Resounding Steel

Brief History of the Origins of "Pan" Steel Drums
About the steel drum, and its birth place:

Trinidad is the birth place of the steel drum. Geographically Trinidad is smaller than Delaware. Delaware is 2,001 square miles, while Trinidad is only 1,980 square miles.

During British Colonial rule of Trinidad in the 1800s hand drum were used as a call for neighborhood gangs to collect and 'mash up' with the other gangs. Hoping to curb the violence, the government outlawed hand drums in 1886.

Deprived of the drums, the Trinidadian turned to the' Bamboo Tamboo,' where each member of the group would carry a length of bamboo and pound it on the ground as the group walk through the streets, producing distinctive rhythmic' signatures' which identified each gang. Soon the government outlawed the Bamboo Tamboo also. Deprived of all traditional rhythmic instruments, the Trinis took any objects they could find, including garbage can lids, old car parts, and empty oil barrels. These instruments was used to form the Iron Bands.

One day in the late 1930'S during a particularly rough iron band session, somebody discovered that a dented section of the barrel head produced a tone. Winston "Spree" Simon is generally credited with being the first person to put a note on a steel drum. Originally the pans were convex, like a dome rather than a dish. Ellie Manette, a pan-maker still active in the US today, was the first to dish out a pan and give the steel drum its mature form.

Ellie,a native of Trinidad, is widely considered as the father of the modern steel drum. In 1946, Ellie was the first to create a pan from a 55-gallon oil drum, which has been the standard ever since. As well, he was the first to make pans in the concave, manner in which all modern steel drums are made today.