Quelbe - Hidden Treasure of the Caribbean

November 21, 2025·59 min·4 clips

Jamaican college roommates bragging about reggae pushed Pikey Koopman to dedicate his life to preserving Quelbe music.

November is cold. Georges Collinet turns that plain fact into a trip to St. Croix, with blue sea, white sand, lush vegetation, and steep hills setting the scene. The sound is Quelbe, the official music of the U.S. Virgin Islands. Collinet lays out the pieces: saxophone or flute out front, a scored gourd called a squash underneath, and, in some newer bands, bass, keyboards, and drum kits joining in. Blinky arrives first. The Roadmasters' "Quadrille Figure Six" brings quadrille dancing into the frame, with a floor master promised later. The dance has its own pull. A guest talks about the pleasure of watching people gather outside pop culture's usual moves, without turning everything into bump and grind. Collinet then slows down over the Roadmasters, Cruisin' Scratch Band Music, and the phrase scratch band music, which still needs unpacking. Access becomes part of the story. He says little Quelbe is easy to find online, so preservation is not some side issue. Young people leave, too. College on the U.S. mainland becomes the test, because many do not return. Dimitri Copeman, nicknamed Pikey, remembers meeting the music in high school and not feeling much for it at first. Calypso, James Brown, Kool and the Gang, and jazz had his ear. Reggae changed the question. In 1975, Jamaican roommates proud of reggae pushed him to name what his island had beyond an old-time quadrille tradition. The challenge stayed with him. The episode works because the stakes stay small enough to feel real: dance bands, scarce recordings, and memory turning into a claim on home.

As heard by us

A warm St. Croix music story about quelbe, quadrille, and pride discovered after leaving home.

Afropop Worldwide treats quelbe as both a St. Croix sound and a question of cultural memory. Georges Collinet opens with the island itself, then moves into quadrille dancing, saxophone or flute leads, the scratched gourd called a squash, and bands such as Blinky and the…

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Press play if you want a musical passport to St. Croix tonight.

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