Cayman Islands
fiddle, guitar, grater, cooking

Swanky Kitchen Band is on an essential quest to revive the traditional music of the Cayman Islands. Set amidst the crystal blue waters of the Caribbean Sea, the three tiny islands are home to kitchen dance music, an infectiously danceable fiddle-driven style. The kitchen dance sound, created through a crossroads of European and African influences, might have disappeared save for the efforts of Swanky Kitchen Band, the last of the Caymanian Kitchen Bands.

“Swanky,” as the group is known to its loyal fan base, was founded and is led by fiddler and songwriter Samuel Rose at a time when the rapid pace of development and societal change nearly ended the genre. Samuel grew up on the island of Grand Cayman, and first began violin lessons as a child, receiving classical training. In his late teens he was encouraged to shift his musical journey in order to preserve the music of his homeland which had become critically endangered. Traditionally performed in community settings, kitchen dance music was the soundtrack to festivities and gatherings where food, music, and community came together.

Kitchen dance bands were led by master fiddlers, including the late Radley Gourzong, who performed at the Grand Ole Opry in 1987, a surprising feat for a Caribbean fiddler. Sadly, by the time Samuel Rose began to embrace his musical roots, most of the old fiddlers and kitchen band performers had already passed away. Having learned indirectly from previous recordings of old masters, Samuel’s playing reminds us of their legacy and the depth of this unique Caymanian art form. In 2003, Samuel, along with guitarist Nicholas Johnson, created Swanky Kitchen Band to preserve and revitalize this rapidly disappearing musical art form.

Kitchen dance music owes its name largely to architectural necessity: because Caymanians traditionally lived in easily burned thatched-roof homes, their kitchens were constructed in open-air/semi-enclosed detached structures. Thus, the cooking of meals often became a community-wide event, with much comradery and celebration which often included music. In this unique setting, household kitchen tools, most notably a grater used for coconut and cassava, became the driving percussive foundation, paired with cowskin or goatskin drums.

Along with the grater, the most defining instrument in kitchen band music is the fiddle, which can be traced back to the British and Irish fiddling traditions brought to the Cayman Islands by its earliest permanent settlers in the 18th century. Fiddle-driven dance tunes are conjoined with the pulse of vibrant rhythms that crossed the Atlantic with enslaved Africans who were forcibly brought to the Cayman Islands. This blending of African and European heritage is evident in the Caymanian people and their unique traditions including their dialect, foods and dance but perhaps most strongly via their beloved kitchen dance music. The tradition also includes folksongs telling stories of love and loss, as well as incidents and occurrences in the tiny, isolated maritime society known at one time as “the Islands time forgot.”

The heart of Kitchen Dance music is the driving sound of the fiddle surrounded by a rhythmic groove created by drums, a grater, and a guitar or other stringed instruments. We will have about half of the band at Fiddle Tunes:

• Samuel Rose, fiddle
• Nicholas Johnson, guitar
• Paula Scott, master on the grater and descendent of a long line of musicians on the sister island of Cayman Brac.
• bassist Lammie Seymour, arguably the most well-known Caymanian musician, who founded the wildly popular Memory of Justice Band which dominated local and Caribbean airwaves in the 1970s and 80s.
• and drummer Jared Tibbetts.

Together, Swanky is bringing Caymanian music to the global music tradewinds to share an important message with the world; that the music of the Cayman Islands is powerful, fun, and necessary.