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28 albums · 1957–2023

The steelpan, from the panyards of Trinidad to Panorama, the concert hall and jazz

· 1 min read · by 1001 Albums

An early tenor pan on a stand, its playing surface hammered into note areas marked with their names, the drum painted red and white and lettered P.O.S. Trinidad B.W.I.
The racks of the Desperadoes steel orchestra under their banners at night, players in white among the pansA man in an orange shirt playing a pair of chrome pans in front of a shop window
A tenor pan made in Port of Spain before 1957, in the Museum van Wereldculturen, Amsterdam. Photo: Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. · Desperadoes rehearsing on the Queen's Park Savannah before the Panorama finals, February 2016. Photo: Sandi claus, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. · A pan player on High Street in Trinidad, 2007. Photo: Shanel, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The steelpan was made in Trinidad in the late 1930s and the 1940s. Carnival bands took up biscuit tins and paint pans, and after the Second World War the 55-gallon oil drum, its top sunk into a bowl and hammered into notes. Pan is the national instrument of Trinidad and Tobago, and its contest is Panorama, held at Carnival since 1963.

The list starts with the steel orchestras of the fifties, recorded for Folkways and by Emory Cook, and follows Tripoli, the Invaders, All Stars, Desperadoes and Renegades, who played Schubert in Nantes in 2008. Its soloists include Len "Boogsie" Sharpe, Ray Holman, Robert Greenidge and Liam Teague, and Andy Narell took the pan into jazz in the United States.

The list has 28 records from 1957 to 2023. Most Panorama recordings are on Deezer only in undated reissues or not at all and are left out, and so are calypso and soca records where a pan plays behind the singer. About 25 hours of music, 3 days of a few records each.

By genre

World 21%Jazz 13%Classical 9%Other 57%
  • World 21%
  • Jazz 13%
  • Classical 9%
  • Other 57%

The genres named most: steelpan, world, jazz, calypso, classical, soca.

The colours of the covers

A stripe for each cover, in the colour Tidal picks from it, sorted by hue; the greys at the end.

Where the music comes from

Music from 3 countries: Trinidad and Tobago 23, United States 4, United States Virgin Islands 1. The deeper the colour, the more albums: one, two to four, five to nine, ten and more.

The 1950s

The 1960s

The 1970s

The 1980s

The 1990s

The 2000s

The 2010s

The 2020s

More lists

Lists of Instruments first, then others; all of them on the blog. The blog.

29 albums · 1976–2024

The kora of Mali, the harp-lute of the jeli

· 1 min read

The kora is the harp-lute of the jeli, the griots of Mali, Guinea, Senegal and the Gambia: 21 strings over a large calabash covered in cowhide, played with the thumbs and forefingers of both hands.

World 89%Blues 3%Classical 3%Other 5%
  • World 89%
  • Blues 3%
  • Classical 3%
  • Other 5%

Read and see the list