Lesson 5:Ellie and the Steel Drum

Level: S
DRA: 40
Genre:
Biography
Strategy:
Summarize
Skill:
Fact and Opinion
Word Count: 1,346
6.1.5
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN
Online Leveled Books
1032879
H O UG H T O N M IF F L IN
By Cara Robins
ILLUSTRATION CREDITS: 4 Joe LeMonnier / Melissa Turk
PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS: Cover © Robert Harding Picture Library Ltd / Alamy; 1 © Hulton-Deutsch Collection /
CORBIS; 3 © De Agostini / Getty Images; 5 © after Theodore de Bry / Getty Images; 6 © Ross Pictures / CORBIS; 6-7
© Philip Wolmuth / Alamy; 8 © Robert Harding Picture Library Ltd / Alamy; 9 © PhotoDisc / Musical Instruments; 10 ©
INTERFOTO Pressebildagentur / Alamy; 12 © Hulton-Deutsch Collection / CORBIS; 14 © PhotoDisc / Flags of the World
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Table of Cont e nt s
Ellie’s Childhood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
Planters on Trinidad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
Freedom to Drum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
Enter Ellie Mannette. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8
Oil Cans and Drumsticks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
History of Steel Drums . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
A New Day for the Steel Drum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12
Ellie Goes to America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
Ellie’s Childh o od
Elliot Mannette was born on Trinidad in 1926.
Trinidad is a small island in the Caribbean Sea. Ellie
loved the drums. By the time he was eight years old,
Ellie pounded away on almost anything he could
find. Buckets, tin cans, and cookie tins all made good
drums. Ellie’s banging would make his parents upset.
Little did they know that all that drumming would one
day make Ellie famous.
Ellie grew up on the
island of Trinidad.
3
Trinidad and Tobago are two islands that form one country.
As the years passed, Ellie’s parents saw how
much their son loved drums, so they let him keep
playing. They still weren’t sure drumming was
such a good thing, though. What worried them
was that in Trinidad, drummers were known as
troublemakers. People looked down their noses at
them. To understand the battles Ellie would face, you
have to go all the way back to when Europeans first
settled Trinidad.
4
Planters on Trinidad
In 1498, Christopher
Columbus was the first
European to find
Trinidad. He only
stayed long enough
to claim it for Spain.
Spain let some
French planters
live on the island.
Planters were
farmers. They
started cotton and
sugar plantations,
or large farms.
The planters
brought enslaved Africans
to Trinidad. The enslaved
people did most of the work
Columbus named the
island of Trinidad.
on the plantations. They came
predominantly from West Africa.
As in most African cultures,
drums were very important.
Drums played a big role in their religion.
5
The enslaved Africans
sometimes drummed into the
night. This made the planters
very nervous. West Africans
were known for their
talking drums. They used
drumming to send messages
over many miles. The
planters kept wondering if
secret messages were being
sent. Maybe the enslaved Africans
were planning a revolt. The planters
West Africans
feared for their own welfare.
used drums to
Then, the British took control
send messages
to one another.
of Trinidad. They worried about the
drums, too. So they made using hand drums
against the law. For now, the drums were silenced.
6
Freedom to D r u m
In Trinidad, slavery finally ended on July 31, 1834.
The freed Africans left the plantations. Most went to
live in a town called Laventille (LAV uhn tihl). They
were very poor, and life was hard.
Out of anger and rebellion, the young men broke
into gangs. Each gang formed a drum band. One way
or another, the young men were going to find a way to
drum. It was their way of standing up for their rights.
Soon the bands replaced their hand drums with
stick drums. To make the sound of a drum, they hit
the sticks on the ground.
The town of Laventille
7
Enter Ell ie M a n n e t t e
By the 1930s, the young men of Laventille had
changed to drumming on almost anything that was
metal. Ellie was one of them. He looked for paint cans,
pots, garbage can covers, and car hubcaps to practice
his drumming. Without knowing it, Ellie was laying
the groundwork for the steel drum.
A steel drum isn’t like other drums. It doesn’t look
the same, and it doesn’t sound the same. First of all, it’s
made out of steel. And secondly, you can play a song
on it. That is what makes it special.
Steel drums come in every shape and size.
8
No one person can take credit for inventing the
steel drum. Like rap music, the steel drum was born
on the streets. But most people agree that Elliot
Mannette played a major role in its invention.
In 1939, Ellie was 13 years old and had his own
band. At first they called themselves the Ovals. Then
they would become the Invaders. One day, Ellie heard
that one of the boys in another band could play a real
song on his drum. His name was Spree Simon. This
interested Ellie very much.
