TT Music Library
Virtual Music Archive of Trinidad & Tobago
Salmon Cupid - Inventor of the E Pan

LAUNCH OF THE E-PAN

The first electric steel pan was invented by Salmon Cupid, a Trinidadian based in Canada....

TRINIDAD ALLSTARS IN GREAT BRITAIN 1951

STEEL PAN LEAVES TRINIDAD

For the very first time, the steel pan was played in a foreign country at the Festival of Britain....

Renegades Steel Orchestra by Maria Nunes

NATIONAL INSTRUMENT

Steel Pan was officially declared as national instrument....

1963 Panorama Competition, Trinidad

THE PANORAMA

Beginning of the Panorama Steel Band Competition annually held until today....

Snack bar at Waller Field, the main Army Air Force base in Trinidad, 1944 - courtesy National Archives

THE „YANKEES“ IN TOWN

There were US bases in T&T with 135 000 Americans stationed on the island, being regularly entertained by Calypsonians with bands....

Desperadoes Steel Orchestra - by Edison Holder

THE RISE OF STEEL BANDS

Steel bands kept rising in the communities and often taking their names from movies like Casablanca, Tokyo, and Desperadoes....

CREATION OF THE STEEL PAN

The innovation of steel pan music, initially consisting of frying pans, dustbin lids, and oil drums emerged in 1937....