Music of the Virgin Islands
Encyclopedia
The music of the Virgin Islands
reflects long-standing West Indian cultural ties to the island nations to the south, the islands' African heritage and European colonial history, as well as recent North American influences. Though the United States Virgin Islands
and British Virgin Islands
are politically separate, they maintain close cultural ties. From its neighbors, the Virgin Islands has imported various pan-Caribbean genres of music, including calypso
from Trinidad
and reggae
from Jamaica
.
The major indigenous form of music is the scratch band
(also called fungi band in the British Virgin Islands), which use improvised instruments like gourd
s and washboard
s to make a kind of music called quelbe. A Virgin Island folk song called cariso
is also popular, as well as St. Thomas' bamboula
. The quadrille
is the traditional folk dance of the islands, and include varieties like St. Croix's Imperial Quadrille and St. Thomas
' Flat German Quadrille. The Heritage Dancers are a respected dance troupe that perform traditional folk dances from the Virgin Islands and beyond.
is syncretic, based primarily on African, European and North American cultures. Though the Danish controlled the present-day U.S. Virgin Islands for many years, the dominant language has been an English-based Creole since the 19th century, and the islands remain much more receptive to English language popular culture than any other. The Dutch, the French and the Danish also contributed elements to the island's culture, as have immigrants from the Arab world, India and other Caribbean islands. The single largest influence on modern Virgin Islander culture, however, comes from the Africans enslaved to work in canefields from the 17th to the mid-19th century. These African slaves brought with them traditions from across a wide swathe of Africa, including what is now Nigeria, Senegal, both Congos, Gambia and Ghana.
, but larger, or from the word squash itself, used to refer to the bands first by American visitors and then by locals.
The traditional scratch band ensemble varied, but always used a percussive instrument, either the squash, tambourine
, or a local form of double-headed barrel drum similar to the Dominican tambora
, as well as an accordion
, cane flute
or violin
as a melodic instrument. String instruments were also common, including the banjo
, ukulele
or a six-string guitar
. The ass pipe, made out of a car exhaust tube, often provided the bass, and was played similar to the tuba
. Since about the 1980s, the instrumentation for scratch bands became more rigid. The alto saxophone
became the most common melodic instrument, replaced sometimes by a silver flute. Conga drums, squash, electric guitar or bass guitar, and a steel (a triangle). Banjo or ukulele, keyboard and additional saxophones or other melodic instruments are more rarely found in modern bands.
The music of scratch bands are a type of folk music
that dates back to the days of slavery. The slaves on the islands used found objects to fashion instruments, such as by making strings out of twine salvaged from old sacks. Lyrics traditionally function as oral history, spreading news and gossip. Modern scratch bands play a wide range of dances, including calypsos, bolero
s, quadrilles, international pop songs, merengues, mazurka
s, waltz
es, jig
s and other styles. They perform at church services, private parties, public festivals, local dances and fairs, christenings and weddings, and also perform for tourists. The scratch band tradition remains most vibrant on St. Croix, where the bands Bully & the Kafooners, Stanley & the Ten Sleepless Knights, and Blinky & the Roadmasters are well known. Scratch bands are less common on St. Thomas, and in the British Virgin Islands, though the popular Elmo & the Sparkplugs hail from Tortola
.
owner for opposing a wage increase:
I rather walk and drink rum whole night
Before me go ride on LaBega Carousel
I rather walk, man, and drink rum whole night
Before me go ride on LaBega Carousel
You no hear what LaBega say
"The people no worth more than fifteen cent a day"
You no hear what LaBega say, man
"The people no worth more than half cent a day"
is a folk dance that was formerly an important part of Virgin Islands culture; it is now rarely performed, except on St. Croix. There, locals dance the quadrille at public performance venues, such as St. Gerard's Hall, or as educational spectacles for schools, festivals and holidays, or as entertainment for tourists. Educational and entertainment quadrille troops both wear traditionally styled clothing reminiscent of authentic attire.
The Virgin Islands tea meeting
s, the David and Goliath play and masquerade jig
all probably derive from elsewhere in the Caribbean. The masquerade jig uses elements of theater, dance, music and oratory, and functions as simple entertainment with improvised jigs alternated with humorous monologues. Tea meetings are now only performed as reconstructions in folkloric ensembles; they were evenings of speech-making, feasting and the singing of hymns and parlor songs. The David and Goliath play features music, dance, theater, and dramatic and witty speeches, all based around the biblical plot of David and Goliath.
The Afro-Virgin Islander bamboula
tradition is now only performed in a reconstructed fashion. It was a style of song, drumming and folk dance, performed by two drummers on one drum; one drum used his hands and heel, and the other two sticks. African-styled dance and group song with refrains were a constant part, with verses frequently improvised by a soloist.
Traditional Virgin Islander folk music festivals were performed until the late 1950s. Masquerading (mas'ing) was an important tradition, and consisted of groups wearing costumes based around a theme, and playing melodies and rhythms that suggest their identity. Instruments included a fife
-and-drum ensemble that featured a cane fife, double-headed bass drum (known as keg or boom-boom) and snare drum
(known as kettledrum).
