Forty years ago, Logan musician Alvin Rostant brought the steel pan to Australia.
Now, he’s bringing muppets.
Mr Rostant’s new show, called Sweet Singing Steel, will play at the Kingston Butter Factory on Friday 23 May at 6pm.
Unlike other performances locals have come to expect from Mr Rostant, this one will feature a multi-media performance by a band of muppets.
“They talk to me, I talk to them, they’re on a screen, and it’s going to be really fantastic. It’s going to be funny,” he said.
Mr Rostant is an experienced live performer who has toured extensively, but the show’s unique format is a new endeavour for him.
“I’ve done lots of shows going back to the 1980s and a lot of television shows, but this is different,” he said.
“We’re all excited about it. And I’m really looking forward to the show.”
Jimmy Watts, another Logan local who recently produced the music video for Mr Rostant’s latest song, proposed the idea of a muppet band and multimedia live performance.
Mr Rostant said he loved the idea.
“… because it’s different and new and innovative,” he said.
“I thought, yeah, I wouldn’t mind trying to give him that a go.”
The show will be a team effort powered by the two creative minds.
“He’s doing all the muppet work and the filming and that sort of thing, and I’m just learning my lines,” Mr Rostant said.
The show, like all of Rostant’s performances, is for all ages. While the muppet band may appeal to children, Rostant said he hoped to reach and connect with older generations in Logan.
“It’s something that’s really good for your head and mind,” he said.
As a child, Mr Rostant didn’t dream of becoming a musician.
In fact, he studied to become an architect and was selected to play for the national youth soccer team in Trinidad and Tobago, the caribbean nation where he was born.
“At the same time, I was practicing with the steel band, and the steel band got an opportunity to start touring to different countries, and I had to make a choice,” he said.
“My choice was to go traveling with the band, that’s how it all kind of took place.”
The band toured all over North America, in Canada and the United States. In 1974 at Her Majesty’s Theatre in Adelaide, Rostant took to an Australian stage for the first time.
“I remember when I first migrated to Australia, the question was: what am I going to give to Australia that’s not there? And it was my steel drum playing.
“We actually brought it to Australia, and I offered it to the community, and I’m still promoting it and entertaining people years later with the same instrument.”
According to Trinidad and Tobago’s Ministry of Foreign and CARICOM Affairs, the steel pan is the country’s national instrument and is traditionally made from a steel drum or container which is divided and shaped into convex sections tuned to a specific musical note and pitch. By hitting the different convex sections, melodies are produced.
In Sweet Singing Steel Rostant will perform 18 original songs and compositions, which cover subjects such as mental health, relationships, being in love and Caribbean culture and carnivals in Trinidad and Tobago, these subjects often inspire him to write music.
Rostant doesn’t have a favourite song to perform but the subject matter of a composition informs the way he performs the songs.
“I think the main thing for me when I’m performing is to get into character.
“It’s about dancing, where we look at dancing, if it’s about relationships, let me put some emotion in, whatever it requires. I try to put that into what I’m performing,” he said.
Rostant moved to Logan in 1992 after touring every state in Australia and countries like New Zealand, Singapore and Malaysia.
In 1993 he started a music business, the Caribbean Arts Company based in Jimboomba.
“I’ve been playing live a lot since then, and recording. But I love the stage. It’s my thing.
“I like to entertain people, and, you know, have them to enjoy at least part of their day,” he said.
Later this year Rostant’s calendar is filled with travel and tour dates, to festivals celebrating Caribbean culture most notably, Toronto’s Caribana festival and London’s Notting Hill Carnival which is Europe’s largest street festival and England’s largest celebration of Caribbean culture.
It is only recently, in the past few years that Rostant has started performing live in venues local to Logan.
“I think Logan is a place that has so much culture and different types of culture. It’s a multicultural place and there’s all different things happening in Logan, all different types of dances and musicians.”
Performing in Logan provides Rostant the opportunity to connect with his community, an opportunity he cherishes.
Tickets for Sweet Singing Steel are priced at $20 and can be purchased here: https://www.loganarts.com.au/event/sweet-swiging-and-singing/
