The history of steel band music in Trinidad
In the 1800s, when Trinidad had many sugar plantations, owners brought slaves to the island from West Africa to work on the plantations. These Africans brought their music with them. This music was based around lots of drumming accompanied by singing. The music was often played in religious ceremonies and other celebrations. They also played it as a method of communication.
The Europeans in Trinidad did not like this music at first. It was very different to the classical music that they liked to listen to. Because of this, the authorities banned all drum parades in the late 1800s. But the Africans simply found a way to carry on playing music. Instead of using the drums, they used bamboo sticks that they would hit together to beat out a rhythm. The groups of musicians that would play the bamboo sticks became known as tamboo bamboo bands. These too received bans in the 1930s.
These tamboo bamboo bands preceded steel pan bands. During the Second World War, the U.S.A had used the island of Trinidad as a military base. When the war was over, the Americans had left behind big, 55 gallon oil drums. The Iocal musicians subsequently discovered that if you hammered in different dents onto these steel drums, they would make different sounds of various pitches. From that point on, musicians began to tune them so that they could then play melodies and harmonies on what we now call ‘steel pans’.