Rhythm of tassainto steel bandFROM PAGE 13

of its features from Ho-say.

East Indian inden-tured labourers who ar-rived in Trinidad in 1845worked on the Peru sug-ar cane estate in atJames and in neighbour-ing Woodbropk. They re-created India in theirnew world as expressedin the street names, andkept the Muharram cele-bration alive with its ac-companying tarzias.

When Carnival came,the Indian tassa drum-mers saw an opportunityto extend their music-making for the first timeinto a secular affair. Thispractice has been re-tained in St James andin some parts of Southand Central Trinidad.

The announcementthis year that therewould be a launching ofa J'Ouyert band in Portof Spain with music byFireflight, Pan Vibes andSt James Tassa Drum-mers (as was Peter Min-shall's "The River" lastyear with a Baratariatassa group) is moresymbolic than new. Theanthropologist wouldhave seen the culturalsyncretism in one proc-ession, the common manmust have been rudelyawakened to the simila-rities between the twosticks, the posture of themusicians and the tassaround the neck and won-der if one could not havepossibly influenced theother.

St James, home ofthe annual Port of SpainHosay, has a history of

proliferation of steelbandmovements. There wereSun Valley, North Stars,Cross Fire, Symphonites,Vat 19 Tripoli, Cross-Roads, Cairo, Del Vi-kings, Pandemonics,West Side Symphonyand the surviving PhaseII Pan Groove and ThirdWorld. The possibilityexisted that some fea-tures of Hosay would ruboff on the Carnival, espe-cially when participantsand venue were more orless the same.

Belmont, which had asubstantial enough num-ber of Indians to supporta Hindi class in ,the late1930s, was also a nucleusfor the meeting and in-ter-marriage of Indianand African cultures.Though thetassa hasbeen acculturat^d intothe steelband, today IS-COTT Casablanca ofBelmont finds it nec-essary to retain the dholin its pure form.

Africans participatedin playing the tassa dur-ing Hosay, especiallywhen African drummingin public was banned af-ter Emancipation andwhen Carnival was sus-pended as a securitymeasure during WorldWar II. The seed of thesteelband was then nur-tured by the search for anew cultural form relatedto, but not the same as,fossa drumming.

The tassa was a lim-ited musical device be^cause of its inability tokeep a permanent tonewithout. constant heat-ing, its limited range ofnotes and the unavaila-bility of goat and deer

skins in such large quan-tities in the city. Thealternative lay in themetal containers ob-tained from the RisingSun Biscuit Companyfactory on DuncanStreet, from an oil facto-ry in Sea Lots, from theHarbour Scheme, nowcalled the Docksite, andfrom a nearby abbatoir.

What went on was aprocess of long and la-boured experiments withdrums, oil drums, buck-ets, dustbinsj biscuitdrums and cooking-oilpans, no doubt inspiredby the form and sound ofthe tassd. The East Indi-an influence in the use ofthe biscuit drum for theshell of the dhol is seenin the African applica-tion of it for the slapbass in Carnival musicin the 1930s.

From the 1930s to the1940s there was a pro-,gressive change from thetoo-malleable paint, bis-cuit and disinfectantpans to the tough, ring-ing oil drums.

Whether or not it istrue that "Spree" Simonproduced the first melo-dy pan is of less signifi-cance here than the factthat its convex face drewits physical form fromthe daboo type tassa ofHosay. The oil drumsused by Simon weresmaller than the ones wehave today, which makesthem closer to the size ofthe tassa. Continuous in-novation in the embryo-nic stages turned out a-metallic version or adap-tation of the tassa,which was still playedwith two sticks and hung

from'a strap around theneck for convenience inparading.

The technique of tun-ing a pan with heat, hadits origin in the tassaand did not come aboutby accident as many trylamely to explain. Toachieve a definite pitch,both tassa and panmanhad to have a good musi-cal ear.

Anthony Williams'experiment in the StJames band to producepans in hoops and thenweld them together isreally an old method em-ployed to construct thecopper shell of the tcty-reen type tassa in thefoundry. It was the 1945all-steel band "Bar-20"of Gonzalez whichcaused W. Austin Sim-monds of UNESCO tonote the East Indiancontribution:

And into steelbandhistory came the Taza ofthe Indian Festival when"Scribo" Maloney ofBar-20 hanged a sawed-off pan around his mid-dle, and with a pair ofdrum-sticks rolled hisfamous "cut-and-tum-ble" beat. By V-J Day,Bar-20 was the mosttalked-about steelband.

Dr J.D. Elder concurswith Simmonds on thepoint that pan, like Car-nival and calypso, "is aresult of cultural mix-tures of European, Asiat-ic and African strains.Bar-20 of Bath Street,Gonzalez, grew out ofGonzalez' First Elevenwhich was part tamboo-bamboo and part steelband of Limegrove.

