dancing solo in front of the bands (called chippin’) and many in the crowd were swaying rhythmically to the music.

If you watch only two videos, watch the incredibly high energy and synchronicity of the Trinidad All Stars.

We talked to many of the musicians and learned about the intricacies of playing the steel pans. One of our group, Tom, even got a lesson in how to play the brake drum with the small metal bar. Many players start at the age of five or six. And they are phenomenal.

On top of the high energy performances, what impressed us most was how we were treated by the locals: everyone was super friendly, many came up to ask us if we were enjoying ourselves, and the organizers even shook our hands and thanked us as we left.

What an incredible evening. We’d didn’t leave until about 12:30 pm (with The Renegades still in full swing), but for cruisers who usually go to bed around 9:00 pm it was a late night out.