I am the Caribbean police

On invitation I went to my first outter Caribbean experience last night. A friend asked me if I wanted to come and watch her son play steelpan at a evening event. It was held at the Afro-Caribbean centre and the theme was the abolishion of slavery.

The theme wasn't thrust upon you in such a way that it would make the evening grave which was cool. I have never spent any considerable amt of time listening to pan so this was first. It was kids first, then it went up in age until it got to the adults who basically run the centre. It was much, small stage, Roughly about 10 pans for each performance. There weren't only people of caribbean decent there so to speak. I loved the whole vibe because as I've said before I have to go behind town to really be amongst 'familiar things' ( I am not getting into nitty gritties). And I was behind town.

I know that I'm way too judgemental but I can't help it. But sometimes what concerns me the most about living here is the way that things can be perceived as being a near true representation of what its like to be in the Caribbean. My conclusion is people will never have a clue. I think its fabulous to have things like this around and there is the opportunity for people to take part and be part of things that they miss by trying to re-create and I'm not knocking that aspect of it.
But for the british-born decendants of the Vincy, Jam, Lucian, etc and the english community that are interested in the culture, its an injustice that they aren't aware of, unless they've actually ventured to the Caribbean. Cause they look like they feel like they getting the 'real deal' and that bothers me because it can be easy to disassociate smallness from greatness. So seeing 5/6 people on stage at one time playing VERY OLD standards and Harry Belafonte, Spanish eyes on stage by mostly amateurs prob looks like a true representation.

I sat there last night enjoying my vibe but also thinking, 'man, I wish some people here could see what that man with the pan onstage with Bunji at Ignite could really do'. or let them see what panorama is like or something.

Anyhow, I asked my friend's son what type of pan he was playing because I couldn't remember which is which (i.e tenor pan, bass pan etc). He tells me that he plays the steelpan, he didn't understand the question because to him there is no ans. This prompted me to do some research on google today. And I came across this wikipedia - Origins & Controversy of steelpan which further upset me:

There is controversy concerning the steelpan's origins. Although it is reported that Winston "Spree" Simon took an old biscuit tin, and beat it with a corn cob to form a steelpan, the history of the evolution and development of the steelpan is more complex and nuanced than that. While Simon may have been the first to use biscuit tins, it quickly turned to ash cans and the steel drums made unintentionally available by the United States. Bunches of young African men can be credited with contributing to the steel pan. Only having scraps as their primary resources they used what they had to preserve aspects of their culture in the space of the Caribbean. Clearly being influenced by the mixture of those on the islands along with the desire for African drums, steel pan was formed. The development of the pan took place largely during WWII, the first record of a pan band in the press being in a report of the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival in the Trinidad Guardian dated Tuesday, February 6, 1940.

Two Americans, George Whitmyre and Harvey J. Price, have secured a US patent for "the process of formation of a Caribbean steelpan using a hydroforming press". This patent is being challenged by the Trinidad and Tobago Legal Affairs Ministry, since many Trinbagonian drum makers have used similar methods for years.

which prompted me to click on the Soca link:

Soca, or soul calypso, is a dance music that originated in Trinidad from calypso. It combines the melodic lilting sound of calypso (based on the original Steel Pan) with insistent (usually electronic) percussion. Soca music has evolved in the last 20 years primarily by musicians from Trinidad, Barbados, Guyana, and the Lesser Antilles.

The reputed father of soca was Lord Shorty (né Garfield Blackman), whose 1963 recording of "Cloak and Dagger" started the trend. It would be Lord Kitchener who would begin the noticeable and accredited transition and Byron Lee & the Dragonaires, which made soca a West Indian social wave, but the Baha men, Kevin Lyttle,Machel and Walker and others in the 21st century brought it to American recognition.

Like calypso, soca was used for both social commentary and risqué humor, though the initial wave of soca acts eschewed the former. Lord Shorty was disillusioned with the genre by the 1980s because soca was being used to express courtships and sexual interests. Like all things related to sexual freedom, it became embraced because of its ability to reflect what people were thinking and their desires in a society that was sexually repressed. Soca music became an expression of sexuality through metaphors in the West Indies. Soon after, Shorty moved to the Piparo forest, converted to the Rastafari movement and changed his name to Ras Shorty I. There, he created a fusion of Reggae and gospel music called jamoo in the late 1980s.In the 1990's and now the new century Soca has evolved into a blend of musical styles. Machel Montano's collaborations with Jamacian musicians (Ret Rat and Beenie Man),American musician (Walker)and Japanese artists have pushed the boundries of modern Soca.Machel Montano would be the first mainstream Soca artist to sell out venues all over the world including the Theater at Madison Square Garden.

Some of the greatest soca artists of all time are Shadow, Lord Kitchener, Mighty Sparrow, Krosfyah, Byron Lee & the Dragonaires, and more recently artists such as Alison Hinds, Atlantik, Machel Montano, Destra Garcia, Shurwayne Winchester, Denise Belfon, and Maximus Dan.

I have a fewer bones with the Soca one and it looks to be recent as it mentions Machel in MSG. The caribbean police is happy with the worldwide recognition that would receive although much more work needed-it gets the job done.