"Its members includ-ed Sonny and RupertCope, Mussel-Rat, CecilElcock, Tommy Spike,Wellington "Killie" Ha-rewood, Joby Wbarton,Sousie Dean, PascallGonzalez and OswalCampbell. ,TO BE CONTINUEDTOMORROW

NOORKUMAR MA-HABIR of the Carib-bean Institute ofIndian Studies andResearch in Carapi-chaima prepared aresearch paper intwo parts on the con-tribution of the EastIndian tassa drum tothe making of thesteelband in Trin-idad Carnival. This,is the conclusion ofan article excerptedfrom his paper.

BAR-20, later succeededby Casablanca, was ledby Carlton "Ziguli" Bar-row and included the lateJames "Batman" Ander-son, Battersby, John"Red Pops" Smith, Tola,Daniel "Big Dick" Bark-er, Oswald "Red Ozzie"Campbell, Long Grant,"Big-Head" John Pierre,"Bajan Muriel" Whiteand "Scribo" Maloney.

The burning of canesbefore reaping was cele-brated during slavery bythe beating of drumsduring the Cannes bruleeor Canboulay procession.But after the emancipa-tion of slaves in 1838,the banning of drumswas rigidly enforced.

The status of drum-ming in Trinidad at thattime was confined to twomajor groups, persons ofEast Indian origin whocame here as labourersand the religious sectwith strong African ties,the Shango.

Then came the otherphase of Trinidad bandmusic — the tamboo-

Influence oftassa drumsbamboo ('tambour', theFrench word for drum).These musical instru-ments are parts of bam-boo trunks of variousdiameters and length. Arhythmic clatter wasproduced when a personthumped the open end ofthe trunk on the groundor knocked it with astick. There was no mel-ody Or_harmony but eachstroke kept 'time'. Eachpiece of instrument canbe classified into one ofthe three groups accord-ing to function: the cut-ter, the fuller or foule'and the boom.

The origins of tam-boo-bamboo band aredated as 1910, with someopinions saying 1890. Itis obvious that the tam-boo-bamboo came afterthe introduction of tassabands by East Indianlabourers in 1845. Thethree types of bambooinstruments correspondin musical structure andnames to the three typesof tassa drums.

Although certaintypes of bamboo bandsare known to exist inWest Africa and Haiti,there was clearly somesort of cultural dialoguetaking place in Trinidad.The common ground forthe meeting of the twocultures was Carnival

WINSTON "SPREE" SIMON

where the kalinda"hand" of the tassa andthe tamboo-bamboo or-chestras provided musicfor G'atka and Creolestick /ight successively.

The tamboo-bambooband was not (as manywriters would like us tobelieve) as influential tothe making of the steel-band as the tassa. Thetamboo-bamboo and thesteelband were polesapart. The tassa around-the-neck, made of metal

cylinder and played withtwo sticks, was closer tothe pan than even thehuge shango drumswhich are stationary andbeaten with bare hands.But the tempo of thetimes demanded thatmelody be played on amore durable and lasting!device.

Great controversy).rages as to the origins of |/the steelband. Who must

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Page 24 EXPRESS Saturday February 18,1984

Tassa and steelbandEROMPAGE23

be honoured for beingthe first man to beat outa recognisable tune onpan?

It is maintained bymost researchers thatwhen Winston 'Spree'Simon was pounding theinside of his damagedkettle-drum with a stonehe accidentally discov-ered various sounds andpitches. But SonnyRoach informs us thathe taught 'Spree' how toplay pan; and old veter-ans like 'Red' OswaldCampbell, Oscar Pile andEmmanuel Kamps areconvinced that 'Spree' isnot the inventor,

Andrew Tan' de La-bastide, who now residesin the U.S., is also hailedas the first inventor ofpan. He started his workin 1943: or 1944 and it isreported that he taught,encouraged and sold a

pan to 'Spree' Simon for24 cents.

A bass-bamboo manknown as 'Mussel-Rat' isalso recorded as the firstperson to start the panrevolution when he acci-dentally started strikinga gas tank of an oldchassis in 1945.

Another version isthat Victor 'Mando' Wil-son pioneered steelhandmusic when, by accidenthe lost his bamboo 'cut-ter' while playing in the1934 Newtown Tamboo-Bamboo band, andstarted to beat a paintpan. Everyone, &he says,was so iritriqued by itsmelody that they ob-tained pans, from theHarbour Scheme, nowcalled Docksite, as a sub-stitute for the bamboojoule while old biscuitdrums were substitutedfor the bamboo-boom,

Neville Jules of HellYard who allegedly firstplayed the calypso,

"Whopsin! Whopsin!" isanother contender, as areRudolph 'Fish-eye' Olivi-erre of Hell Yard, EJieManette of 'Invaders',Sonny Roach of 'SunValley', Oscar Pile andPatsy Haynes of 'Casa-blanca', 'Patch-eye Pa-jotte', of 'Hill Sixty',Anthony Williams, Ber-tie Marshall, AulrickSpringer and Victor 'To-tee' Lewis.

