Tampa Bay Caribbean Carnival

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Please come join us @ Vinoy Park, downtown St. Pete on Sunday, June 13, 2010 for Alison Hinds.

The undisputed
“Queen of SOCA”
to fans worldwide, her powerful, emotional vocals and high-energy shows are legendary to Caribbean music fans.

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Origins of the Steel Band

The Steel band originated from what was known as the Tamboo Bamboo ensemble which consisted of instruments of bamboo cut to various lengths and sizes which simulated the four main voices of music, soprano, alto, bass and tenor. The Tamboo Bamboo ensembles replaced the African Drums which were outlawed by the then Colonial government in the 1880's. This type of musical accompaniment was used for Carnival Parades and street celebrations.

1935 is known as the year that the Tamboo Bamboo began to be replaced by metal instruments. That year, the Newtown Tamboo Bamboo band led by Lord Humbugger, discarded their bamboo sticks and replaced their instruments with metal containers for the Carnival Monday J'Ouvert. These new instruments included garbage pails and covers, one gallon biscuit pans, paint pans, brake drums, bottles and spoons. Played together this melange created an unusual sound and rhythm. They changed their name to Alexander's Ragtime Band and caused quite a stir with the new sound. The musical course of Trinidad and Tobago, was beginning to change. By Carnival Monday evening most of the Tamboo Bamboo bands had followed suit and the streets resonated to the people chanting to the clanging metallic sounds.

Tamboo Bamboo soon disappeared from the cities but continued for a while in the rural areas. Controversy still surrounds the issue of who was the first person to play a tune on the pan. Some say it was Victor 'Totie' Wilson, others say Emmanuel 'Fish Eye' Ollivierre yet others say it was Winston 'Spree' Simon.

On VE Day, March 8, 1945, the steel band was formally presented to the world as revelers paraded in the streets to the accompaniment of the steel pan music to celebrate the end of World war 2. The Steel pan, invented in Trinidad and Tobago is known as the only musical instrument created in the twentieth century and has grown from a small street band novelty to be recognized and played with the finest symphonies of the world.