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Music

Rikki Jai: Chutney Soca Champion

Trinidad Chutney Soca artist Rikki Jai won the Independence Chutney Soca Monarch crown on Saturday 18th August. The following article, written by Sheila Rampersad, details Jai’s career as a singer and was published in Issue 113 of Caribbean Beat Magazine, January/February, 2012.

The winner: Rikki Jai won the Independence Chutney Soca Monarch competition at Skinner Park, San Fernando on Saturday night.

Rikki Jai (Samraj Jaimungal) is one of the most enduring, adventurous and understated entertainers in Trinidad & Tobago music. For 22 years he has moved between the country’s dominant musical genres: calypso, chutney, soca, and Indian soca, winning awards, encores and competitions.

From 1988, when he debuted with the modern calypso classic “Sumintra”, to 2011, when he won the inaugural TT$2 million prize in the Chutney Soca competition with the controversial “White Oak and Water”, he has served as a barometer for Indian/African racialised politics in Trinidad & Tobago’s uniquely heterogeneous society, which is dominated by these two ethnic groups.

Born in Friendship Village, south Trinidad – a predominantly Hindu community – Jai is the fifth of six children. His mother speaks Hindi and Bhojpuri, sings chutney (Indo-Caribbean) songs, and is still his co-writer. Uncommonly, despite being born into a creative tradition of Indian folk music, Jai did not start his career in chutney, but built a reputation in calypso before turning to that form.

His cultural education, which began with Bhojpuri folk songs, expanded during his youth. He attended St Paul’s Anglican Primary School in the southern city of San Fernando, where he was introduced to Christian hymns, played on the piano by the school’s principal and musicologist, “Mr Mungal”. Later, he attended Naparima College, a Presbyterian school.

As he travelled into young adulthood, calypso captured his musical attention; last year he told the Trinidad & Tobago Review that as a young man he memorised all the calypsoes he heard. After high school, he worked as a clerical officer in the Ministry of Finance in the capital, Port of Spain. Here, he was up close to the music that had fascinated him.

In 1986, just 24 years old, he attended a bazaar in Oropouche, South Trinidad, at which the Princes Town-based crossover band Naya Andaz Orchestra was playing. Naya Andaz, now Andaz International, started in 1957 and was the first Indian band to include soca and calypso in its repertoire. As the band transitioned from Indian songs to calypso at its bazaar performance, it went instrumental; the band had no vocalist for its calypso segment. Jai offered himself. He auditioned the following week, singing David Rudder’s “Bahia Girl” and “Hammer” and Crazy’s risqué “Pussycat”.

Jai performed calypso with Naya Andaz for a year. By 1987, he had been wooed and won by Triveni Orchestra, with whom he travelled further; the band performed in big fetes, and was often the opening act for frontline calypsonians.

“One of the best things to happen to me was joining Triveni,” he has said in many interviews. “It put me from the small fetes in the south to the big fetes in the north. As a frontline singer, dealing with the African-Trinidadian community and fete-lovers…getting to see David Rudder, Colin Lucas, Ronnie McIntosh first-hand…I would watch the masters and learn.”

Working in Port of Spain brought him closer not only to the music he loved but also to the creators of that music. One of his co-workers was calypsonian Bally, who would insert himself into the history of contemporary calypso with “Shaka Shaka”, “Lucifer”, “Maxi Dub” and the biting political commentary “Party Time”, which late calypso critic Terry Joseph described as one of the best calypsoes ever.

“I am especially grateful to Errol ‘Bally’ Ballantyne, a good friend and a gentleman,” Rikki Jai  told the Sunday Express in 2000. He elaborated in the Review: “It took me a whole month to bring up the issue of recording my first calypso. He [Bally] proved to be one of the most selfless, genuine persons. He told me everything he knew, took me to meet GB [calypsonian Gregory Ballantyne – no relation], who said he had a song, ‘Rampersad’, for $1,500. I didn’t have the money and asked for two weeks to come up with it.”

He was able to raise only $800 and the song went to the late chutney icon Sundar Popo, but Jai asked GB for another, and “Sumintra” was born. It remains Jai’s signature song and became a modern calypso classic. It also fuelled a national debate that expressed the politics – specifically Indian/African ethnic politics – of Trinidad & Tobago culture.

