Case Studies
272
The Swedish Caribbeans 273
assess my players and know what they can do and what they can't. If I
see they are
doing alright I try to give them a little more so they could extend
themselves. I don't
have a set pattern that they have to do. It takes so much time.
(M.KM970528)
The musicians in Hot Pans are also members in the association
Stockholms
Steelband that takes care of the band's business and instruments.
During the
1990s, the members of Hot Pans have via study circles taught
the art of playing
steel pans to a whole range of new people. A couple of new bands have
been
formed in Stockholm, Cool Pans and Panorama. Sometimes
these bands appear
together in a large band called Stockholm All Stars. One of the
members has also
introduced courses in steel pan at Kulturskolan in Södertälje. In
1999, there
were three steelbands there with members of various ages. Trevor Kydd
has a
similar operation at a couple of primary schools in Malmö. Since the
spring
term 2000, Kydd has also taught steel pan at the Malmö College of
Music.
>There is also a steelband at the Örebro College of
Music.
Like the steelbands, calypso orchestras belong to the carnival-focused
Swedish Caribbeans. The first pure calypso band in Sweden was Mr
Okey from
the Banana Republic. It was formed in Gothenburg in the
mid1980s. One of
the founders had been involved in the first carnivals in Luleå at the
beginning
of
the 1980s. One of the first bands to begin playing soca in Sweden was Soca
Rebels, who also hail from Gothenburg. Soca Rebels appeared for the
first time
at
the Gothenburg carnival in 1991. They introduce themselves as follows on
their website:
We play SOCA, the music for carnival and fête, the street beat from
Trinidad and
Tobago. We are the Trinidad and Tobago musical connection in Sweden.
Classic
soca, steel pan, ragga soca and calypso. The hits of the season and
original material.
Soca Rebels is the first and only Swedish band focusing solely to
bring the push
and the energy of SOCA to the dance floors and the streets of this
remote part of the
world. No fraternizing with laid back styles such as salsa or reggae,
which have so
far been synonymous with caribbean music up here. Only the pure street
sound of
SOCA the music that PUMPS YOU UP.
(http://www.geocities.com/~soca_rebels/
bio.htm)
In
the last two sentences a certain distancing is expressed from the reggae
pha-
lanx in the grouping. "Fête" is the French Creole word for
party/festival, a high-
ly
central concept both in the Lesser Antilles and for Swedish Caribbeans. Lars
Hansson, Soca Rebel's band leader, had previously played
jazz-rock and fusion,
among other things. He is a programmer/systems analyst and plays
Caribbean
music in his spare time, as do the majority of musicians among Swedish
Caribbeans. Governor Andy and Serious Version from
Stockholm belonged to