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Chankar: Soca vs chutney war can get ugly
Posted: Friday, February 13, 2004

By Terry Joseph

ONE OF this country's most prolific producers of calypso and chutney music, Moonesar Chankar, is appealing to both sides of what is fast becoming a musical divide to stop berating each other in song, especially during the Carnival season.

"If the fellows don't watch it, this thing could get very ugly, because people are taking drinks and could go overboard," said a concerned Chankar, who told of a recent radio interview in which, he complained, an organisation purporting to represent chutney singers egged on performers in the genre to "defend themselves against attacks by calypsonians".

Chankar, who had produced albums for Sparrow, The Mighty Power and (the late) Kitchener and blockbuster songs like "Doh Tell Ah Soul" (Organiser), Scrunter's "Woman on the Bass" and "Wet Mih Down" for Johnny King, plus nine consecutive annual volumes of Chutney Mix CDs, said he was afraid the singers would lose sight of their respective arts if the sniping continued.

"I am not saying if a matter comes up in the society and it has to do with a person of any race that this should be a reason to sweep it under the carpet. When a Hindu priest was on a rape charge and Scrunter sang about it, that was fair comment," Chankar said.

"But just to declare war on a whole tribe, taking every opportunity to put in a line in the lyrics to antagonize 'the other side is not what either chutney nor calypso is really about. They are getting crazy with this thing, so now the chutney singers are wanting to hit back and if you listen closely, it sounds like it is heading to a race war in our beautiful country," he said.

Noting that a lot of what was being sung about people of Afican descent might escape them because of the language barrier, Chanka said that only made it worse, because interviewed on another station saying there was a feeling some chutney songs contained insults to African people.

"If people are going to respond to just a feeling without knowing the facts for sure, the thing could escalate in a flash," he said.

The highly respected music producer, meanwhile, thinks far too much fuss was being made over Cro, Cro's "Face Reality" calypso. "I hear Jay Leno saying all kinds of things on the Tonight Show on NBC Television every night about George Bush and Michael Jackson. That kind of thing is a kind of picong, like extempo war and people shouldn't take that on too much," he said.

"If a man sings a kaiso and we don't like it, we won't buy it and perhaps radio will not play it so he knows how the public feels about the song, but I am not for any kind of censorship or banning any song. Look at the things they said about George Chambers when he was Prime Minister and he didn't even take that on. When Gypsy was singing 'Sinking Ship, Chambers self invite him to sing in PNM Carnival fete.

"People should be more open to different opinions and don't take thing so personally when a calypsonian or chutney singer does a song and they too must exercise a little more tolerance, because this is a country where the culture includes a certain amount of 'fatigue'," Chankar said.

Courtesy the Trinidad Express

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