The Virgin Islander cariso
tradition is extinct in a true folk context, but remains an important symbol of Crucian culture, and is performed by folkloric ensembles for educational and holiday events. Carisos were still performed as late as the 1990s by several elderly singers, most famously Ethel McIntosh and Leona Watson. Though similar in some ways to quelbe, cariso is more African in its melodic style, frequent sustained syllables and traditional performance context, namely women singing in groups in call-and-response. Carisos, like quelbe, commemorate historical events, and spread news and opinions about important issues. One particularly famous cariso dates to 1848, and documents the emancipation of the slaves; the first segment is the refrain, sung by a chorus, which is followed by a verse performed by a soloist singer:
Clear the road, all you clear the road,
Clear the road, let the slave them pass,
We a go for a-we freedom.
Hardship in the morning, suffering at night.
No one ever help us, it is only Father Ryan.
They bring we ya from Africa, that we bornin' land;
Bring we ya in slavery, in the land of Santa Cruz.
The French Virgin Islander: In the early 1900s small groups left the small French island of St. Barths and traveled to St. Thomas, VI in search of work. Known throughout St. Thomas as "Frenchies" many played instruments such as the accordion, harmonica and guitar and made instruments such as the "Weero or Guiros" out of dried squash from their farms and cowbells from their livestock. This mixture of French and Caribbean culture and French Creole
language gave this music a unique sound known as Cadance
. Cyril Querrard of the Mountain Kings was a pioneer in promoting the music and sound of the French Virgin Islander. He had his own weekend show at the "Luau Club" on St. Thomas where he sang and played guitar for military personnel, tourists and locals alike. He was introduced as, "The King of the Mountain" and the Mountain Kings band was soon formed. Other local French decent bands later followed, such as, The Originals, Obsession Band and the Under Pressure band. These bands continued to have this unique sound as a result of this mix of cultures.
By the 1980s, Virgin Islands was home to many imported styles, especially reggae
, soca
, merengue
and rock. Jazz
, Western classical music and musical theater, along with international pop stars, were common mainstream interests, while the islands' youth formed bands and dance troupes that played styles popular across the Caribbean, mainly Jamaican and Trinidadian influenced, such as reggae, steelpan
and soca. The large Puerto Rican population in the Virgin Islands kept popular music from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic a major part of the islands' industry.
star from the Virgin Islands was Lloyd "Prince" Thomas, who moved to New York City in the mid-1940s and continued performing for some twenty years. Charles Harris, the Mighty Zebra (a well-known Trinidadian calypsonian) influentially performed in the Virgin Islands in the 1950s; he came for the Carnival in 1952, and stayed, playing at the Virgin Isles Hotel with the LaMotta Brothers Band. The LaMotta Band, led by Bill LaMotta, was a very popular group that recorded several albums and backed Mighty Zebra on a 1957 album for RCA Records
. The remaining major early calypso band from the Virgin Islands was the Fabulous McClevertys, who toured widely across the East Coast of the United States at the height of the calypso craze in the late 1950s.
Another popular Virgin Islands calypsonian is Irvin "Brownie" Brown, who has hosted the islands' Carnival and has been a leading singer, radio entertainer, MC and drummer for many years. Originally from St. Thomas, he learned the timbales
as a young man, and joined his uncle's hotel band in 1949 or 1950. The band soon began performing in Florida and elsewhere, and Brownie became known as a calypso singer while also learning bongos, congas and a trap set. They recorded for Monogram and then Art Records, with Mighty Panther
and the Haitian singer Calypso Mama
. Brownie's return to St. Thomas was followed by joining up with Milo & the Kings, a well-known band, for whom he was a percussion for seventeen years, recording a number of albums and touring across North America and the Caribbean. He began working as a DJ for the WSTA radio station in 1966, and continued for more than three decades; he had a regular talk show
with calypso performances, The Original Side of Walter and Brownie.
bands. Among the oldest and most respected are Milo & the Kings , Seventeen Plus (17+) (Seventeen Plus can be used as the standard for all modern Soca bands - from 1970 to current), Jam Band
(formerly Eddie & the Movements) 20 Times Road March Champions, Enforcements band hailing out of the glorious Monbijou, St. Croix (many members branched out to form different bands) and the Imagination Brass. Other popular bands include VIO International, World Famous Xpress Band (St. Croix Festival's 2006-2007 Roadmarch Champions), Starlites, and the Musically Dangerous Xtaushun Band (St. Croix Festival two-time Road March Champions)."
Another largely popular soca band as of the 2000s on St Thomas is the "P'your Passion Band". The original "Jam Band" has also slowed up with the death of the band's main front man "Nick 'Daddy' Friday" who died back in 2005.
The most popular Virgin Islands band and a band before its time, is Seventeen Plus (17+). With the inception of the "riddim box", the electronic drum machine, 17+ was one of the first bands in the region to master its use as expressed in Seventeen Plus's New Style. It demonstrated the full use of the electronic keyboard, drum machines, vocals and a bass line working together to set the standard for all bands of the electronic drum machine era.
