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bioDrummer, steelband musician, arranger and composer Robert K. Cadet, Sr. was born
in Grenada, W.I. and lived in St. Paul’s parish. Playing for the local village
band Commancheros Steel Orchestra, Cadet developed a love for Pan where he
played bass pan, and was also the drummer. He was given the name “Toes” from
playing the drums on the tip of his toes.
Not too long after, while accompanying Commancheros on tours, Cadet started
arranging music for the band. He was subsequently recruited as arranger for a
new band in 1975, which would eventually go on to be called Toyota All Stars.
Across the ocean in New York that same year, Cadet’s skill set as a drummer once
again came into play for the legendary Brooklynaires Steel Orchestra as their
Panorama drummer, when the band won the New York Panorama championship – all
this at age seventeen.
A mere two years later, then-nineteen
year-old Cadet would cop his first and only Panorama title,
this with Toyota All Stars, back in Grenada. The illustrious
musician was also a one-time member of then-Amoco
Renegades
in Trinidad for two years, where he played double second and
also doubled as the stage side drummer for the band.
He
eventually settled in New York, playing for local brass
bands of the day and also spent 20-plus years in the USMC
(United States Marine Corps). Cadet, Sr. then returned to Grenada, taking his son,
Robert Cadet, Jr. home to play with the band he grew up with, Commancheros. The elder Cadet was hired upon his return to
arrange for a band called Florida All Stars.
In 2009 when
that stint was up, along with his son and a friend, they
decided to form their own band,
Pan
Ossia. A non-sponsored steel
orchestra, they purchased all the instruments out of their own
pocket from Gill’s Pan shop in Trinidad. After a year of
buying Pans and racks, the band entered the Grenada National
Panorama competition for the first time where the band
placed second.
Cadet, Sr. composes all of his own music,
co-writing the lyrics with one of Pan Ossia’s owners,
Burgess “Quako” McPhie.
bio by When Steel Talks
