The hypnotic sound of the steel drum band immediately takes you to the sunny Caribbean…or downtown Akron. 

This Tuesday night,  Western Reserve Public Media airs “Hammer on Steel,” a documentary that chronicles the birth of this unique instrument, told through the voices of its aging inventors on the island of Trinidad.

With many of the inventors facing advanced age, the film was a race against time according to producer Phil Hoffman, “if we don’t this now, we may never be able to do it.” 

The film is a collaboration between Hoffman and University of Akron music professor Larry Snider and celebrates  Snider’s founding of  Akron’s own steel drum band 30 years ago.

As a student at Illinois State University, Snider and his friends were captivated by the sound of the steel drum.

Snider says the steel drum music has a transformative power, “we all had smiles on our faces.  And when I got to the University of Akron, I wanted to see that smile on everybody’s face.”

But the rise of the instrument coincided with the decades-long independence movement of the island nation, according to Hoffman.  So, far from smiles, the birth of the steel drum brought reprisals from British authorities in post-war Trinidad.

Many players were jailed for playing the instrument, Hoffman says, “It was literally a sign of rebellion during this era, and it was not thought of much differently than coming at the police with a gun.”

Made from discarded oil drums  - the steel drum, or pan, was born in the rough neighborhoods of Trinidad’s capital,  Port of Spain, - a time remembered in the film by pan pioneer Cliff Alexis as competing bands encountered each other…”and the next thing I witnessed there’d be a big brawl.  That was the beginning of the steel-pan movement.”

Snider, Hoffman, and their film crew visited the gang-ruled hilltop neighborhood the steel drum was born, Hoffman says the trip was not without risk, and the crew was a little nervous… “We had a couple of armed guards go with us up to the hill because of the situation there…”

A group of curious Trinidadian children surrounded the film-makers, gathered all the metal objects in sight and began to play intricate rhythms.   Larry Snider was awestruck by the spontaneous musical display, “This was all magic.”

The fame of Trinidad’s steel drum has spread all over the world, but Hoffman says, little has changed in its birthplace  -  “They’re living in exactly the same conditions -  no electricity, no running water -  it’s tragic that this instrument that has generated such passion, and millions of dollars, has never benefitted the people who invented it.”

Larry Snider’s commitment to the instrument has made the University of Akron’s program one the largest in the nation.  And he says the man who made the instruments for the band also made him a caretaker of the Trinidadian culture.   He says he was warned that, “Those are not your drums.”    Even though he had paid for them, the drums still belonged to the maker, and by extension, to Trinidad.   

The film, “Hammer on Steel “ documents the birth of a musical form that is the voice to the world of the people of Trinidad.  And how that sound of sunshine spread to snow-bound Ohio.