The politicisation of Rikki Jai had begun.

In “Sumintra”, Jai woos an Indian girl with Indian songs. She accuses him of “trying to reach the Indian in me” and declares “Hold the Lata Mangeshkar, give me soca”. In so doing, Sumintra expresses a preference for creole culture and identifies herself as Trinidadian, an identity in which her Indianness is but a part of her whole.

Orthodox sections of Indian Trinidad reacted immediately. In their eyes Jai was advocating the rejection of Indian culture, encouraging cultural defection, and favouring state-supported Afro-Creole culture at the expense of Indian culture, which they were struggling to preserve.

The song, and criticisms of it, also engaged with an historic political moment; by the year of the song’s release Trinidad & Tobago was being governed by a coalition, the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR), which, significantly, included the Indian-based United Labour Front (ULF). Two years before, that coalition had displaced the Afro-based People’s National Movement (PNM) for the first time in the country’s history. In 1988, the year of “Sumintra”, the ULF split from the NAR on bitter terms, and Indian Trinidad was again out of government.

Jai followed the popular and controversial “Sumintra” with “Keep it Pumpin” (1989), “Show Me Your Motion” and “Bolo” (1990), and “Wine on a Bumsee” (1993). Only after 1993 did he turn to chutney music. Between then and now, he has been crowned Chutney Soca Monarch an unparalleled six times.

In 1998, continuing his dominance of the chutney soca form, Jai, as reigning Chutney Soca Monarch, was invited to be a guest performer at the National Soca Monarch competition, the annual premier exhibition of Caribbean soca music. As had happened ten years before with “Sumintra”, he was again viewed through political lenses. The large audience was hostile; Jai describes his time on stage as seven minutes of concentrated torture, and the closest he has come to knowing what a soldier in Iraq must feel like.

Jai was targeted by the Port of Spain audience that night because he was perceived as representing Indian Trinidad in another historic political moment; the country had grown resentful of the government of the day, which was led by the Indian-based United National Congress (UNC). For the first time in Trinidad & Tobago’s history, an Indian-based political party had won the general elections, in 1995. But by the time Jai walked onto the Soca Monarch stage, the country’s romance with the government had gone bad.

“I was terribly hurt,” Jai told the Review, “but I didn’t hold it against them.”

He persevered, and in 2005 released his most commercially successful song, “Mor Tor”, a remix of which featured soca megastar Machel Montano. In 2010 Jai became the first chutney artiste to place third in the Groovy segment of the Soca Monarch competition, with “Barman”.

Unrelenting in his pursuit of his Trinidadian identity through his music, Jai reflected on his experiences and in 2001 enjoyed unprecedented success. He won four of the six competitions he entered – Chutney Soca, Young Kings (in which he tied with Bunji Garlin), South Calypso Monarch, and National Unattached Monarch. He was also a finalist in the National Calypso Monarch Competition for the first and only time in his career. He placed seventh there, but the GB-authored song he performed on the big stage at the Queen’s Park Savannah, “Identity”, was a full articulation of his creative and political philosophy. Jai declares that “I will never see life through a crack or a pigeonhole”:

The bogey of race stares me in my face anywhere I go
Like a time bomb ticking, waiting to explode
But as an East Indian Trinbagonian, I want you know
Here’s where I stand in that scenario
When I sing Hindi and I sing chutney, that’s my heritage
East Indian drums echo from a land outside of my sight
But when I sing kaiso and I sing soca, that’s my privilege
My blood, my sweat, my joy and my copyright
‘Cause I’m a Trinbagonian, I’m a born Trini
I’m a chutney champion, all of that is me
And I’m a Trinbagonian, I’m a born Trini
I create my music in English and Hindi.
But I’m a freedom fighter with both my guns aglow
You see I blazing a trail in chutney and calypso

Ten years after this, however, Jai was back in the glare of controversy; last year his “White Oak and Water” won him his sixth Chutney Soca crown, and again his music was politicised. The one-year-old government, a People’s Partnership coalition led by the Indian-based UNC, fulfilled a campaign promise to increase prize money for major Carnival competitions to a whopping TT$2 million. Critics labelled Jai’s composition a “rum song” (White Oak is a brand of rum). They condemned the government for rewarding it, and used it as an example of artistic deterioration in chutney music.

