Chutney music

Chutney
Stylistic origins	Soca, filmi
Cultural origins	19th century Indo-Caribbeans with indentured servent or immigrant ancestry
Typical instruments	dhantal, dholak, harmonium, urumee

Chutney music is a form of music indigenous to the southern Caribbean, originating in Trinidad & Tobago, which derives elements from soca and Indian filmi songs. The music was created by Indo-Caribbean people whose ancestors were transported to the West Indies as indentured servants and later immigrants, during the 19th century.

The modern chutney artist writes lyrics in either Hindi, Bhojpuri or English and then lays it on top of beats that come from Indian beats from the dholak mixed with the Soca beat.

Chutney is an uptempo song, accompanied by dholak, harmonium, dhantal and urumee, played in rhythms imported from filmi, calypso or soca. Early chutney was religious in nature sung by mainly women in Trinidad and Tobago. Chutney is unusual in the predominance of female musicians in its early years, though it has since become mixed.

Chutney artists include Rikki Jai, Rakesh Yankaran, Devanand Gattoo, Heeralal Rampartap and the late Ramdew Chaitoe, who composed the Surinamese based Baithak Gana in his album The Star Melodies of Ramdew Chaitoe. Among the best known examples of chutney music are Sundar Popo's Pholourie Beena Chutney, Sonny Mann's Lotalal, Vedesh Sookoo's Dhal Belly Indian, Anand Yankaran's Jo Jo, Neeshan 'D Hitman' Prabhoo's Mr. Shankar and Rikki Jai's Mor Tor.

Chutney music is mostly popular among the Indian community in Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Suriname, and the West Indian diaspora communities in Canada, The United States, The Netherlands.

Some of the top chutney music producers and bands responsible for making chutney what it is today by providing the sound tracks include Harry Mahabir, the JMC Triveni Orch., T&Tec Gayatones (Rishi Gayadeen), Beena Sangeet Orch., Rishi Mahatoo, Fareed Mohammed, Ravi Sookhoo and Big Rich all out of Trinidad and Tobago where Chutney music was originally born.

The melodies and lyrics of religious songs sung in Trinidad in Hindi, Urdu, Bhojpuri are used, as well as songs that were and still are used from Indian commercial cinema such as Bollywood. calypso, soca, dancehall reggae, and roots reggae are other musical influences on chutney music.

Early chutney song was religious in nature and sung by Indo-Trinidadian female family members, who, as customary in Trinidadian society, sang before a typical wedding celebration to prepare the bride-to-be for her role as a wife. This can be thought of as a kind of bachelorette party, celebrated only by the female members of the families. The music and the dancing (and some of the suggestive lyrics sung at the events) leaked out into the wider community and society, and became enmeshed into Trinidad society as a whole.

The year 1970 was perhaps the biggest turning point in East Indian music and West Indian music. In this year a young man from Barrackpore, Trinidad, by the name of Sundar Popo leapt to fame with the song "Nana & Nani." The song, almost comical in nature, described the affairs of a grandfather and grandmother, perhaps his own. Sung in Hindi and Trinidadian creole, and backed up with the music of the dholak and dhantal as well as that of the more Western electric guitar, bass guitar, synth drum machine and electronic keyboard. The song instantly became a number one hit in Guyana and Trinidad & Jamaica (Popo, 1972). Sundar soon became known as the King of Chutney, the name given to this new popular form of music. The word “chutney” was derived from the Hindi word that was used to describe a hot peppery mix of spices. "Nana & Nani" became the biggest selling chutney single of its time. Sundar's lyrics of "Nana drinkin' white rum and Nani drinkin wine" were heard just about everywhere, from the rice fields of Nickerie, Suriname; the wedding houses of Berbice, Guyana; to the rum shops in Trinidad. Sundar Popo also introduced the husband and wife duo Babla and Kanchan who were responsible for taking the art form to the international stage. Sundar was known as the "King Of Chutney" just as Kanchan was known as the "Queen Of Chutney".

References

• Manuel, Peter (1995). Caribbean Currents: Caribbean Music from Rumba to Reggae (Revised). Philadelphia: Temple University Press. ISBN 1592134637.

External links

• Ramnarine,Tina Karina. 1996. "Indian" Music in the Diaspora: Case Studies of "Chutney" in Trinidad and in London. British Journal of Ethnomusicology, Vol. 5: 133-153. subscription-only link from JSTOR