The music of

Turks and Caicos Islands The Turks and Caicos Islands (abbreviated TCI; and ) are a British Overseas Territory consisting of the larger Caicos Islands and smaller Turks Islands, two groups of tropical islands in the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean and n ...

is best known for its

ripsaw music Ripsaw is a musical genre which originated in the Turks and Caicos Islands, specifically in the Middle and North Caicos. A very closely related variant, rake-and-scrape, is played in the Bahamas. Its most distinctive characteristic is the use of ...

. It is accompanied by an array of instruments, including maracas,

triangle A triangle is a polygon with three Edge (geometry), edges and three Vertex (geometry), vertices. It is one of the basic shapes in geometry. A triangle with vertices ''A'', ''B'', and ''C'' is denoted \triangle ABC. In Euclidean geometry, an ...

box guitar The cigar box guitar is a simple chordophone that uses an empty cigar box as a resonator. The earliest had one or two strings; modern models typically have three or more. Generally, the strings are connected to the end of a broomstick or a 1×2 i ...

, conga drums, goat and cowskin drums,

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

, concertina and, most prominently and uniquely, the carpenter saw. The saw is scraped with a metal object, such as a screwdriver, to produce a unique sound; this is called ''ripping the saw''. The use of the saw (which is the origin of the term ''ripsaw'') is of uncertain origin, but may be in imitation of the Dominican and Haitian guiro or traditional African instruments such as the

shekere The shekere (from Yoruba Ṣẹ̀kẹ̀rẹ̀) is a West African percussion instrument consisting of a dried gourd with beads or cowries woven into a net covering the gourd. The Shekere originated in a tribe in Nigeria called the Yoruba. The ins ...

and

djembe A djembe or jembe ( ; from Maninka language, Malinke ''jembe'' , N'Ko script, N'Ko: ) is a rope-tuned skin-covered goblet drum played with bare hands, originally from West Africa. According to the Bambara people in Mali, the name of the djembe ...

. A closely related style called

rake and scrape Rake-and-scrape is the traditional music of The Bahamas, alongside Junkanoo. It combines African musical elements with European musical elements to create a sound comparable to other Caribbean music while remaining distinct. History Claims of T ...

is known in the Bahamas, closely associated with Cat Island, the home of many Turks and Caicos islanders, who moved there looking for work in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. Many Bahamian musicians are from the islands, including The Cooling Waters, Sly Roker, Bradley Dean, Marvin Handfield, Perry Delancy, and

Leo Jones Over the course of its many years on television, the long-running British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'' has not only seen changes in the actors to play the Doctor, but in the supporting cast as well. Companions The Doctor ...

. Many of these expatriates have since returned to Turks and Caicos, bringing with them Bahamian junkanoo music. Modern ripsaw pioneers include Tell and the Rakooneers and Lovey Forbes, who created a new style called combina in the early 1980s, using genres from across the Caribbean and the US as inspiration; these included jazz, calypso,

soca Soca or SOCA may refer to: Places * Soča, a river in Slovenia and Italy * Soča, Bovec, Slovenia * Cayenne – Félix Eboué Airport, by ICAO code * Soca, a village in Banloc Commune, Timiș County, Romania * SoCa, Southern California Other u ...

and reggae.

Musician institutions

The organisation

TUCA Tuca is the nickname of multiple individuals: * Ricardo Ferretti, Brazilian-Mexican footballer and manager * Benjamín Pardo, fictional character in the Argentine telenovela ''Graduados'' * Tuca (footballer) (born 1981), Juliano Francisco de Paula, ...

helps to promote Turks and Caicos folk music and dance. The Turks and Caicos Music and Poetry Festival is a major annual event, attracting such artists as (in 2004)

Chaka Khan Yvette Marie Stevens (born March 23, 1953), better known by her stage name Chaka Khan (), is an American singer. Her career has spanned more than five decades, beginning in the 1970s as the lead vocalist of the funk band Rufus. Known as the " Qu ...

, Maxi Priest,

Boyz II Men Boyz II Men (pronounced ''boys to men''), also known as B2M, is an American vocal harmony group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, best known for emotional ballads and a cappella harmonies. They are currently a trio composed of baritone Nathan M ...

Joe Joe or JOE may refer to: Arts Film and television * ''Joe'' (1970 film), starring Peter Boyle * ''Joe'' (2013 film), starring Nicolas Cage * ''Joe'' (TV series), a British TV series airing from 1966 to 1971 * ''Joe'', a 2002 Canadian animated ...

, Shocking Vibes Band, TCI All Star Band and Blakout Crew. The first First Annual Turks & Caicos Ripsaw Festival was held in 2003.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Turks Music of British Overseas Territories Anglophone Caribbean music