Band helps spread Caribbean culture

 


--------------------

August 31, 2004
Newsday


Shannelle County is in her own world. Leaning over the wide steel basin with her eyes barely open, the 18-year-old from Valley Stream beats at its dents with her rubber-tipped drumsticks in a gentle calypso that's eclipsed by the room's loud clanking pandemonium.

It's rehearsal time for the Ad Lib Steel Orchestra, a group of 70, ages 7 to 65, who gather nightly during the summer in Freeport to "play pan," a genre that hails from the Caribbean island of Trinidad and Tobago.

"It's something I look forward to doing, outside school. It helps relieve stress," said County, the band's junior captain. Importantly, pan also helps preserve her parents' traditions from San Juan and Tacarigua, Trinidad. "To be able to say I'm playing this instrument, which is one of the better representations of where my family has come from, makes me proud."

County started playing when she was 8. She's one of many Caribbean-Americans encouraged by the West Indian community's efforts to integrate younger generations with their culture.

At rehearsal last week, Ad Lib members were gearing up for the annual New York City Panorama competition on Saturday in Brooklyn.



How its popularity grew

Pan, now a national instrument and source of pride for Trinidad, boomed in popularity in the United States after islanders used new immigration laws to flock here in the 1960s. Long Islanders with Trinidad and Tobago ancestors more than doubled to more than 5,500 from 1990 to 2000, according to the U.S. Census.

Played on used oil drums, pan was seen as vulgar in the Caribbean's colonial days of the 1930s and police would destroy the homemade instruments, said Anthony Hinds, president of the New York- based United States Steelband Association.

But a new government in the 1960s, the People's National Movement, made pan socially accepted and introduced the music in public schools, Hinds said. Pan is now considered mainstream, he said.

"It's definitely typical of not only Trinidad but of areas like the eastern Caribbean, like Guyana," said M.A. Samad-Matias, a professor of Caribbean studies at City College. "It's not at all a stigma like it once was."



Summer performances

On a recent Tuesday night, mostly younger members of Ad Lib hunched over drums in the band's rented white- washed building on Guy Lombardo Avenue. For two hours, players warmed up, creating a cacophony of clanging.

Chaos morphed into composition as the band prepared to play "War 2004," a calypso number. There's no sheet music - what counts is a player's ear as the musician beats the grooves on giant steel drums, producing notes.

Ad Lib, which was formed in 1989, performs about 30 times a year, mostly over the summer, at weddings, parties and bar mitzvahs for a $600 fee, which pays for rent and utilities. Most members live on Long Island, but others commute from Queens and Brooklyn.

Jean Mayers, one of the band's seven organizers since 1996 when the group decided to focus on young people, is a Freeport resident who emigrated from Trinidad in 1970.

"Spreading the culture is very important," said Mayers, known as "Auntie Jean" to band members. "I've involved my kids because I want to pass my culture on to them." Her daughter Lisa, 37, is one of Ad Lib's junior organizers.

"It teaches the kids to be respectful, honest," Mayers said of the pan sessions.


'We're all family'

To Mayers, Ad Lib is an extended family.

That's one reason why County, who trained on the trombone at The Juilliard School in Manhattan for two years, keeps returning.

"Ad Lib's another family away from home," County said, adding she'll take the discipline she's learned through Ad Lib to Boston College, where she'll study physical therapy this fall.

Like County, Sade Constantine, 17, of Hempstead, is inspired by the band's support. She started playing at 4, introduced to the music by her parents, who are from Port of Spain, Trinidad. "Some [members] are annoying little brothers and sisters, [but] we're all family," said Constantine, who will enter St. John's University in the fall.

Jelani Noel, 14, also loves the communal aspect of the group. The Uniondale High School student joined Ad Lib six years ago after he heard about it from his brother. "There are people to talk to, it's good music," he said. "It's a big part of my life."

But youngsters aren't the only ones drawn to the music.

Claudette Edwards of Uniondale grew up in Kingston, Jamaica, and moved to the United States 14 years ago. Just learning the craft herself, she encourages the participation of her sons, ages 14, 20 and 24.

"I think it's in their blood, somehow they're just drawn to it," said Edwards, who is married to a Trinidadian. "It's a gravitational pull."

Metal music

The steel pan, commonly known as the steel drum, begins life as a discarded oil drum. According to lore, it was invented half a century ago by a Caribbean drummer who, as he was banging an old, misshapen oil barrel back into form, liked the tones he produced.

MAKING THE DRUM B

A) The bottom of a 55-gallon oil drum is pounded inward to create a concave face.

B) After the steel is firetempered for strength, the side, or skirt, is cut to the proper length.

MAKING MUSIC

The steel drum gets its rich harmonics from the distinct way its notes are arranged. The "keys" on the drum face are the dimples, formed using a panmaker's hammer. Each dimple is tuned to sound a certain note when struck by the musician. The vibrations also cause surrounding notes to sound slightly, creating a harmonic effect.

Fa-4

Do-1

So-5

Re-2

La-6

Mi-3

Ti-7

Playing "do-re-mi" is not as straightforward as on a piano.

Smaller dimples in center are high notes

Exterior is finished in chrome

Notes rise in pitch going counterclockwise.

Copyright (c) 2004, Newsday, Inc.

--------------------

This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-listee273948897aug31,0,2983699.story?coll=ny-linews-headlines
 

WST

Share your opinions
Email:
opinions@panonthenet.com


Global SteelPan News

http://www.panonthenet.com/online/index.htm

 

I

Search for Anything Steelpan Music Related
Google