VIENNA — Pan Fried Steel, a community steel band based in Yarmouth, will be the next group to perform at the Vienna Union Hall at 7 p.m. Saturday, June 21. The band started about 14 years ago when parents of North Yarmouth Academy students wanted the same fun their kids were having while learning to play steel drums. The band draws members from southern and midcoast Maine including Auburn, Greene, and Boothbay.
Steeldrums, also known as steelpans or pans, are musical instruments originating from the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago and the steel drum musicians are called pannists. French planters, their slaves, West Africans and Creoles established themselves on Trinidad and Tobago during the French Revolution. After years of oppression where stick fighting and percussion music was banned in 1880, the music went underground until around 1937 when an orchestra comprised of frying pans, lids, and oil drums once again popularized the lively music. The pan is now the national instrument of Trinidad and Tobago.
The modern pan is a chromatically pitched percussion instrument made from 55 gallon drums that formerly contained oil or other liquid with one end beaten down and divided by grooves into sections to give different notes. Some modern toy instruments may be tuned diatonically. The pans are now played using rubber-tipped drum sticks. Since Pythagoras calculated the formula for the musical cycle of fourths and fifths, steel pans are the only instruments made to follow this configuration.
The band
plays a diverse repertoire including calypso, jazz, reggae, soca, Latin, swing, pop and even a Pete Seeger original. They cover music from Charlie Parker and Jimmy Buffett to the Beach Boys.
They welcome new members and encourage anyone to visit to their practices every Monday night at North Yarmouth Academy. Mostly the members like learning, laughing, dancing, playing music, and spending time together.
Tickets are $8 in advance and $10 at the door and can be purchased at 207-293-2362, 207-293-2670, 207-293-2674 or viennaunionhall@gmail.com. For more information, visit http://panfriedsteel.com.
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- Pan Fried Steel
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