The criticisms, Jai says, were unfair, and fed a stereotype of Indians as alcoholics.

“The story is much more than its title and what ignorant people are saying. The argument is, if you go somewhere and ask for a girl’s hand in marriage, they would seal acceptance with, ‘Let’s have a drink’.

“The song is also playing on the poor cane farmer, touching on the closure of Caroni Ltd [the state-owned sugar-production company which employed mainly Indians and which was closed in 2003]. I’m saying in the song that I don’t care if the girl is rich, poor, or in between. It’s a love song, not a rum song.”

Referring to the large number of 2011 calypsoes that featured alcohol, Jai says attacks on his song were attacks on Indians. “People are trying to attack Indians for the wrong reasons. It is a feeble attempt to downgrade Indians and put them back as second-class citizens.”

He recognises, however, that chutney needs greater creativity. His analysis is that while early chutney artistes were trained in Indian classical and semi-classical music, members of the young generation do not have that training, are not competent songwriters, and are not always able to tap into the artistry of an older generation.

“There is a problem now with the fluid movement from one era to the next,” he says, but he feels some of the attention to “White Oak and Water” is promising.

“National attention to chutney has grown, even though the music has changed. People are talking about ‘White Oak and Water’ because they can relate to it and it’s in English.

“Sometimes you have to do things before you can change it, join something to effect change. But change will come.”

Jai, the father of two sons, intends to continue being an agent of that change in music and its politics. He wants to return to the Calypso Monarch competition in 2012, and still, he says, wants to reach the rest of the world with his music.

For original article: Rikki Jai: Chutney Soca Champion | Caribbean Beat Magazine.

See also: Rikki Jai wins $500,000

Categories
Calypso Music

‘Power’ laid to rest

The following article was written by Cecily Asson and published in the Trinidad and Tobago’s Newsday, August 17, 2012. Asson reports on the funeral service held in the honor of the recently deceased calypso icon Sonny Francois, the Mighty Power.

Mighty Power performing at last year’s Veterans’ Calypso competition, singing ‘Island in the Sun.’ …

Within minutes of the funeral service starting yesterday for veteran calypsonian, Mighty Power (Sonny Francois) the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church in Gasparillo was transformed into a calypso tent.

Led by Community Development Minister, Winston “Gypsy” Peters, and Mighty Composer, several calypsonians among them Chalkdust, Allrounder, Ellsworth James and Sugar Aloes took over the altar as they delivered their eulogy to their colleague, in song.

To the accompaniment of a drum, the calypso bards had mourners singing along to a medley of Power’s best known calypsos, including his hits like “Culture” “Ah Coming” and “Keep He Dey,” and “Lucy”. Power was a member of the Gasparillo church.

SERENADE TIME: Minister of Community Development, Winston 'Gypsy' Peters, centre, and Michael 'Sugar Aloes' Osuna, and other calypsonians serenading Sonny Francois  Mighty Power  at his funeral service yesterday, at the Sacred Heart RC Church in Gasparillo.

Power, 78, of Caratal, Claxton Bay, died last week Thursday at the San Fernando General Hospital. He had been undergoing tests for cancer, relatives said.

But it was Parish Priest Fr Steve Duncan who stunned the congregation with his wide knowledge of calypso, calypsonians and controversial issues within the fraternity when he delivered his homily.

He told mourners Power was a regular member of his congregation, and among his favourite Power calypsos were “Tun Tun” and “Culture”.

Duncan explained, “That was my era when he composed that tune I would have grown up listening to that tune never quite understanding it.”

It was in his later years, Duncan said, he understood the double entendre and warned that “be careful little mind what you think.”

For full report: Power laid to rest

Categories
Emancipation Festivals

Cuba: Celebration of Anglo Caribbean Emancipation Day

Ciego de Avila, Cuba, Aug 1 (Prensa Latina) The immigrants and descendants of the Anglo-speaking islands, residing in this central province of Cuba, are celebrating the day of emancipation from the slavery of the English colonies.

