Chutney music

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Chutney music is a form of music indigenous to the southern Caribbean (primarily Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Suriname) which derives elements from soca and Indian filmi songs. The chutney artist writes lyrics in either Hindi, Bhojpuri or English and then lays it on top of beats that come from soca and Hindi film songs. Some current chutney artists are Rikki Jai, Adesh Samaroo, Devanand Gattoo and Heeralal Rampartap. 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, Adesh Samaroo's Rum Til I Die, Neeshan 'D Hitman' Prabhoo's Mr. Shankar and Rikki Jai's Mor Tor. Chutney music is mostly popular among the East Indian community in Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Suriname, and also the West Indian diaspora communities in Toronto, Canada, The Netherlands and in the New York metropolitan area.

Chutney is an uptempo song, accompanied by dholak, harmonium and dhantal, played in rhythms imported from filmi, calypso or soca. Early chutney was religious in nature, though this is now rare outside of the Sai Baba Movement^{[citation needed]}. Chutney is unusual in the predominance of female musicians in its early years, though it has since become mixed.

1 Origins
2 See also
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Origins

The melodies and lyrics of religious songs sung in Trinidad in Hindi, Gujarati, Urdu, and Bhojpuri are used, as well as songs which were and still are used from Bollywood. Calypso, Soca, Ragga, and Reggae (Rocksteady/Dub) are other musical influences on chutney.

Early chutney was religious in nature, and sung by Indo-Trinidadian female family members, who, as customary in Trinidad 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. 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 guitar and synthesizer, the song instantly became a number one hit in Guyana and Trinidad (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 San Fernando, Trinidad.