Chutney in Yuh Soca - ACE328.2

Scenes in Trinidad. A chutney soca event. Mungal Patasar talks about the music being fusion from two cultures. Indian musicians and singers. Commentary explains that chutney music has its roots in the culture of East Indian indentured workers who came to Trinidad in the nineteenth century. Shamoon Mohammed compares the elements of the music to the ingredients of chutney. Hindu wedding preparations. Mungal Patasar, Musicologist, talking about the origins of chutney, and explains that it stems mostly from songs sung at the birth of children and at weddings. Rawatie Ali talking about Hindu wedding activities at which the women dance together. Patasar and Ali explain that many of the songs are instructions to the bride on how to behave. Savitri Rampersad talks about how she started singing at these events. Rampersad and her daughter Rohini singing. Steel drum played alongside tabla, with Patasar on sitar. Patasar VO says men were eventually allowed to sing chutney songs in public. Sundar Popo singing at concert, and singing in his car. His talks about his mother singing at weddings and having to take him along when he was a child. He talks about his first song, Nani and Nana (1969) and performing in Hindi and English. Sonny Mann performing Lootala (or Lotay La) (1994). Commentary talking about the mixing of rhythms of chutney and calypso to produce chutney soca. Drupatee Ramgoonai singing Chutney Soca (1987) and talking about her musical career. Ramgoonai and musicians performing Mr Bissessar or Roll Up De Tassa (1988). Satnarayan Maharaj, Sec. General, Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha talking about the "obscene" nature of some of the words of the songs and of the dancing. Ramgoonai performing. She says that she was much criticised for performing as "an Indian woman is not supposed to be performing for a large audience… in a calypso arena…". Headlines about Ramgoonai’s song Pepper Pepper (1987).