Popular Virgin Islands bands to date include: Fusion Band, DJATC, the Jammerz HP (formerly known as JDPP Jammerz), De Fabulous Stroka Band, Hyvoltage Band, Code 9, Xpress Band, Jam Band, Jam Tyme, UMB Soldiers, Rupsion Band, Stylee Band, and the Xtaushun Band have rapidly made a name for themselves.
, Puerto Rico, the United States, South America and Europe. Prominent reggae artists from the Virgin Islands include Pressure, Midnite
, Dezarie
, Army, Abja, De Apostle, Niyorah, Emanuel, Bambu Station, Inner Visions, Sabbattical Ahdah, Eno, Revalation, Iba Wicked, Jah Rubal and many more. The reggae music of St. Croix has a distinct "roots" feeling and is strongly rooted in Rastafari. A prominent known reggae label in St. Croix is I Grade Records
, who have released countless Midnite releases, two Dezarie albums, Niyorah albums, Army albums and Abja albums. Bambu Station guitarist Tuff Lion, along with Laurent Alfred of I Grade Records produce many of the tracks.
St. Croix also boasts a reggae radio station, WSTX
100.3 FM, which features Virgin Islands reggae.
.
from Tortola
, Rock City, Verse Simmonds from St. Thomas, K'Are from Tortola, Virgin Islands, British of the CB 4 Lyfe camp who also does Solo but is still a member of CB and the VI centered hip hop group Dem Rude Boyz.
, musical theater and international pop stars. St. Croix is also home to a public performance venue in St. Gerald's Hall in Frederiksted, where locals dance quadrille
s and otherwise perform.
Traditional Virgin Islander folk music festivals were performed until the late 1950s, and were based around costumed masquerading. With the advent of formal celebrations based around parades and festival village, local folk traditions declined, replaced by pan-Caribbean elements like calypso, moko jumbie
stilt dancers and visiting performers from other islands.
Music education in the Virgin Islands is primarily based around the Western classical tradition, particularly orchestral and concert band music. Local folk music is also a part of the music curriculum; quadrille
s are taught in schools in St. Croix, and Charlotte Amalie High School on St. Thomas is home to a well-known student scratch band.
have also documented some folk traditions, but their research remains largely unpublished. Carmen Nibbs-O'Garra, wife of well-known Antiguan calypsonian Figgy, is the author of In de Calypso Tent, which, though perhaps no longer available, contains information of calypso competitions of St. Thomas and also reproduces the lyrics of popular Virgin Islands calypsos, and historical programs from past calypso tents on the islands. While not a scholarly history of the islands' musical life, The Memoirs of Alton Augustus Adams, Sr.: First Black Bandmaster of the United States Navy were recently published by the University of California Press in a scholarly edition by Mark Clague. This book offers a first-hand account of musical life in the Virgin Islands from the 1900s through the 1950s. Adams's remembrances are surprisingly precise as in addition to his musical activities, he worked as a journalist and much of his writing is based upon the articles and notes he penned for The St. Thomas Times and The Bulletin as well as The Pittsburgh Courier.
Virgin Islands
The Virgin Islands are the western island group of the Leeward Islands, which are the northern part of the Lesser Antilles, which form the border between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean...
reflects long-standing West Indian cultural ties to the island nations to the south, the islands' African heritage and European colonial history, as well as recent North American influences. Though the United States Virgin Islands
United States Virgin Islands
The Virgin Islands of the United States are a group of islands in the Caribbean that are an insular area of the United States. The islands are geographically part of the Virgin Islands archipelago and are located in the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles.The U.S...
and British Virgin Islands
British Virgin Islands
The Virgin Islands, often called the British Virgin Islands , is a British overseas territory and overseas territory of the European Union, located in the Caribbean to the east of Puerto Rico. The islands make up part of the Virgin Islands archipelago, the remaining islands constituting the U.S...
are politically separate, they maintain close cultural ties. From its neighbors, the Virgin Islands has imported various pan-Caribbean genres of music, including calypso
Calypso music
Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from African and European roots. The roots of the genre lay in the arrival of enslaved Africans, who, not being allowed to speak with each other, communicated through song...
from Trinidad
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of it is also the fifth largest in...
and reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
from Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
.
The major indigenous form of music is the scratch band
Fungi (music)
Fungi is the name given to the local musical form of the British Virgin Islands. It is also the native music of the U.S. Virgin Islands, where it is known as quelbe. Fungi music is an expression of Virgin Islands culture as it shows the islands' African and European influences in a unique sound....
(also called fungi band in the British Virgin Islands), which use improvised instruments like gourd
Gourd
A gourd is a plant of the family Cucurbitaceae. Gourd is occasionally used to describe crops like cucumbers, squash, luffas, and melons. The term 'gourd' however, can more specifically, refer to the plants of the two Cucurbitaceae genera Lagenaria and Cucurbita or also to their hollow dried out shell...
s and washboard
Washboard
A washboard is a tool designed for hand washing clothing. With mechanized cleaning of clothing becoming more common by the end of the 20th century, the washboard has become better known for its originally subsidiary use as a musical instrument....
s to make a kind of music called quelbe. A Virgin Island folk song called cariso
Cariso
Cariso is a kind of Trinidadian folk music, and an important ancestor of calypso music. The word may come from carieto, a Carib word that means joyous song. Cariso used satirical and insulting lyrics, and is related to the picong tradition. Cariso singers, called chantwells, sang primarily in...
is also popular, as well as St. Thomas' bamboula
Bamboula
A bamboula is a kind of drum made from a section of giant bamboo with skin stretched over the ends. It is also a secular dance accompanied by the drums. Both were brought to the Americas by African slaves....
