Beat to a different drum

Following one part of practice at Palmer High School early Saturday morning, members of the team grabbed water bottles quickly, feeling dehydrated from the action. They were half out of breath, and their foreheads were sweaty. These last-second practices are grueling.

No, we're not talking about the basketball team getting ready for a tournament. We're talking about a group of dedicated musicians, the Colony Calypso Steel Drum Band, getting ready for a trip to Portland, Ore., where the team will perform for the Northwest Music Teachers Convention in March.

It's hard not to get short of breath yourself while watching the band perform. To say they get into their music is an understatement -- there are toes tappin', hips swivelin' and a whole lotta energy coming from the band.

The band is comprised of people ages 14 to "65 or something near it," said Lisa Callahan, a Finger Lake Elementary teacher who leads the band. It was born more than four years ago, after two people decided to get it started on their own.

"Ginny Packer and Charles Reynolds really got it going. They talked for years about getting a steel drum band going, and they purchased an entire band of drums to get it going," Callahan said. "It started out being a bunch of music teachers, but we've been doing it ever since. Once you try it, you get hooked."

There are about 40 people involved with the band now, Callahan said, although 16 will be going to Portland in March. The group submitted a demo tape to the conference's organizers, and out of 80 applicants, the Colony Calypso band was one of 15 selected to perform.

Finding peers within the state is difficult. There are two steel drum bands in Fairbanks, but no others in Southcentral Alaska. In the past, a couple members of the Colony Calypso band went to Fairbanks, while members of the Fairbanks bands came to the Valley, both in order to get lessons from Tub Miller, a noted steel drum performer.

The band is catching on in the Valley. Callahan said the band will probably double in numbers by the end of the year, and more and more young people are picking up the instruments.

"The kids love the idea, because it's so different," Callahan said. "We've had high school kids who have gone on to college, and it's really neat to see them come back and play with us during their Christmas breaks and summer breaks. They stick with it."

Colony Calypso has played receptions for British Petroleum, Philips Alaska and other corporations, and they have performed at the Alaska State Fair.

There is one place you definitely won't find the band, however.

"We don't gig at bars," Callahan said. "We've got kids in the band, and that's just not us."

Steel drum playing originated in the Caribbean, and only 50 years ago, making it one of very few musical instruments to have been invented in the 20th century. In Trinidad, the instruments were made from drums after it was found that the dented parts of the lid of a steel drum produced a soothing Caribbean-style tone.

The popularity of steel drums took off. There are countless steel drum bands on the West Coast, and Callahan said on a trip to Washington, she can think of 30 such bands in that one state.

"You'd be hard-pressed to get a school district to fund a steel drum band, so students have to go outside of school to get involved," Callahan said. "But once you get involved, you are hooked."

You have to be dedicated to be part of the Colony Calypso band. All of the songs are taught by ear, Callahan said, just like the Trinidad tradition.

"If they miss a practice, they miss the entire learning process of the song," Callahan said. "They are very dedicated to the steel drums."