NEWS FLASH!

Roving Reporter Visits Matanzas Steel Band Director, Rachel Palmer.

Rover: Hello, Mrs. Palmer.  Thank you for inviting me to your steel band room.  This is really impressive!  
 

RP:  Thank you!  I really like it too.  It is larger and more spacious than our classroom last year, which is good because we have added quite a few pans this year.


Rover: Whose idea was it to develop this kind of music program? Why?

RP:  The steel band class has been in the works since Dr. Chris Pryor took the helm at MHS.  He thought that a Caribbean steel band would contribute to the Pirate atmosphere here and help establish our school culture from the start.  Dr. Pryor is an accomplished musician himself and logically looked for a music source to help give the school its own identity while getting established as the second high school in the county.  He asked if I could teach steel drums and I jumped at the opportunity.  I was fortunate enough to have met Tony Cezair a few years ago and help him with one of his steel band children's summer workshops at the African American Cultural Society.  I knew he could build the pans and get us started on the right foot.

Rover:  I understand that Matanzas High School is quite new.  This is the third year it has been open, if I am not mistaken. Was the steel band included as part of the new facility from the very beginning?

RP: Our first steel band class met in the spring semester of 2006, since it took several months to build the first pans after our initial order in the summer of 2005.  The building itself was not designed with a steel band in mind, therefore we have moved around a bit.  The first year we were in a portable, the second year we were in the concreteable (building 9) with the football team, and this year we are in "the spot" with classrooms all around.  The other classes don't seem to mind too much though, and we try to keep it down as much as possible.  In the future, we will most likely be housed in the current wrestling room with the dance classes.  This will put us closer to the band room and chorus room as well.



Rover:  Well, that's quite a story.  How did you first become interested in playing the steel drums yourself?

RP:  Well, to set the story straight, the instrument is actually called a "pan".  The "drum" is a 55-gallon steel barrel that the pan is made from.  The oil drums were widely available in Trinidad with lots of oil companies operating there, as well as military bases being stationed there.  The ingenious trini's used the raw materials available to them to create the only acoustic chromatic instrument in the 20th century. 

I personally have always loved the sound of any melodic percussion instrument.  As a child I fell in love with the sound of the xylophone and marimba and have always been drawn to the sound of pans as well.  A good friend of mine, Ray Theaux, bought a tenor (lead) pan in college, at the University of Southwest Louisiana, and got me really interested in playing the pan.  We tried to raise money to purchase a whole set of pans for the percussion department, but got West African drums (djembes and Ewe barrel drums) instead, when the music department hired a new percussion director.  I stayed busy studying West African drums and dancing for several years.  I even went to Bamako, Mali in the summer of 1998. 

I finally met Amy Ingram at the University of Florida, where I was working on my Masters Degree in ethnomusicology, who had just gotten back from playing the triple guitars at carnival in Trinidad.  But again, I was thwarted because the steel band instructor had just gone on sebaticle, so I went back to my djembe. 

I started teaching in Flagler County at Bunnell Elementary in 1998 and met Tony a few years after that when Burt Hinds invited me to come check out their workshop.  I loved it.  They didn't have quite enough kids to fill the ensemble, so I played along on whatever instrument Tony needed me to.  I got first hand experience on all the instruments and got to watch a master arranger at work.  I have been hooked ever since, and finally got my opportunity when Dr. Pryor asked me if I could start an ensemble here at Matanzas.


Rover:  So this is your third year working with the students. I heard them practicing for the upcoming concert as I arrived.  They have accomplished a lot in three years!

RP: Actually, this group of students I have only had since the beginning of the school year in August.  That first year I had a group of 13 students for one semester.  The next year I had 2 groups in the fall and 2 groups in the spring, with all brand new students.  I have a few students now who are taking my class for the second time, and one who is in her third semester (Thank you Erica!).  This year I have 4 groups again, but we are on an AB schedule, which means that we are overlapping the 2 semesters, so I get to see the kids only every other day, but I get to keep them all year.  It takes longer to get things done, but I get to keep them the whole year.

Rover:  What are your future plans for the Matanzas Steel!? 

RP:  I am currently auditioning students to begin an after school program which will meet on Wednesday afternoons.  These students will represent the best of Matanzas Steel players, past and present and will have a wide repertoire of music which we will play at a variety of events around town.  I would also like to have these students perform around the state at Music and Cultural Festivals, and eventually perform around the South East United States, perhaps even going overseas.  I am takinga short trip to Trinidad at the end of February to check out the possiblity of having a student study program in the near future. 

Rover:  Do you have any upcoming events?

RP:  Yes!  Our final concert of the year is Thursday, May 29th, 2008.  It will start at 6:30pm in the Pirate Theater. 

 Rover:  Will there be anything happening this summer? 

RP:  We don't have any plans for steel band over the summer yet, but keep your eye on the website for announcements.  In the fall we will be starting with several new classes of students including our new freshman class from Indian Trails. 

 Matanzas Steel Performing December 18th, 2007 in the Matanzas Auditorium.

1A, Steel Class, December 21, 2007

Darius Miller, 10th grader, playing the double tenor pan.

Reece Maines, 9th grader playing the tenor pan.