Drummers perform during Carnival in Trinidad. Thundering. Clangoring. The air around me throbs and shatters with the sound of steel pans. I'm in Queen's Park Savannah, a big patch of green in the ...

The Festival of Britain in 1951 saw the first steelband performance in the UK, the Trinidad All Steel pan percussion orchestra. The culture has been kept alive here by the Windrush generation, and ...

The steel pan’s history began thousands of miles away from Austin. The instrument originated in Trinidad, where French plantation owners landed in the 18th century, bringing African slaves with ...

Samaroo was also hailed as a “giant”, a “legend” and a “musical icon”. A member of one of Trinidad and Tobago's great steel pan families, Barry Manette, recalled meeting Samaroo for the first time: I ...

We had met earlier in the day at the Gill Pan Shop, where I’d watched craftsmen pound out 55-gallon steel barrels into pans. Clement is a tuner; he works his magic at the end of the pan-making ...