. The quadrille
Quadrille
Quadrille is a historic dance performed by four couples in a square formation, a precursor to traditional square dancing. It is also a style of music...
is the traditional folk dance of the islands, and include varieties like St. Croix's Imperial Quadrille and St. Thomas
Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands
Saint Thomas is an island in the Caribbean Sea and with the islands of Saint John, Saint Croix, and Water Island a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands , an unincorporated territory of the United States. Located on the island is the territorial capital and port of...
' Flat German Quadrille. The Heritage Dancers are a respected dance troupe that perform traditional folk dances from the Virgin Islands and beyond.
Characteristics
Virgin Islander cultureCulture of the Virgin Islands
Virgin Islander culture represents the various peoples that have inhabited the present-day U.S. Virgin Islands and British Virgin Islands throughout history...
is syncretic, based primarily on African, European and North American cultures. Though the Danish controlled the present-day U.S. Virgin Islands for many years, the dominant language has been an English-based Creole since the 19th century, and the islands remain much more receptive to English language popular culture than any other. The Dutch, the French and the Danish also contributed elements to the island's culture, as have immigrants from the Arab world, India and other Caribbean islands. The single largest influence on modern Virgin Islander culture, however, comes from the Africans enslaved to work in canefields from the 17th to the mid-19th century. These African slaves brought with them traditions from across a wide swathe of Africa, including what is now Nigeria, Senegal, both Congos, Gambia and Ghana.
Folk music
Virgin Islander folk music has declined since the mid-20th century, though some traditions, such as scratch bands, remain vibrant. Trends that contributed to this change include the rise of the tourism industry, the switch of American tourists from Cuba to the Virgin Islands following the 1959 revolution, and the growth of industries based on mass radio, television and recorded music. These changes "(diluted) local traditions and (diverted) younger generations" from becoming involved in folk music, because popular styles came to be viewed as having more prestige, class and income.Scratch bands and fungi music
Scratch bands, also known as fungi bands and formerly string bands, are a distinctive form of folk ensemble; they have survived the decline of other Virgin Islander folk traditions, through adapting to newly imported instrumentation and songs, and becoming a part of a more general revival of interest in folk culture on the islands. The name scratch band may derive from the sound produced by scraping the squash, an instrument similar to the Puerto Rican guiroGüiro
The güiro is a Latin-American percussion instrument consisting of an open-ended, hollow gourd with parallel notches cut in one side. It is played by rubbing a stick or tines along the notches to produce a ratchet-like sound. The güiro is commonly used in Latin-American music, and plays a key role...
, but larger, or from the word squash itself, used to refer to the bands first by American visitors and then by locals.
The traditional scratch band ensemble varied, but always used a percussive instrument, either the squash, tambourine
Tambourine
The tambourine or marine is a musical instrument of the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though some variants may not have a head at all....
, or a local form of double-headed barrel drum similar to the Dominican tambora
Tambora
Tambora may refer to:* In music:**Tanpura, an instrument used in Indian classical music for continuous production of consonating reference notes **Tambora , an Afro-Caribbean percussion instrument...
, as well as an accordion
Accordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
, cane flute
Flute
The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
or violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
as a melodic instrument. String instruments were also common, including the banjo
Banjo
In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
, ukulele
Ukulele
The ukulele, ; from ; it is a subset of the guitar family of instruments, generally with four nylon or gut strings or four courses of strings....
or a six-string guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
. The ass pipe, made out of a car exhaust tube, often provided the bass, and was played similar to the tuba
Tuba
The tuba is the largest and lowest-pitched brass instrument. Sound is produced by vibrating or "buzzing" the lips into a large cupped mouthpiece. It is one of the most recent additions to the modern symphony orchestra, first appearing in the mid-19th century, when it largely replaced the...
. Since about the 1980s, the instrumentation for scratch bands became more rigid. The alto saxophone
Alto saxophone
The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in 1841. It is smaller than the tenor but larger than the soprano, and is the type most used in classical compositions...
became the most common melodic instrument, replaced sometimes by a silver flute. Conga drums, squash, electric guitar or bass guitar, and a steel (a triangle). Banjo or ukulele, keyboard and additional saxophones or other melodic instruments are more rarely found in modern bands.
