Caribbean – Tropical Heatwave Steel Band
Tropical Heatwave is an original and unique Caribbean music ensemble made up of musicians directly from the Caribbean isles of Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago; and Guadaloupe, in the French Caribbean.
It is a given that they always surprise and delight our audiences. They are the type of band one would find in the top hotels in the Caribbean, playing not only for visitors to the islands but also for night-clubbing locals.
Consequently the group place great store in "entertaining" in the old fashioned sense of the word. They do not simply set up some steelpans and, heads down, play whatever we feel like just so long as the "guests" hear the sounds of steelpans. No, they go lots further than that in that they play an exciting mix of contemporary and traditional, with loads of audience participation.
They play for the people. They involve them and interact with them, joke with them and invite them to participate. If that means coming onstage and shaking some maracas etc then it's all in the game of having fun.
The leader and mentor in the band, Geddes is a multi talented individual whose skills range from being an extremely versatile and highly skilled steelpan player to being a steelpan tutor, actor, poet, percussionist, arts administrator, community arts coordinator, vocalist and all round entertainer.
Workshops
They are experienced workshoppers having being involved for a number of years in community arts projects. They have run workshops in schools, prisons, for womens' projects, for corporate companies in team building exercises and for disabled groups. Theeir diaries are regularly booked during Black History Week when they visit schools to hold discussions on the history of the steelpan and its place in Caribbean music and culture.
They also run workshops with primary schools, where they talk to the children about the folk stories and songs from the Caribbean region, and they also read Caribbean folk stories to the children and staff.
Repertoire
They play a cool mix of Dancehall soca (the carnival party vibe) and ole tyme "saucy" calypsos; some latin (rumba, samba, meringue,tango); Zouk (French Caribbean) and some really funky reggae ( a la Bob Marley, Eddie Grant, UB 40, Desmond Decker etc); plus your traditional Caribbean standards. They involve the audience in participating in some "suggestive and slinky" Caribbean party dances and moves and finsh off with the limbo poles for an interactive session.
Great Fun!
