Steel orchestras and tassa bands

In the 1950s, the steel orchestra in Trinidad and Tobago became an icon of a nationalist discourse promoting African Trinidadian culture as national culture. In subsequent decades, steel orchestras were subsidized by the state and routinely linked with moments of national significance. Some Indian Trinidadian leaders met steelpan’s official declaration as the country’s national instrument in 1992 with accusations of unequal representation and they have continued to press the government to make the Indian Trinidadian tassa drum co-national instrument. This chapter surveys the cultural and political histories of steel orchestras and tassa bands and uses the national instrument debate as a key example of how notions of collective creativity, multiculturalism and national identity are processed through ideas about music and musical performance. The chapter concludes with a discussion of collaborations between steelpan and tassa musicians as representative of a desire to create musical and ideological fusions that reflect Trinidad and Tobago’s multiculturalism.