BIOGRAPHY
Big Rich is a professional multi instrumentalist who plays Piano, Steel Pan, Guitar, Trumpet and is also & vocalist. He is a versatile and experienced musician who has over 20 years experience performing in all types of venues. Like Big Rich always says. ” I change my tune to fit the room.”
Big Rich is a self musician Philadelphia area. He made the move to Florida in 2003 after years of performing on the club circuit in the Tri-State area. During this time Big Rich was signed to Motown Records for a 6 year period as a performer with the band Final Mixx”. The group cut 2 records for the label during this time period. The Band was also declared best band in the land by winning a national talent contest sponsored by Budweiser. Out of the 15,000 bands that entered the contest, Final Mixx was declared best band in the land by winning the live performance showdown of the 5 finalist bands.
Big Rich started playing Steel Pan in 2009 when his friend from St. Kitts, (who plays the pan) suggested he learn the instrument to acquire more beach bookings. He bought his first Pan and with his friend teaching he was booking Steel Pan gigs within a year. It takes long practices times to learn this instrument and you have to play every day to keep your chops up.
Big Rich also started DJ'ing around the same time to be a self sufficient wedding party performer. With steel pan and DJ equipment you can do the cocktail hour THEN turn around and do the DJ party too.
In 2019 Big Rich hooked up with the Calypso Breeze Party Cruise. Here he can perform both of his loves. Steel Pan and DJ.
No matter where BIG RICH performs, He captures the attention of his audience and fills them with music. For booking information please contact Big Rich 727-458-6172 or contact page. Thanks
So what is a
Steel Pan Anyway?
Steelpans (also known as steel drums) is a musical instrument originating from Trinidad and Tobago. Steelpan musicians are called pannists.
The modern pan is a chromatically pitched percussion instrument made from 55 gallon industrial drums. To make a steel pan, or a drum, the bottom of an oil drum is first pounded into a bowl, then shaped and tuned with hammers to form distinct resonating surfaces.
The pan is struck using a pair of straight sticks tipped with rubber; the size and type of rubber tip varies according to the class of pan being played.
As of 1992, the steelpan is Trinidad and Tobago’s national instrument. However, the notion dates from the 1940s when the steel band’s musical transformation was driven by competition between bands as well as by the efforts of progressive middle-class individuals to promote what they viewed as an indigenous art form unjustly maligned by colonial cultural standards
Popularity of the steel band has grown. They are now plentiful in Caribbean diaspora communities as well as non-Caribbean communities all over the world. While Trinidad and Tobago continues to be the center, countries like Sweden, Switzerland, and Japan are now hubs of steel band activity