It may not be the depths of winter just yet, but it’s never too early for the kind of musical warmth generated by the Trinidad Tripoli Steel Band.

Based in Ypsilanti and known worldwide, the pioneering ensemble will perform “A Calypso Christmas” Thursday night at The Ark.

The group's roots are in the beginnings of steel pan music in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, in the 1940s. The steel pans were originally made from the tops of used oil drums discarded by U.S. military forces.

At first, steel bands used the drums for percussion only. Later they discovered that by cutting them into different sizes and pounding them into concave shapes they could create a variety of sounds.

According to Hugh Borde, who became the group’s leader in 1951, The Ark show will include steel pan versions of familiar holiday favorites.

“We’re playing carols in calypso rhythm,” Borde said, and people can get up and dance. We always get a nice crowd every Christmas at The Ark.”

Besides the calypso carols, the group’s repertoire ranges from traditional calypso to symphonic works, such as Khachaturian’s Sabre Dance and the Hallelujah Chorus from "Messiah."

The group now has six members, down considerably from the height of its popularity nearly 40 years ago. Besides Borde, the group now includes several of his children (Carlton, Charlotte, Richard, and Reno), as well as Norris George, one of the TTSB’s original members.

He said the group’s big break came while playing at Expo ‘67, the World’s Fair in Montreal. After hearing them perform, pianist Liberace offered the Trinidad Tripoli Steel Band an opening slot in his show and taking them on tour for two years.

“The biggest selling point of the steel band was classical music,” Borde recalled. “When people came to see Liberace and he introduced this band, some people they started to wonder ‘what are they going to do with those barrels?’ They didn’t believe they were going to hear music from Mozart, Rachmaninoff, Brahms, Bach.”

Besides performing and recording a Grammy Award-winning album with Liberace, the group also appeared alongside entertainers such as Sammy Davis Jr., Frank Sinatra and Bob Hope. They had major guest shots on television shows hosted by Ed Sullivan, Mike Douglas and David Frost, and even performed for Queen Elizabeth.

Borde recalls Liberace with fondness.

“He was the most fantastic person we have ever had dealings with in this country. We met so many different entertainers while on tour with Liberace — we performed with Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, The Smothers Brothers, Barbra Streisand — nobody was in the class of Liberace,” said Borde.

Liberace was generous with his praise as well.

“I think the music this group produces is remarkable, ranging from the traditional calypso to symphonic works,” he wrote in the forword on the album called “Liberace Presents the Trinidad Tripoli Steel Band.”

Borde, who began creating steel drum music in 1942, moved to Michigan in 1976, choosing the state because it was centrally located, making coast-to-coast touring easier.

These days, Borde said he and the group continue to tour, and they also spend a lot of time lecturing on college campuses about the history of the steel band. He views it as passing on a tradition as well an opportunity to set the record straight.

“Most of the books I have seen on the history of steel band give a lot of wrong information,” Borde said, adding that he can provide the kind of first-hand insight into the origins of steel band music “coming from one of the people who started it.”

If there’s anything he regrets, it’s that steel band music has not received the kind of respect in the musical world he believes it deserves.

“Since our recognition, nobody has ever reached where we reached in the heights of music, playing at Carnegie Hall, Radio City and all those places,” lamented Borde, who still travels to Trinidad each year to adjudicate steel band performances during the annual carnival.

“We have a wealth of talent in Trinidad and Tobago we could present to the world, not only the steel band alone. There’s a bunch of talent we could put together in Las Vegas and all these big places that we played in the era when we went around with Liberace. Since then, no other band has reached that standard,” he observed.

Roger LeLievre is a freelance writer who covers music for AnnArbor.com.