Steel Impressions Perform at Sachem Library

In the middle of a long, cold winter the warm and soothing sounds of Steel Impressions was a welcomed change. Their percussive resonance was evocative of lying on the beach with the waves crashing in the distance, or gathering with your friends at your favorite tiki bar; in other words, it was a promise of what is just around the corner.

The family steel band from Amityville brought a smile to everyone's face during a Friday evening performance at the .  It was part of a celebration of Black History Month. 

The show featured authentic Caribbean music including:  calypso, reggae and soca tunes, and even a snippet of classical on this singular instrument.

Steel Impressions has been performing on Long Island for the past 17 years.  O.V. Agard, the bandleader, originally hails from Guyana, South America.  He is the youngest of nine and started playing in his oldest brother Phil's steel band at the age of five.  The elder Agard now makes the impressive shiny, steel pans fashion from 55-gallon oil drums.

O.V. Agard performed with his pannist progeny whom he taught how to play the instrument from the time they were able to stand in front of it.

 Amire, 20, plays the six bass as well as the electric bass.  When he is not making music with the family he is a college student at Long Island University majoring in Philosophy and Accounting; Seitu, 17, plays the single tenor, gitta pan and keyboard; and Tunisia, 13, plays the tenor pan, violin and sings.

The matriarch of the family, Angella Agard acted as an announcer between songs and educated the audience on the history of the unusual instrument.

The steel pan is the national instrument of Trinidad and Tobago.

"Trinidad holds the claim to fame [on pans], but throughout the Caribbean they all hold the claim to fame," informed Angella Agard.  "After WWII there were steel drums all over.  People are very creative and recycle in the Caribbean.  Whatever they found became musical instruments."

Earlier, with the mass exodus of French Creoles from Martinique to Trinidad, the steel pan began to evolve from a communication devise to the musical instrument it is today.  Drumming was used as a covert form of communication among enslaved Africans and was subsequently outlawed by the British colonial government in 1783.  African slaves also performed during Mardi Gras celebrations alongside the French that had brought the tradition to the Island. 

The two most important influences of the steel pan were the drumming traditions of both Africa and India.  The instrument's invention was a specific response to the culture and prevailing conditions on the islands of Trinidad and Tobago.

"It's called a drum, but it's a melodic, very delicate instrument like a piano or a harp or any instrument that has all those notes," said Angella Agard.

The process of making the steel drum is very labor intensive, and everything must be done by hand.  A lot of care is taken into account for tuning.

Angella Agard explained, "The thought is that these can play with just about any instrument in a band or orchestra."

The pan is a chromatically pitched percussion instrument, and in fact, the drum refers to the container from which the pans are made; the steel drum is correctly referred to as a steel pan.

Since Pythagoras calculated the formula for the musical cycle of fourths and fifths, steel pans are the only instruments made to follow this configuration.

"It's really not hard to play.  It's the easiest instrument in the world; anyone can take a stick and just hit.  The trick is hitting the right spot," said O.V. Agard.  "These instruments are the only percussive instruments that play a melody ... This is the only instrument that has a full range from first violin to bass.  It's the same instrument, just different notes."

Some of the songs included in the entertaining, informative set were "La Bamba", Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff", an old jazz tune, "Straight No Chaser", and calypso classic, "Jump In The Line."

Seitu amazed the entire audience when he brilliantly rendered the last movement of Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 11, the uplifting, "Rondo Alla Turca", on the tenor pan.

Steel Impressions give many public and private performances, and educational workshops throughout the year; as well as offer lessons and rentals.

The band proves the old adage that the family that plays together stays together.

"What I did was take my skills, and teach my family," said O.V. Agard.  "It gave me an opportunity to keep an eye on my kids, and get to know them.  The simplest way to keep your family together is to have something in common."

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