New Pop Records

Long before World War II. the government of Caribbean Trinidad banned bamboo drum bands in order to stop bloody street fights between competing drummers. For a while there was comparative quiet, but with the war and the arrival of U.S. forces came a deluge of 50-gallon oil drums, and some inventive fellows discovered a way to make them into musical instruments. They divided the heads into pie-shaped segments, peened them until each segment gave on': a separate musical note when struck with padded sticks. For "bass booms" the drums were left full length, for baritones they were, chopped in half, for the "tenor pans" they were sliced thin. Then half a dozen Trinidadians foregathered, added maracas and woodblock players, and they had a "steel band." Trinidad alone now supports some 200 such bands, and the demand for the music has erupted throughout the Caribbean. A fine sample on LP is now available: The Brute Force Steel Band of Antigua, B.W.I. (Cook).

The sounds are balmy as a West Indian zephyr, satisfyingly in tune, and played with carefree spirit. The rhythms are intricately Afro-Cuban, e.g., meringue, samba, mambo, although they eventually fall into a predictable pattern. High points: a gimp-gaited calypso about a cricket upset ("Who taught you to bowl, Australia?"), and another that laments some aspects of the latest white man's invasion, a number called Brown-Skinned Gal:

Oh, I'll tell you a story of Lili, How she met a nice blue-eyed baby, But today she stands as a mother.

Over five months, friends, she ain't seen the father.

Other new pop records:

Songs by Bobby Short (Atlantic LP).

Pop tunes of torchy temper, sung with a fine ear for theatrical effect, e.g., the long, aching swoop, the insinuating droop, the ecstatic quaver, the lilting bounce, the suggestive growl. Tenor Short accompanies himself on the piano.

Vienna Holiday (Michel Legrand and his orchestra; Columbia LP). The eerie shimmer of the opening bars sounds like trance music in the movies, gives a hint of the nightmare to follow: tricky "improvements" on Strauss waltzes and other Viennese music. French Conductor Legrand painfully paralyzes the originals' lilting three-quarter time till the music sounds every bit as insipid as French popular music itself. A major atrocity that should cause Vienna to break diplomatic relations with Paris.

You Go to My Head (Joe Mooney Quartet; Decca LP). Mood music, vintage 1947-49, by a man who can make an accordion eloquent; and sing with a dreamy fog in his throat. Among his oldies: Manhattan, Suddenly.

An Occasional Man (Billy May's orchestra and Ella Mae Morse; Capitol). A pleasant hot-weather oddity from the film, The Girl Rush. Singer Morse muses of her favorite island in the Pacific where there is "sun to tan me, palms to fan me," etc., plus, obviously, an occasional man.

Blue Star (Felicia Sanders; Columbia). The long-breathed melody that is the theme for TV's Medic, set to some wistful words. Songbird Sanders puts more than clinical interest into her stargazing.

Fairy Tale (Frank Sinatra; Capitol).

"Fantasy became a reality; with your tender kiss you opened the door," croons fantastic Frankie, and goes on to make his listeners believe what he says. A pretty tune.

It's Love (Lena Home; Victor). Lovely Lena's light, smooth voice vibrates with happiness in this so-so song from Wonderful Town.

Ukulele Lady (Eddie Ballantine and his orchestra, Wing). "If you like a ukulele lady, ukulele lady lika you" was a phrase to conjure with during Prohibition, and the Bluejays vocal group cons up quite a bit of the nostalgia. Not so the band, which douses the mood in a boozy blare.

The Yellow Rose of Texas (Mitch Miller orchestra and chorus; Columbia). With a rat-a-tat-tat of snare drums and a fifelike tweedle, the Texan (presumably) chorus chants about the girl back home. The tune, which comes from the Civil War, is so appealing that it has risen to No. 3 bestseller in a few weeks. Perhaps march tempos will replace the rock-'n-roll fashion.

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