The music of scratch bands are a type of folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
that dates back to the days of slavery. The slaves on the islands used found objects to fashion instruments, such as by making strings out of twine salvaged from old sacks. Lyrics traditionally function as oral history, spreading news and gossip. Modern scratch bands play a wide range of dances, including calypsos, bolero
Bolero
Bolero is a form of slow-tempo Latin music and its associated dance and song. There are Spanish and Cuban forms which are both significant and which have separate origins.The term is also used for some art music...
s, quadrilles, international pop songs, merengues, mazurka
Mazurka
The mazurka is a Polish folk dance in triple meter, usually at a lively tempo, and with accent on the third or second beat.-History:The folk origins of the mazurek are two other Polish musical forms—the slow machine...
s, waltz
Waltz
The waltz is a ballroom and folk dance in time, performed primarily in closed position.- History :There are several references to a sliding or gliding dance,- a waltz, from the 16th century including the representations of the printer H.S. Beheim...
es, jig
Jig
The Jig is a form of lively folk dance, as well as the accompanying dance tune, originating in England in the 16th century and today most associated with Irish dance music and Scottish country dance music...
s and other styles. They perform at church services, private parties, public festivals, local dances and fairs, christenings and weddings, and also perform for tourists. The scratch band tradition remains most vibrant on St. Croix, where the bands Bully & the Kafooners, Stanley & the Ten Sleepless Knights, and Blinky & the Roadmasters are well known. Scratch bands are less common on St. Thomas, and in the British Virgin Islands, though the popular Elmo & the Sparkplugs hail from Tortola
Tortola
Tortola is the largest and most populated of the British Virgin Islands, a group of islands that form part of the archipelago of the Virgin Islands. Local tradition recounts that Christopher Columbus named it Tortola, meaning "land of the Turtle Dove". Columbus named the island Santa Ana...
.
Quelbe
Quelbe is a form of topical folk song, and is the official music of the U.S. Virgin Islands. Quelbe is commonly performed by scratch bands, Stanley & the Ten Sleepless Nights being the most popular throughout the Virgin Islands, though their folk origin lies in individuals, who sang the songs in informal settings, celebrations and festivals. These songs typically contained sexual innuendos and double entendres, as well as other hidden meanings; common topics included political events, such as a boycott. One example from the early 20th century chastises a carouselCarousel
A carousel , or merry-go-round, is an amusement ride consisting of a rotating circular platform with seats for riders...
owner for opposing a wage increase:
I rather walk and drink rum whole night
Before me go ride on LaBega Carousel
I rather walk, man, and drink rum whole night
Before me go ride on LaBega Carousel
You no hear what LaBega say
"The people no worth more than fifteen cent a day"
You no hear what LaBega say, man
"The people no worth more than half cent a day"
Other folk styles
The quadrilleQuadrille
Quadrille is a historic dance performed by four couples in a square formation, a precursor to traditional square dancing. It is also a style of music...
is a folk dance that was formerly an important part of Virgin Islands culture; it is now rarely performed, except on St. Croix. There, locals dance the quadrille at public performance venues, such as St. Gerard's Hall, or as educational spectacles for schools, festivals and holidays, or as entertainment for tourists. Educational and entertainment quadrille troops both wear traditionally styled clothing reminiscent of authentic attire.
The Virgin Islands tea meeting
Tea meeting
The tea meeting tradition is a part of the culture of Saint Kitts and Nevis and Barbados. Tea meetings feature music and performances that include comic speeches, stentorian oratory and songs. The performances are introduced by a chairman and vice-chairman, who are also performers themselves. ...
s, the David and Goliath play and masquerade jig
Jig
The Jig is a form of lively folk dance, as well as the accompanying dance tune, originating in England in the 16th century and today most associated with Irish dance music and Scottish country dance music...
all probably derive from elsewhere in the Caribbean. The masquerade jig uses elements of theater, dance, music and oratory, and functions as simple entertainment with improvised jigs alternated with humorous monologues. Tea meetings are now only performed as reconstructions in folkloric ensembles; they were evenings of speech-making, feasting and the singing of hymns and parlor songs. The David and Goliath play features music, dance, theater, and dramatic and witty speeches, all based around the biblical plot of David and Goliath.
The Afro-Virgin Islander bamboula
Bamboula
A bamboula is a kind of drum made from a section of giant bamboo with skin stretched over the ends. It is also a secular dance accompanied by the drums. Both were brought to the Americas by African slaves....
tradition is now only performed in a reconstructed fashion. It was a style of song, drumming and folk dance, performed by two drummers on one drum; one drum used his hands and heel, and the other two sticks. African-styled dance and group song with refrains were a constant part, with verses frequently improvised by a soloist.
Traditional Virgin Islander folk music festivals were performed until the late 1950s. Masquerading (mas'ing) was an important tradition, and consisted of groups wearing costumes based around a theme, and playing melodies and rhythms that suggest their identity. Instruments included a fife
Fife (musical instrument)
A fife is a small, high-pitched, transverse flute that is similar to the piccolo, but louder and shriller due to its narrower bore. The fife originated in medieval Europe and is often used in military and marching bands. Someone who plays the fife is called a fifer...
-and-drum ensemble that featured a cane fife, double-headed bass drum (known as keg or boom-boom) and snare drum
Snare drum
The snare drum or side drum is a melodic percussion instrument with strands of snares made of curled metal wire, metal cable, plastic cable, or gut cords stretched across the drumhead, typically the bottom. Pipe and tabor and some military snare drums often have a second set of snares on the bottom...
(known as kettledrum).
