I like steelpan music and Caribbean percussion music in general; besides, there’s quite a bit of science behind steelpans, too, so I wanted to share this new gripping, breaking controversy just in from The Trinidad and Tobago Express: Pan Trinbago has disputed a claim by anthropologist Dr. Kumar Mahabir that the invention of the steelpan was the result of a quest by Afro-Trinidadians to duplicate tassa drums.

In an article published in Friday’s Express, Dr Mahabir said: “The seed of the steelband, then, was nurtured by the search for a new cultural form related to, but not the same as, the tassa.”

Pan Trinbago President Patrick Arnold said he was deluged by telephone calls demanding defence of pan pioneers who, he said, “worked against interminable odds, including unsympathetic and brutal law enforcement authorities and a negative attitude from the elite of the day, to create the instrument”.

Arnold added: “All our research and reams of information in the public domain indicates that pan evolved from tamboo-bamboo, via steel now used mainly in the rhythm section of steelbands and, later, experiments with a variety of metal drums.

“What we know for sure, as evidenced in today’s tassa bands, is that pan has certainly influenced that form of drumming. Anyone familiar with tassa at Hosay or in other applications know that among the various ‘hands’ they play is one called ’steelpan’, so it may be safer to say that any major influence happened exactly the other way around.”