It’s that time of year again ladies and gents. All of you Tallahassee bound people get the chance to come see me looking silly and also to hear some good music. Some of you know you have nothing better to do. 😀
Event Details
What: The Mas N’ Steel (carribean steelband) / Balinese Gamelan fall world music concert.
When: Tommorrow (yes I’m late) Sunday the 6th at 4pm.
Where: Opperman Music Hall located in the Kuersteiner Music Building on the campus of Florida State University.
Each ensemble will do a show of approximately 45 minutes with a 10 – 15 minute intermission in between. Admission is free and the dress is anyway you want it to be. Doors are usually locked once the show starts but if you’re late you can wait til a break between pieces to come in.
I’m not sure what Gamelan has planned but Mas N Steel will be playing a classical number, a happy happy peppy song, an adapted popular music piece and a bomb tune.
The Bomb
What is a bomb tune you ask? Well in Trinidad steelbands would take non-calypso music and arrange it in a calypso style. Each member of the band would then secretly learn his or her part, usually in such secrecy that not even other members playing the tune would know how the entire song sounded.
There are many different accounts of most steelband history but my favorite account of the Bomb goes like this. During carnival parades, steelbands would play their normal prepared music until they came across a rival steelband. At that point they would “drop the bomb” – play the tune they had been learning in secret. The idea was to glorify the skill of that band and scare the rivals into submission. Of course the opposing band couldn’t in good face just stand there and take it so they would drop their bomb as well. The two bands would play at each other faster and louder until one of them faltered or broke (yes… a bit like that scene in drumline). It’s good stuff.
Now this being Tallahassee we didn’t have any reason to keep it secret but we are playing part of an opera arranged as a calypso… and that’s worth seeing right?
Pan is something I love to do although and If you’re in the area I would love to see you there.