Musician from Trinidad and Tobago expects to fuse the music of his country and Guangdong
Six social media influencers from Latin America and the Caribbean countries visited the Dongguan Culture Center on Sunday.
Their four-day tour in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, from September 7 to 10, was part of the Training Workshop for We-Media Influencers from Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) organized by the China Public Diplomacy Association (CPDA).
During the visit, Joshua Regrello, a national steelpannist from Trinidad and Tobago, the southernmost island country in the Caribbean, played a live performance with the steelpan, a unique instrument originating from his country.
Covering the repertoire of three pieces, namely, Friends from Afar, Please Stay, Jasmine Flower (Chinese songs), and DNA by Mical Teja, a musician from Trinidad and Tobago, Mr. Regrello’s show galvanized the room. His companions couldn’t help but dance with enthusiasm on the spot.
Joshua Regrello, a national steelpannist from Trinidad and Tobago, plays the steelpan at Dongguan Culture Center on September 8, 2024. (Photo: GDToday)
Omari Peters, a comedy blogger from Grenada, and Ashad Bain, a travel blogger from the Bahamas, shared their feelings after watching the show.
Mr. Omari Peters told GDToday that it’s been years since he played the steelpan. As part of Caribbean culture, the instrument relaxes players when performing and is not difficult to learn. Players can express true feelings through it. That’s how Caribbean music is.
Mr. Ashad Bain tapped the music player app on his smartphone, then complemented his presentation by playing the steelpan and a Chinese string instrument. Despite nuances in the sounds, he told GDToday that the two are almost the same.
“If I turned the musician to listen to this and play here, he can do it. In the Caribbean, what we like to do is … like other countries, we can hear it. It sounds nice. We can play the music,” he added.
Later, Mr. Joshua Regrello beat the Xinchang drums to experience the local intangible cultural heritage of Dongguan city in Guangdong province.
Having seen traditional Chinese drums in his country and performances, he confessed that he never tried it and has never seen a drum that big, which takes five years’ fabrication.
After pounding with sticks and just clapping the drums, he detailed the difference between the steelpan and the Xinchang drums—the notes.
“The pan that I play has 26 notes, whereas the drum has different tunes, but it’s basically the same note,” he added.
When asked if there were any chances for the fusion of the types of instruments, Mr. Joshua Regrello gave a yes answer and expressed a desire to create a piece fusing the two.
According to him, in addition to friendship, albeit at a distance, music is the one thing that could connect all of us.
“I could play a song and both of us know what’s going on where we could speak. We could speak and not necessarily relate. So I think we could create some music that really fuses us as one people,” he added.
Reporter: Clonde Zhang
Video: Pan Jiajun
Script: Clonde Zhang
Photo: Clonde Zhang
Editor: Steven Yuen, Nina Huang, James