Published: 1 years 302 days ago
Steel drum's soothing sound gains fans
Chester Murray's steel pan used to be nothing but a wall decoration in his Palm Bay home. He never played it. But when the full-time musician blew out two keyboards within a week of each other, the "Rasta" from Trinidad decided it was time to take it down. "I really have gotten a lot more work," said Murray, who has been playing pan for a year and has a regular Wednesday night gig at the Long Doggers in Palm Bay. Murray sings calypso and reggae versions of popular music and uses the pan from his native land as a complement.
"When you're playing Caribbean music, you want to appear as a Caribbean musician," he said. "The keyboard -- it was not as appealing."
Steel pans may come from Trinidad (the African side), but the instrument made from a 55-gallon barrel has found its way to Brevard County, with school programs, a radio show and performances by musicians such as Franke Lutz, "Brevard County's Original Steel Drum Man." Lutz also performs at Long Doggers' locations.
Barbara Sealy Rhoden, host of "SteelpanVibes . . . It's More than Music!" on WNRG-FM (107.9), said she has been fielding more calls and e-mails from listeners interested in the instrument. Her show airs from 5 to 6 p.m. Saturdays and features steel pan orchestras, ensembles and soloists.
"It's like an underground movement," said Sealy Rhoden, who was born in Trinidad. "It's not only among Caribbean people. It's the general population.
"It's a uniting kind of instrument," she said. "It's even intergenerational. In Trinidad, old folks and young people play together."
Steel pans, also known as steel drums, date back to the 1930s, according to Kenneth Broadway, professor of percussion at the University of Florida and director of the Sunshine Steelers, the school's steel pan ensemble. It is said to be the only acoustic instrument that was invented in the 20th century.
Before the 1940s, steel pans were more like biscuit tins and were carried around the neck, he said. As players hit the metal with sticks in various places, they could hear the relative pitches. That led to the exploration of developing a diatonic pitched instrument.
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