A Voice of Steel through the Iron Curtain: Pete Seeger's Contributions to the Development of Steel Band in the United States

[I]t seems probable that the steel drum is destined to spread through still other parts of the world than the West Indies, perhaps in each country adapting itself to local popular-folk traditions.

Pete Seeger

The legendary singer, political activist, and folklorist Pete Seeger played an important but little-known role in encouraging steel-band activity in the United States. In the first part of the twenty-first century, the steel-drum sound has firmly asserted itself on a global scale as the signifying musical voice of the Caribbean. Steel bands have become increasingly popular in school curriculums throughout the United States. Seeger's contributions to the development of the Trinidadian steel drum in the United States are vast in scope and significant in their reach. Exploring Seeger's activities within the early steel-band movement in America, including the love of calypso music that steered him toward the culture of Trinidad, illuminates the important effect steel bands had on Seeger. By focusing on Seeger's work with the US Navy Steel Band (hereafter USNSB), presenting largely unpublished personal correspondence between Seeger and the group's founder, Admiral Daniel Gallery, this essay illustrates Seeger in action, offering a case study in which Seeger employs his unique skills as a folklorist, political activist, and musician.

Steel Drums, Politics, and Pedagogy

The steel drum (sometimes called steel pan) is a tuned idiophone created out of fifty-five-gallon oil barrels that originated on the Caribbean island of Trinidad in the late 1930s. Ensembles of steel drums called "steel bands" feature a variety of instruments ranging from high-pitch single steel drums to low-pitched sets of steel drums. Steel bands, like western classical orchestra, are broken into four to six sections that collectively cover soprano, alto, tenor, and bass tonal ranges. The music and organization of steel bands descend directly from bamboo-stomping ensembles known as Tamboo Bamboo, which provided parade music for lower-class Afro-Trinidadians during Carnival. Practitioners moved from Tamboo Bamboo to paint cans, biscuit tins, and other types of metal containers before settling on oil drums. The United States had, since the Roosevelt administration's "land for destroyers" program, positioned a military base on Trinidad and used or discarded oil drums were abundant.¹

At the time of Seeger's initial interest in steel drums, steel bands in Trinidad ranged from 10 to 50 players, while current Trinidadian steel bands often exceed 100 players. Building a steel drum is a laborious process, plagued by the idiosyncratic layout of notes and the temperamental metal playing surface. The oil drums must be cut and heated, the surfaces sunk with a hammer, and individual notes outlined and hammered with a nail punch on the concave surface. The Trinidadian steel-band climate of the 1950s was largely driven by rivalry among neighborhood groups of young men, and techniques for building steel drums were closely guarded secrets. Unemployed lower-class Trinidadians spent years toiling in panyards refining the instrument.² As steel bands gained in popularity among the middle class, the social plights of lower-class steel panists, steel-band repertoire, and steel-drum tuners (builders) became political issues. These concerns included high unemployment and dilapidated road and sewer conditions in neighborhoods such as Laventille and San Juan, and the Afro-Trinidadian political party PNM (People's National Movement) employed steel panists to mobilize and campaign around them.³

The well-known politics of folksinger Pete Seeger, conversely, need little introduction. Seeger's involvement with the American Communist Party from roughly 1942 to 1950, along with his outspoken antiwar sentiments, led to an entertainment industry blacklist. Although never fully accepted by the American Communist Party brass, Seeger was nonetheless motivated by elements of the party's mission and spoke out constantly as a labor activist and peace advocate. Increasingly disenchanted with the organizational instability of the Communist Party, Seeger campaigned for Progressive Party candidate Henry Wallace in 1948. Seeger—following in the footsteps of other activist-artists, such as Langston...