The Virgin Islander cariso
Cariso
Cariso is a kind of Trinidadian folk music, and an important ancestor of calypso music. The word may come from carieto, a Carib word that means joyous song. Cariso used satirical and insulting lyrics, and is related to the picong tradition. Cariso singers, called chantwells, sang primarily in...
tradition is extinct in a true folk context, but remains an important symbol of Crucian culture, and is performed by folkloric ensembles for educational and holiday events. Carisos were still performed as late as the 1990s by several elderly singers, most famously Ethel McIntosh and Leona Watson. Though similar in some ways to quelbe, cariso is more African in its melodic style, frequent sustained syllables and traditional performance context, namely women singing in groups in call-and-response. Carisos, like quelbe, commemorate historical events, and spread news and opinions about important issues. One particularly famous cariso dates to 1848, and documents the emancipation of the slaves; the first segment is the refrain, sung by a chorus, which is followed by a verse performed by a soloist singer:
Clear the road, all you clear the road,
Clear the road, let the slave them pass,
We a go for a-we freedom.
Hardship in the morning, suffering at night.
No one ever help us, it is only Father Ryan.
They bring we ya from Africa, that we bornin' land;
Bring we ya in slavery, in the land of Santa Cruz.
The French Virgin Islander: In the early 1900s small groups left the small French island of St. Barths and traveled to St. Thomas, VI in search of work. Known throughout St. Thomas as "Frenchies" many played instruments such as the accordion, harmonica and guitar and made instruments such as the "Weero or Guiros" out of dried squash from their farms and cowbells from their livestock. This mixture of French and Caribbean culture and French Creole
French-based creole languages
A French Creole, or French-based Creole language, is a creole language based on the French language, more specifically on a 17th century koiné French extant in Paris, the French Atlantic harbors, and the nascent French colonies...
language gave this music a unique sound known as Cadance
Cadence-lypso
Cadence-lypso, popularized as simply Cadence is a cultural music of Dominica based in Guadeloupe in the early 1970s. Cadence-lypso is a fusion of Dominican and Caribbean/Latin rhythms and has totally revolutionized the music scence in its genre, and it has now become the main dance Music of...
. Cyril Querrard of the Mountain Kings was a pioneer in promoting the music and sound of the French Virgin Islander. He had his own weekend show at the "Luau Club" on St. Thomas where he sang and played guitar for military personnel, tourists and locals alike. He was introduced as, "The King of the Mountain" and the Mountain Kings band was soon formed. Other local French decent bands later followed, such as, The Originals, Obsession Band and the Under Pressure band. These bands continued to have this unique sound as a result of this mix of cultures.
Modern and recently imported styles
Until the mid-20th century, the Virgin Islands were largely culturally isolated from international popular music. In the 1960s, a growth in tourism caused an influx of immigrants to fill the service positions the tourism industry created. These immigrants brought with them many styles of popular music, which were popularized by the growth of mass media in the islands, including television and radio.By the 1980s, Virgin Islands was home to many imported styles, especially reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
, soca
Soca music
Soca is a style of music from Trinidad and Tobago. Soca is a musical development of traditional Trinidadian calypso, through loans from the 1960s onwards from predominantly black popular music....
, merengue
Merengue music
Merengue is a type of music and dance from the Dominican Republic. It is popular in the Dominican Republic and all over Latin America. Its name is Spanish, taken from the name of the meringue, a dessert made from whipped egg whites and sugar...
and rock. Jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, Western classical music and musical theater, along with international pop stars, were common mainstream interests, while the islands' youth formed bands and dance troupes that played styles popular across the Caribbean, mainly Jamaican and Trinidadian influenced, such as reggae, steelpan
Steelpan
Steelpans is a musical instrument originating from The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago...
and soca. The large Puerto Rican population in the Virgin Islands kept popular music from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic a major part of the islands' industry.
Calypso
The first calypsoCalypso music
Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from African and European roots. The roots of the genre lay in the arrival of enslaved Africans, who, not being allowed to speak with each other, communicated through song...
star from the Virgin Islands was Lloyd "Prince" Thomas, who moved to New York City in the mid-1940s and continued performing for some twenty years. Charles Harris, the Mighty Zebra (a well-known Trinidadian calypsonian) influentially performed in the Virgin Islands in the 1950s; he came for the Carnival in 1952, and stayed, playing at the Virgin Isles Hotel with the LaMotta Brothers Band. The LaMotta Band, led by Bill LaMotta, was a very popular group that recorded several albums and backed Mighty Zebra on a 1957 album for RCA Records
RCA Records
RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...
. The remaining major early calypso band from the Virgin Islands was the Fabulous McClevertys, who toured widely across the East Coast of the United States at the height of the calypso craze in the late 1950s.
Another popular Virgin Islands calypsonian is Irvin "Brownie" Brown, who has hosted the islands' Carnival and has been a leading singer, radio entertainer, MC and drummer for many years. Originally from St. Thomas, he learned the timbales
Timbales
Timbales are shallow single-headed drums with metal casing, invented in Cuba. They are shallower in shape than single-headed tom-toms, and usually much higher tuned...
as a young man, and joined his uncle's hotel band in 1949 or 1950. The band soon began performing in Florida and elsewhere, and Brownie became known as a calypso singer while also learning bongos, congas and a trap set. They recorded for Monogram and then Art Records, with Mighty Panther
Mighty Panther
Native to Trinidad, Mighty Panther is a "legend" of Trinidadian calypso music. He has shared the stage with numerous calypsonians including "Charmer", aka Louis Farrakhan . At the age of 11 he found a gold pocket watch and he carries it around his neck, believing it brings him good...
and the Haitian singer Calypso Mama
Calypso Mama
Calypso Mama1, real name Maureen Verlene Duvalier, is a legendary Bahamian blues/calypso artist....
