Ouachita to host Tiger Steel percussion concert May 1
April 17, 2017
- Haley WilkersonOuachita Baptist University will host Tiger Steel, the university’s steel drum ensemble,
in concert in Mabee Fine Arts Center’s McBeth Recital Hall on Monday, May 1, at 7:30
p.m. Admission is free and open to the public.
“Steel band music makes people smile, which is one of the most powerful reasons to
perform music,” said Dr. Ryan Lewis, OBU associate professor of music and director
of the ensemble.
“This concert is unique because it will include a musical telling of the story of
the steel pan, featuring projected images and information given by two Tiger Steel
members who have researched the instrument with me, Dillon Thomas and Aaron Breeding,”
Lewis added. “People should come to relax and enjoy some terrific music that will
take them to the tropics!”
Tiger Steel will perform its signature song, the calypso standard “Jump in the Line”
made famous by Harry Belafonte, and then they will begin to tell the story of the
steel pan through music, beginning with a special West African drumming piece that
uses rhythms from the ethnic groups that were slaves in Trinidad.
“When the British government banned West African drumming in the late 1800s, Trinidadians
used different lengths of bamboo and formed taboo bamboo bands, so we will perform
a piece with everyone playing different lengths of bamboo,” Lewis said.
“Around 1900, Trinidadians turned from bamboo to more durable metal objects,” he added,
“and the first steel bands or iron bands were formed, so we will perform a piece with
metal objects the band members found themselves.”
Pan Jouvet, OBU’s beginner steel band, will then play “Lion-Oh” by Raphael “Roaring
Lion” De Leon and “Brown Skin Girl” by Rupert “Lord Invader” Grant, which are two
of the first steel band recordings ever made.
Tiger Steel will then return to the stage to perform “Ave Maria” by Schubert, a classical
composition, which was performed for the British leaders to prove that the steel pan
was a musical instrument.
The concert will close with “Woman Is Boss” by Len “Boogsie” Sharpe. Lewis also hinted
there is a “special surprise” at the end of the concert.
For more information about Tiger Steel and Pan Jouvet, visit www.obu.edu/percussion or contact Dr. Ryan Lewis at [email protected] or (870) 245-5421.
By Haley Wilkerson
April 17, 2017
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