Hanson and Dashclaim that by 1932 'Alex-ander's Ragtime Band'of Woodbrook led byCarlton Porde and fol-lowed by 'Lumper', Fred-dy Maroon, JikesBasawan, 'Judge', 'Ben-bow' and Hamburg, had.already discarded thebamboo because thetrees could now be fonndonly far up the hills andthe police bore x downharder on bamboo play-ers because they werealso using the tubes asweapons. . : ' • .

Another claimant forthe change to-metal in-struments was 'TheGonzalez Place BambooBand' of 1936 whosemembers were SousieDean, Rannie Taylor,Killi, and 'Mussel-Rat'.And members of 'Ma-fumba Band' of GeorgeStreet led by EdwardFord contend that theybegan beating dustbinsin 1932-33 as part oftheir bamboo-and-bottlemusic.

Some informantsswear that New Townwas the original home ofthe steelband movement;others that La CouHarpe. Some place thetrue rise of pan 'Behindthe Bridge' in East Portof Spain. In London -in1959 Boots Davidsonwrote a long account fora BBC broadcast of thebegiising of the steelbandas he experienced itaround Basilion Street.

Newspaper reportsstate however that asearly as the Carnival of1849 the "tin-kettle" wasincluded in band-music.In 1911 and 1912 "tin-pans" were included inthe bamboo, bottle-and-spoon bands. Accordingto the Port of Spain Ga-zette of! Feb 25, 1941Carnival music was sup-plied by the beating of'biscuit-drums and dust-bins' orchestras. Thesteelband movement wasa national communityeffort which bore fruitsafter more than a decadeof evolution. And noamount of informationcould give a true accountof the history of panuntil researchers paycognisance to tassadrumming which wasplayed during Carnivaland Hosay to the delightand awe of Afro-Trinida-dians since 1845.

The Samaroo kids areamong the first Indianstp start a steelband in^1967. Jit Samaroo is thearranger for AMOCORenegades. ,

Cyril Ramon "of Bel-mont is the first knowntassa-drummer to playan Indian melody onpan. Boy Blue, who nowresides in Germany, wasa member of Casablancasince the early 1940's.Raphael Samuel is alsoremembered for his con-tribution. '".,'i: \n Mahatan, a

tass-drummer and RoyRamdoo were rioted pan-men of St James' SunValley during World WarII. Selwyn Taradath,who is PRO of Phase IIPan Grove of St James,symbolises that socialand cultural cross-fertili-sation.

Cavaliers led by Len-nox Bobby Mohammed,won the first prize in1965 and 1967 Panoramasteelband competitionand were second in 1966and 1969. Bobby Mo-hammed is now the ar-ranger of Amral Khan'sCavaliers. Victor Sammyis another Indian in thesame band which per-formed in Canada andU.S., East Africa, Paki-

stan, India, Malaysiaand Europe,

The fact that HaydenRamnarine graduatedinto the finals of theIndian-oriented 1982Mastana Bahar competi-tion with a musical ren-dition of the Ramayan(Hindu epic) on steel-hand, indicates to whatdegree pan has becomeaccepted in the Indiancommunity.

Indian culture inTrinidad has never beenseriously considered out-side its own sphere ofinvolvement. Tassa inparticular has not yetgained recognition inconcerts at home andoverseas. Meanwhile, itsplayers need to developmore polish and styleand explore its full rangeas a .percussion instru-ment. If Indian musi-cians have to rock theWestern world withrhythm something dy-namic has to be workedout. Probably a newchallenge to experimen-

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• - '••: ' • ' - -v. - . •

Steelband contact with tassaFROM PAGE 24tation awaits them ifthey can incorporate thedrums (like the use ofthe dholak in Sparrow'scalypso Maharajin) intoclassical and western or-chestras and military

• music.Some people dismiss

the fact that the tassawas influential in themaking of the pan withsuch hostility that solidresearch and logical ar-gument would evenprove futile. George God-

dard was the first toreact emotionally to thisdisturbing truth when itwas presented in a his-torical account by W.Austin Simmonds, wholived in Gonzalez amongthe pioneers, and wholater wrote for UNESCOand was supported by DrJ.D. Elder. Part of God-dard's tirade reads:

One local writer whoprobably needed psychi-atric treatment had notonly the bold audacityand impertinence of

adding into his childrenbed time story that theWest Indian tassadrums played a part inthe progress and devel-opment of steelband."Goddard who is very un-popular with panmen,does not himself advancean explanation as to theexistence of steelband inTrinidad, but repeatedlydenounces Simmonds'report as "worthless andridiculous" and ironical-ly accuses him of being"selfish".

But the artefactual >elements of the tassa is !still visible in the steel-band's two sticKs; metalcylinder; the heating toprovide tonaLquality; theposture of the musician;and of late, the thongaround-the-neck. Thesteelband is related butdoes not belong to thefamily of African or In-dian drums. It is a prod-uct of Trinidad of whichwe, as Indians and Afri-cans should all be proud.