{"id":1148,"date":"2026-04-12T23:42:50","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T03:42:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musicofcuracao.com\/?page_id=1148"},"modified":"2026-04-12T23:47:37","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T03:47:37","slug":"thomas-helena","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/musicofcuracao.com\/index.php\/thomas-helena\/","title":{"rendered":"Thomas Helena"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Thomas Helena<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Thomas Helena (Thomas di Enriki Zegu (Enriki Steba) or, as some called him, Thomas di Dol\u00f3<\/b>)<\/h4>

\u00a0\u2013a bar\u00ed <\/i>(drum) player during the era of Shon Col\u00e1<\/a>.<\/strong><\/h4>

Thomas and Gustaf Doran (known as Ta di Djudju) were the two bar\u00ed <\/i>players who performed the longest with Shon Kol\u00e1.<\/p>

Thomas was born on September 18, 1920, in the neighborhood of Zegu<\/b>. He lived on Kaya Fin R\u00f6mer in Mahuma until he passed away on September 12, 1994. Thomas came from a family deeply rooted in Tamb\u00fa <\/i>culture. His mother, Mrs. Dolores (Dol\u00f3), was a renowned Tamb\u00fa <\/i>singer, and his father, Enriki di Zegu, was the “king of Tamb\u00fa” in the Zegu neighborhood.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Thomas\u2019s sister and brother, Ana and Andres Helen, were also great Tamb\u00fa <\/i>singers. He also had two sisters on his father’s side; Nicolina and Ogenia Kirindongo. Nicolina was also a great Tambu singer, and used to organize a lot of Tambu Le Le Toni, and Thomas used to play for her. Thomas himself mastered the art of playing the bar\u00ed <\/i>and played the chapi <\/i>(metal hoe blade) as well.<\/p>

From a young age, Thomas played with his siblings at family gatherings. He grew up in the Zegu neighborhood alongside fellow bar\u00ed <\/i>player Ta di Djudju <\/b>(Gustaf Doran).<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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The two were close friends and great musicians, but each had his own unique “hand” (playing style). They never mixed their styles; each maintained his own distinct technique.<\/p>

Ta di Djudju used to play for Shon Kol\u00e1. One day, Ta invited Thomas to play alongside him for Shon Kol\u00e1. That is how Thomas joined Shon Kol\u00e1\u2019s group; at the time, Thomas was about 20 years old. Thomas\u2019s sister, Ana Helena, also joined the group. She was a talented responded\u00f3 <\/i>(backing singer) for Shon Kol\u00e1. After the two siblings joined Shon Kol\u00e1\u2019s ensemble, they stopped their custom of traveling around Cura\u00e7ao on the back of trucks to play tamb\u00fa <\/i>on their own. As members of the group, they performed and sang wherever the group went across the island.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Shon Col\u00e1<\/a>\u2019s group eventually performed in Puerto Rico<\/b>. The people there believed that Thomas and Ta must have had a battery or a motor hidden in their pockets or hands. According to them, it was impossible to produce so much sound from a single bar\u00ed<\/i>. In most areas of Puerto Rico they visited, drums were played with sticks. According to Thomas, he had never heard of any young player who could equal the skill of Ta di Djudju.<\/p>

On one occasion when Ta was ill, Thomas filled in for him. That day, Thomas played at a Tamb\u00fa <\/i>event at Chimi Wacao in Bandabou. He played from 8:00 PM until 6:00 AM<\/b>. Thomas received a very substantial sum of money as a direct tip (na boka<\/i>). The amount was 575 guilders<\/b>, given to him in 10 and 50 guilder banknotes.<\/p>

In the old days, only two chapi <\/i>were used\u2014one on each side of the bar\u00ed <\/i>player. Back when Julio Doma (Julio Grandi) played the chapi<\/i>, he performed alone.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thomas Helena Thomas Helena (Thomas di Enriki Zegu (Enriki Steba) or, as some called him, Thomas di Dol\u00f3) \u00a0\u2013a bar\u00ed (drum) player during the era of Shon Col\u00e1. Thomas and Gustaf Doran (known as Ta di Djudju) were the two bar\u00ed players who performed the longest with Shon Kol\u00e1. Thomas was born on September 18, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"elementor_header_footer","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1148","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicofcuracao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicofcuracao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicofcuracao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicofcuracao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicofcuracao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1148"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/musicofcuracao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1152,"href":"https:\/\/musicofcuracao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1148\/revisions\/1152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicofcuracao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}