Since early hours the sounds of drums, bongoes and congas united to the rhythm of the calypso have been greeting those arriving in the community called Jamaica Town, in the municipality of Baraguá.

It is one of the most populous neighbourhoods in the country, where immigrants cohabit and are descendants of almost all the English-speaking islands of the region.

The musical-dance group La Cinta is the center of these celebrations that developed starting in 1917 and have become the most representative of Caribbean culture with roots in Cuba.

Founded on September 20, 1975, the group presents dances and songs characteristic of Jamaican folklore, fused with Cuban rhythms, as in the introduction to the famous song Guantanamera.

The traditional show will begin with games like cricket, tug of war, the stick and the Mock Man or Muñecón.

The celebration began with a parade, headed by the Donkey, a dancer dressed up as a burro, giving a distinctive touch to these Caribbean dances.

The narrow streets of the town filled with people who also make the festivity theirs.

During the day they eat typical foods, elaborated by the members of the community, ranging from the bread with lemonade, the wine of the soril flower, rice with coconut, fish with sauce, flour with okra, Black Cake and coconut bread.

The parties of August 1 have become one of the most genuine representations in the culture, customs and language of the Jamaican community residing in Cuba.

In 1833, slavery was abolished in all the colonies of the United Kingdom, for what is now a day of joy for the community of immigrants of the English-speaking Caribbean islands in Cuba.

For original post: Prensa Latina News Agency – Cuba: Celebration of Anglo Caribbean Emancipation Day.

Categories
Emancipation Festivals

Understanding the value of Emancipation

The following article, addressing the value of Emancipation celebrations, appeared in Trinidad and Tobago’s Newsday, Wednesday, August 1 2012.

 Khafra Kambon, chairman of the Emancipation Support Committee.

As the Emancipation Support Committee (ESC) marks its 20th anniversary this year, chairman Khafra Kambon takes a look at self-awareness and self-liberation:

“The Emancipation Committee is a force or development in all aspects and areas of human development,” says Khafra Kambon, the chairman of the Emancipation Support Committee. The ESC focus is on Trinidadians of African descent, with the objective of re-opening their minds to the concept of what it means to be liberated.

Throughout its existence this committee has made positive impact on the nation’s people inevitably causing individuals to be freed from their ‘shackled’ minds, economical status and social inabilities.

??It is said by many that the issues of slavery have not been effectively addressed in society, thereby causing residual lingering effects of great trauma on persons.

For the past 20 years, the ESC has journeyed in raising the awareness and importance of one’s individuality.

??The ESC has recognised there are reinforced negative connotations such as “black, ugly” and “black and ugly,” that have caused severe barriers in the positive development of the African people.

For that reason, many Africans take these terms for granted, accepting it as a norm and live comfortably with it.

Eradicating the stigma and this belief is just another important function that the committee has untiringly performed throughout the years.

“Through this process, when negative elements are shown on television, printed in the newspaper, aired on radio or depicted in advertisements, individuals are able to open their eyes and filter out negative messages, still maintaining their self-importance and sanity,” said Kambon.

“Emancipation helps to open our eyes to see these things and understand them for what they are whether unconscious or conscious. It creates the strongest positive images of ‘African-ness’ in the society.”

In terms of economics, the ESC showcases numerous and diverse work individuals perform from within the community. On one level, the ESC provide a platform for sale at the annual Emancipation Village which is open to the public five days until the public holiday at the end of July. It also serves as an opportunity for exposure.

In addition, a special entrepreneur workshop focusing on financial management and business is provided. ??This rich source of business know-how is given by professionals in different fields. Through this venture, entrepreneurs have been able to spur a lot of businesses.

??The celebration of African awareness, Emancipation Day on August 1, culminates in annual parade through the streets of Port-of-Spain. ??The procession brings a togetherness and pride (not only with people of African descent) but also allows persons to enjoy themselves with abandon and encourages social connections.

“It gives people a different feeling of themselves, they understand who they are and they project themselves and their heritage proudly, through their garments, movement and their expressions,” Kambon said. ??Throughout the years the committee has continuously made a positive impact on the lives of everyone, thus desensitising the stereotype of the African culture.