. Brownie's return to St. Thomas was followed by joining up with Milo & the Kings, a well-known band, for whom he was a percussion for seventeen years, recording a number of albums and touring across North America and the Caribbean. He began working as a DJ for the WSTA radio station in 1966, and continued for more than three decades; he had a regular talk show
Talk show
A talk show or chat show is a television program or radio program where one person discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host....
with calypso performances, The Original Side of Walter and Brownie.
Soca
The Virgin Islands has been home to a number of well-known socaSoca music
Soca is a style of music from Trinidad and Tobago. Soca is a musical development of traditional Trinidadian calypso, through loans from the 1960s onwards from predominantly black popular music....
bands. Among the oldest and most respected are Milo & the Kings , Seventeen Plus (17+) (Seventeen Plus can be used as the standard for all modern Soca bands - from 1970 to current), Jam Band
Jam band
-Ambiguity:By the late 1990s use of the term jam band also became ambiguous. An editorial at jamband.com suggested that any band of which a primary band such as Phish has done a cover of be included as jam band. The example was including New York post-punk band Talking Heads after Phish performed...
(formerly Eddie & the Movements) 20 Times Road March Champions, Enforcements band hailing out of the glorious Monbijou, St. Croix (many members branched out to form different bands) and the Imagination Brass. Other popular bands include VIO International, World Famous Xpress Band (St. Croix Festival's 2006-2007 Roadmarch Champions), Starlites, and the Musically Dangerous Xtaushun Band (St. Croix Festival two-time Road March Champions)."
Another largely popular soca band as of the 2000s on St Thomas is the "P'your Passion Band". The original "Jam Band" has also slowed up with the death of the band's main front man "Nick 'Daddy' Friday" who died back in 2005.
The most popular Virgin Islands band and a band before its time, is Seventeen Plus (17+). With the inception of the "riddim box", the electronic drum machine, 17+ was one of the first bands in the region to master its use as expressed in Seventeen Plus's New Style. It demonstrated the full use of the electronic keyboard, drum machines, vocals and a bass line working together to set the standard for all bands of the electronic drum machine era.
Popular Virgin Islands bands to date include: Fusion Band, DJATC, the Jammerz HP (formerly known as JDPP Jammerz), De Fabulous Stroka Band, Hyvoltage Band, Code 9, Xpress Band, Jam Band, Jam Tyme, UMB Soldiers, Rupsion Band, Stylee Band, and the Xtaushun Band have rapidly made a name for themselves.
Reggae
A reggae scene has been flourishing in the Virgin Islands, especially the island of St. Croix. The Virgin Islands reggae scene has achieved much popularity throughout the Lesser AntillesLesser Antilles
The Lesser Antilles are a long, partly volcanic island arc in the Western Hemisphere. Most of its islands form the eastern boundary of the Caribbean Sea with the Atlantic Ocean, with the remainder located in the southern Caribbean just north of South America...
, Puerto Rico, the United States, South America and Europe. Prominent reggae artists from the Virgin Islands include Pressure, Midnite
Midnite
Midnite is a roots reggae band hailing from St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, which has been playing since 1989.The band's music follows in tradition with the roots reggae bands of 1970s Jamaica. The lyrical portions of Midnite's compositions are characterized as the "chant and call" style which...
, Dezarie
Dezarie
Dezarie is a female roots reggae singer born in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands.She received Atlanta's "Best New Female Reggae Artist" award in 2001 before returning to St. Croix.She works closely with Midnite. She currently has four albums available...
, Army, Abja, De Apostle, Niyorah, Emanuel, Bambu Station, Inner Visions, Sabbattical Ahdah, Eno, Revalation, Iba Wicked, Jah Rubal and many more. The reggae music of St. Croix has a distinct "roots" feeling and is strongly rooted in Rastafari. A prominent known reggae label in St. Croix is I Grade Records
I Grade Records
I Grade Records is a premier conscious music label from the US VirginIslands. The label's mission is to produce the highest quality roots reggaemusic emanating from St. Croix and the US Virgin Islands.-History:...
, who have released countless Midnite releases, two Dezarie albums, Niyorah albums, Army albums and Abja albums. Bambu Station guitarist Tuff Lion, along with Laurent Alfred of I Grade Records produce many of the tracks.
St. Croix also boasts a reggae radio station, WSTX
WSTX-FM
WSTX-FM is a radio station licensed to serve Christiansted, U. S. Virgin Islands. The station is owned by Family Broadcasting, Inc....