The Legend of Spree Simon
One day, 12-year-old Spree
Simon was banging out
the dents in a garbage
can. Each dent he
knocked out made
a different sound. Soon
he had made enough
notes to play a real song.
Some call this the first
steel drum.
9
Oi l C ans and D r u m s t i c k s
It took Elliot Mannette and the United States
Navy to make the final jump to the modern steel
drum. During World War II, lots of U.S. ships stopped
at Trinidad. To protect the ships from enemy spies and
submarines, the U.S. Navy built a base on the island.
The Navy ships often left their empty oil drums behind.
Ellie was about 20 years old by now. In secret,
he was making a musical drum out of one of the oil
drums. He decided to do something no one had done
before. He turned the oil drum up-side down.
This is a 12-note
steel drum.
Low Notes
High Notes
10
Now the top of the drum looked like a bowl. It
was easier to play a lot of different notes this way. Ellie
made drumsticks wrapped with strips of rubber from
old inner tubes.
Meanwhile, other drummers were working on new
drums, too. They made many changes and innovations.
But nothing compared to what Ellie was doing.
In 1946, Ellie entered a talent contest. He showed
everyone his new drum for the first time. The judges
and audience were stunned. Ellie won the contest.
Hi s t o r y of Stee l D r u m s
1797: British outlaw hand drums.
1834: Slavery ends.
1883: Stick drums are also outlawed.
1900: Stick drums are allowed.
1938: Bands use metal drums.
1942: U.S. Navy sets up a base in Trinidad.
1945: World War II ends; use of oil drums grows.
1946: Elliot Mannette makes first modern steel drum.
11
A New Day for the S t e e l D r u m
After the war ended, things seemed to fall apart.
Ellie didn’t become a big star, and the bands went back
to fighting. Then, just when it looked like steel drums
were going to be banned again, things got better.
In 1951, the Trinidad government decided to form
a national steel band. It would honor all of Trinidad at
a British music celebration. Ellie was picked as one of
the 12 best drummers to be in the band. The band was
a big hit in England. Ellie and the other drummers
had finally won people’s respect.
Ellie was chosen to play at a British
music celebration in 1951.
12
Ellie Goes to A m e r i c a
Ellie got right back to work when he returned to
Trinidad. He built new steel drums in different sizes.
Some were made to play high notes. Others were
made to play low notes. Just like the instruments in an
orchestra, each steel drum had a different part to play.
People now genuinely thought of Ellie as a musician.
In 1963, Ellie made his first trip to the United
States. He helped create the U.S. Navy Steel Band
program. Four years later, he moved to New York and
began to work with children.
Steel Drum Orchestras
There are now many steel drum orchestras.
Most of them have over 100 drummers.
They can play almost all of the music that
a regular orchestra plays.
13
Ellie Mannette has received many awards. But he
won a very special award in 2000 — a Silver Medal.
He returned to Trinidad to receive the award. It was
the first time he had been home in 33 years. He said:
“I had no idea that after all these years I
spent away from Trinidad and Tobago,
that the Government would still treat me
with so much respect. I sat there and just
began to cry. Every time I go to these
types of events, I remember the struggles
I and all the others went through for [the
steel drum].”
The flag of Trinidad and Tobago
14
Responding
TARGET SKILL Fact and Opinion In Ellie
and the Steel Drum, the author gives a lot of
information about Elliot Mannette. Copy the
chart below. Then list facts and opinions found
in the book.
Fact
Ellie played the steel
drum.
Opinion
He was one of
the best drummers.
?
?
Write About It
Text to Self How would you begin a fictional
narrative about a musician? List your ideas on
paper. Then organize your list. Use it to write
the first paragraph of your story.
15
TARGET VOCABULARY
aptly
parallel
aspect
predominantly
credit
tendency
genuinely
tension
innovation
welfare
TARGET SKILL Fact and Opinion Decide
whether an idea can be proved or is a feeling
or belief.
TARGET STRATEGY Summarize Briefly tell the
important parts of the text in your own words.
GENRE Biography tells about events in a person’s life,
written by another person.
Write About It
In a famous quotation, Aung San Suu Kyi said,
“Please use your freedom to promote ours.”
What freedoms do you value most? Why? Write
a letter to the editor of a Burmese newspaper
explaining the freedoms you have and why they
are important to you.
16
Level: S
DRA: 40
Genre:
Biography
Strategy:
Summarize
Skill:
Fact and Opinion
Word Count: 1,346
6.1.5
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN
Online Leveled Books
1032879
H O UG H T O N M IF F L IN