For the original article: Understanding the Value of Emancipation

Categories
Culture diaspora Music

African drums popular in TT

The following article was written by Seeta Persad and published in Trinidad and Tobago’s Newsday, Wednesday, August 1 2012.

The Kwadum, Apentemma, Aburukuwa I, Aburukuwa II drums. …

It is common to hear African drumming at formal functions and other shows in Trinidad and Tobago.

Some of the drums that were brought to the islands from Africa include the Aburukuwa which is an open drum of the Akan people and the Asante people of Ghana. It is bottle shaped and its skin is held on by pegs. It is usually played with curved sticks. Its sound resembles the song of a bird of the same name. The Aburukuwa is the smallest of the three drums used by the Asante people during rituals and ceremonies. The Aburukuwa and its sister drums, the Kwadum and the Apentemma, were typically covered by red and black cloth to represent death and blood. Although the drums have become associated with funerals and ancestor worship, they were also used during wartime.

Carimbo is a tall African drum made of a hollow trunk of wood, thinned by fire, and covered with a deerskin. It is about 1m tall and 30cm wide. There is also the Carimbo dance which remains a loose and very sensual dance which involved only side to side movements and many spins and hip movements by the female dancer, who typically wore a rounded skirt. The music was mainly to the beat of Carimbó drums. In this dance, a woman would throw her handkerchief on the floor and her male partner would attempt to retrieve it using solely his mouth. Over time, the dance changed, as did the music itself. It was influenced by the Caribbean (for example, Zouk, kompa, and Merengue styles) and French/Spanish dance styles of the Caribbean.

Research shows that the Sakara drum is one of the four major families of Yoruba drums of Nigeria. The other families are the Dundun/Gangan or talking drum, the Batá drum and the Gbedu drum. Each family includes drums of different sizes, with the mother drum (iya ilu) playing the lead role and other drums playing in support. Interestingly the Sakara is a shallow drum with a circular body made with baked clay. The clay shell is perhaps ten inches in diameter and one and a half inches deep, sloping inward funnel-wise towards the back. The skin is secured to the shell with twine and tuned using pegs spaced around its body. The men use goat skin to make the heads of these drums. The fingers of one hand change the tone of the drum, while the drummer hits the face of the drum with a stick. When several sakara drums are played together, the “iya ilu” is the main voice, and dictates the pace and rhythmic style. The fixed pitch omele ako and omele abo drums talk rhythmically, and the smaller and higher-toned omele “chord” drum adds flavour by playing varied pitches.

The Yorubu have traditionally used Sakara drums for a variety of purposes. They are played during Yoruba wedding ceremonies. A king could use them to summon people to court. They were also used to announce visitors to the king, to broadcast messages, and to speak prayers and to play “orikis.”

Kpanlogo drums are a part of the membranophone family of musical instruments; a shell covered by a drumhead made of one of many products, usually rawhide. The drum has a tapered body carved from a single piece of wood that is similar in shape to a conga. The drumhead is typically made from goat, antelope, or cow skin that is stretched over one end of the drum and is tightened through the use of six wooden pegs. The skin can be tightened by tapping the pegs into the drum. Kpanlogo may be played with sticks, bare hands, or a combination of the two. Kpanlogo are traditionally played by an ensemble of drummers, often in sets of six kpanlogo drums of varied size. Djembe, dunun, and cowbell usually accompany the kpanlogo.

For the original article: African Drums popular in TT

Categories
Community Organizations Emancipation Festivals

Celebration of Emancipation

The Committee for the Commemoration of Emancipation Day is inviting everyone to join in the commemoration and internationalizing of Emancipation Day.

This event would be on August 4th, 2012 at Prospect Park, Oriental Pavilion, Brooklyn New York.

Start time is 2:00pm, with a short parade beginning at the corner of Parkside and Flatbush Aves., and entering the park at Lincoln Road and Ocean Ave.  There would be a spiritual and cultural component to the event.

No matter where you are from, whether it is the Caribbean Islands, North or South America, bring your country’s Flag and make this a family day.

Emancipation of the slaves is the Ancestors and our business.

Thanks to the the Committee for the Commemoration of Emancipation Day for the information.