100.3 FM, which features Virgin Islands reggae.
Band Music
European-based military band music first came to the Virgin Islands through ship-based bands as well as the small military ensembles of the Danish troops based in the islands. Regular band concerts were given by Danish musicians in Charlotte Amalie at least as early as 1888 at the Emancipation Garden bandstand. The Native Brass Band, reportedly the first official band of local musicians, was formed under the direction of Lionel Roberts in 1907, while the Adams Juvenile Band appeared in 1910 and would be inducted into the U.S. Navy when the service took over the administration of the islands from Denmark in 1917. The induction of this all-black unit into the U.S. Navy was remarkable for its time and thus recognized the first black musicians in the U.S. Navy since the War of 1812. The United States Navy Band of the Virgin Islands gave regular public concerts on St. Thomas until the departure of the naval administration in 1931, and not long after its founding two additional navy band units were stationed on St. Croix. Alton Augustus Adams, Sr., the founder of the Juvenile Band and the bandmaster of the Navy ensemble, also wrote the Virgin Islands March (1919), now the official territorial anthem of the Virgin Islands, as well as The Governor's Own, the official march of the Virgin Islands Governor. With the exception of a single surviving bamboula arrangement, Adams's marches are entirely in the standard American march style of his idol, John Philip SousaJohn Philip Sousa
John Philip Sousa was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era, known particularly for American military and patriotic marches. Because of his mastery of march composition, he is known as "The March King" or the "American March King" due to his British counterpart Kenneth J....
.
Hip-Hop
There has been the development of a hip-hop scene in the Virgin Islands, especially on the island of St. Thomas. Prominent Virgin Islands hip-hop artists include Aaron Da JEDI from St.Croix/Tortola IyazIyaz
Keidran Jones , better known by his stage name Iyaz, is a singer signed with the record label Beluga Heights Records from the British Virgin Islands. His debut single "Replay", was released in 2009 and reached number two on the US Billboard Hot 100, number-one in the UK, Australia and the top ten...
from Tortola
Tortola
Tortola is the largest and most populated of the British Virgin Islands, a group of islands that form part of the archipelago of the Virgin Islands. Local tradition recounts that Christopher Columbus named it Tortola, meaning "land of the Turtle Dove". Columbus named the island Santa Ana...
, Rock City, Verse Simmonds from St. Thomas, K'Are from Tortola, Virgin Islands, British of the CB 4 Lyfe camp who also does Solo but is still a member of CB and the VI centered hip hop group Dem Rude Boyz.
Institutions and festivals
The two most prominent music institutions in the Virgin Islands are the Island Center (on St. Croix) and the Reichold Center (on St. Thomas). Both these centers provide a venue for concerts of Western classical music, jazzJazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, musical theater and international pop stars. St. Croix is also home to a public performance venue in St. Gerald's Hall in Frederiksted, where locals dance quadrille
Quadrille
Quadrille is a historic dance performed by four couples in a square formation, a precursor to traditional square dancing. It is also a style of music...
s and otherwise perform.
Moko jumbie
A moko jumbie is a stilts walker or dancer. The origin of the term may come from "Moko" and "jumbi", a West Indian term for a ghost or spirit that may have been derived from the Kongo language word zumbi...
stilt dancers and visiting performers from other islands.
Education
There are Virgin Islander institutions that support and promote the islands' folk heritage. Bradley Christian's St. Croix Heritage Dancers, for example, are folkloric group, one of several quadrille ensembles that offer a "compact, staged rendition" of folk traditions, along with educational narration.Music education in the Virgin Islands is primarily based around the Western classical tradition, particularly orchestral and concert band music. Local folk music is also a part of the music curriculum; quadrille
Quadrille
Quadrille is a historic dance performed by four couples in a square formation, a precursor to traditional square dancing. It is also a style of music...
s are taught in schools in St. Croix, and Charlotte Amalie High School on St. Thomas is home to a well-known student scratch band.
Historiography and musicology
There is a paucity of historical documentation and musicological research and analysis of Virgin Islander music. The sound recordist Mary Jane Soule and ethnomusicologist Margot Lieth-Philipp collaborated on an annotated CD, Zoop Zoop Zoop: Traditional Music and Folklore of St. Croix, St. Thomas, and St. John; these liner notes are among the comprehensive descriptions of folk music known. Lieth-Phillipp has also published some other material, on bamboula (which she refers to as a "forgotten" style of Caribbean music) and other topics. The loca and the Smithsonian InstitutionSmithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
have also documented some folk traditions, but their research remains largely unpublished. Carmen Nibbs-O'Garra, wife of well-known Antiguan calypsonian Figgy, is the author of In de Calypso Tent, which, though perhaps no longer available, contains information of calypso competitions of St. Thomas and also reproduces the lyrics of popular Virgin Islands calypsos, and historical programs from past calypso tents on the islands. While not a scholarly history of the islands' musical life, The Memoirs of Alton Augustus Adams, Sr.: First Black Bandmaster of the United States Navy were recently published by the University of California Press in a scholarly edition by Mark Clague. This book offers a first-hand account of musical life in the Virgin Islands from the 1900s through the 1950s. Adams's remembrances are surprisingly precise as in addition to his musical activities, he worked as a journalist and much of his writing is based upon the articles and notes he penned for The St. Thomas Times and The Bulletin as well as The Pittsburgh Courier.