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Island Breeze was a quartet that played
every week at the world famous Kahiki restaurant in Columbus, Ohio.
There was a marimba player, a bass player, and a conga player named Dan
Hammond who was getting his first close up look at a steel drum, the lead
voice in the band. Now, we understand that it is not much less
unlikely to discover a pan in Ohio than it is here, but these are the facts.
Upon returning home
to Alexandria Bay, NY, in 1991, Dan realized that its setting among the
St. Lawrence River's 1000 islands was perfect for steel drum music.
So he borrowed 500 bucks from his grandfather and bought a drum that had
been hand crafted in the Caribbean. He practiced for a while then hit
the street corner with a little orange hat. He paid back the loan in
short order and made enough money to get by. That is, until some official
person, in their official wisdom, decided that the town was in imminent
danger of being overrun with street musicians and asked the police to politely
suggest the Dan take his orange hat somewhere else. To this day, Alex
Bay is safe from the hordes of street musicians that were poised to descend
and corrupt the youth.
He enlisted the help
of very good friend and amazing 7-string guitar player, Tony Soluri.
As a duo, they were known as Tropical Jello, and they performed in resorts
throughout the 1000 Islands. Pretty soon, they decided they needed
to learn to sing to complete the act, and Dan was promptly run off to Minnesota.
When the panic had
subsided, Dan reurned to New York. He put to use the computer technology
he had discovered while in exile, called his old friend, Tony (also just out
of hiding) and stubbornly decided to try again.
Re-formed (not reformed)
and renewed, they were now known as Island Dan and the Beach Bum Band.
Wisely, they bribed a lovely and talented vocalist, Tammy Lucke, to take
care of that business. The group also grew to include the Beach Blonde
Dancers and Phil the Cooler. They played Sunshine Music, a blend
of island music and rock and roll, for audiences in communities around
the North Country.
After a while, heeding
the advice of some musician friends, Dan moved to Florida. 
Unfortunately, the Beach Bum Band decided not
to go along. So, our hero struck out on his own. Did pretty
well, too, if he does say so. Picked up a guitar, learned to sing
a few Jimmy Buffet tunes, did not get run out of town this time, played
a lot of steel drum, had a cool job on a boat, traveled to some neat places,
got an actual tan...
But there's no place
like home. So Dan headed back to New York, the Sunshine State.
He went back to college and started teaching. And all of that was a
long time ago. And we left out a lot of stuff, but you would have been
bored reading it. It has been a busy few lifetimes, hasn't it?
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