Okay...I'm sure most people here know about steel drums....the tourist trap areas of the Caribbean are full of little steel drum ensembles playing on the beach for tourists.
What you have probably never heard before is a steel drum orchestra!
Imagine about 100 or more "steel players" coming together at whats know as a "pan yard"!!!!
First you have a whole section of un-pitched percussion....bells...blocks...old steel air tanks played with sticks.....This is whats know as the "engine room" and these guy's lay down the basic groove.
Next you have 6 huge bass pans laying down a base line.....
Then a whole section of mid-range pans chime in with a chorus
Finally the lead pans at the front fire up the melody!!!!
There's no microphones....no huge rock and roll amplifiers or speakers....but it is a symphonic wall of sound that goes right through you!!!
Every year all the steel drum bands in the Caribbean meet in Trinidad for a competition known as the "Panorama"!!!
The first song is "Red, White and Black" performed by 7 time Panorama champions Phase II Pan Groove
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LS7Lr4gzDsg
Next is an arrangement of Different Me performed by another Panorama champion band......Witco Desperado
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjppK_faVd8
By the way.....Trinidad and Tobago are very diverse ethnically.....and not only are there the blacks you would expect in such a band....but east Indians and Chinese.......On the song by Phase II Pan Groove you'll see a young Chinese girl right in the middle of the front on lead pans....playing and dancing her butt off!
I do business in the Caribbean and go down there often and can tell you all about Trinidad and Tobago....I've watched these guy's play live and it is really something!!!
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