An Exploration of the East Indian and African Music Traditions in Trinidad and Tobago: The Case of Mungal Patasar and Pantar

ABSTRACT

In this article, we present a case study of Mungal Patasar and his band, Pantar to explore syncretism between jazz and local music traditions in Trinidad and Tobago. We discuss the nuances emerging from the interactions between East Indian and African music traditions as we delineate the ways jazz diaspora is performed within this context. The overall findings of this study demonstrate that a perspective of Trinidad and Tobago’s national identity through ethnicity is re-articulated in Patasar’s work, not from a purist approach, but where the foundations of African and Indian ethnic identities remain intact.

KEYWORDS:

• Afro-Trinidadian traditions
• diaspora
• fusion
• Indo-Trinidadian traditions
• jazz

Introduction

This article examines the syncretization of jazz, as well as the local music coming out of the East Indian and African traditions found in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Trinidad and Tobago is a single Caribbean nation formed by a twin-island. Both islands were joined in 1889 and now share one flag and capital¹ (Brereton). Considering this relationship, throughout this article, we refer to Trinidad and Tobago as one nation-state. The population of Trinidad and Tobago is 1,221,047 (July 2021 estimate), and the figures for ethnic groups are: “East Indian 35.4%, African descent 34.2%, mixed – other 15.3%, mixed – African/East Indian 7.7%, other 1.3%, unspecified 6.2% (2011 estimate)” (“Trinidad and Tobago Demographics Profile”). The demographics illustrate the way the dominant ethnic groups are broken down. Based on these groups, several music traditions have emerged from this twin-island, such as calypso, kaiso, soca, rapso, chutney, and pitchakaree. This article draws on the works of Mungal Patasar and the development of his band, Pantar, as a case study. The band is referred to hereafter as Mungal Patasar and Pantar, while we will refer to Mungal Patasar as Patasar throughout the paper.

Patasar is Trinbagonian² and is a world-renowned musician. He is known for developing a form of music fusion that draws on an array of Caribbean music cultures. He is also best-known for fusing the sitar with the steelpan. In 1994, Patasar formed a fusion band called Mungal Patasar and Pantar with a handful of local musicians, including his son. The music emerging out of this band fuses East Indian music with other local music cultures and jazz improvisation. Through a series of interviews with Patasar, band members, and other local musicians, we gathered qualitative data for this study. Mungal Patasar and Pantar, for this article, are studied from our perspectives as nationals of Trinidad and Tobago. We interpret the beliefs they present and their experiences using the lenses of cultural and national identity as it relates to Trinbagonian music and ethnicity.

Additionally, this study on Mungal Patasar and Pantar provides scholars and music practitioners with a deeper look at the lived experiences of Trinidad and Tobago musicians and the products of their interactions with sociocultural realities. The article begins with a brief historical background of East Indian and African cultures in their Trinidad and Tobago diaspora, which then leads to an overview of how jazz diaspora is performed on the island. We then explore how Patasar develops Pantar and his own music fusion through the interactions between himself and musicians of the kaiso jazz and Caribbean folk traditions. The findings collected in this study show that part of the group’s mission is to promote cross-cultural and ethnic dialogue. This finding leads to our discussion of the concept of national identity through ethnicity in Mungal Patasar and Pantar’s work in Trinidad and Tobago. It highlights Patasar’s belief in the influence of his music on cultural conflict and as a representation of its possibilities for resolution.

Although we appreciate that these findings invite further dialogue as it pertains to the impact of Mungal Patasar and Pantar’s approach, we cannot pursue this within the constraints of this article. Instead, we use this exploratory study to observe a fusion type of music that has not been recognized in academic texts as a genre and that has not been discussed in relation to influences of diasporic jazz. Therefore, this work is critical because it begins researching the diasporic perception of Trinbagonian fusion music. The article also contributes a new dimension to the ongoing historical and cultural research being done on cultural syncretism involving East Indian traditions in wider Caribbean spaces (Brereton; Manuel; Reddock). For example, existing scholarship by Baksh and by Ramnarine focuses on the sociocultural dynamics of chutney music, which is a hybridization of East Indian culture and calypso. This article expands on existing literature to include fusions of Caribbean folk, Indian classical, calypso, and jazz.

Background on Indian and African Culture in Trinidad and Tobago

One critical part of Trinidad and Tobago’s history that contextualizes this study concerns the origins of the East Indian and African traditions found in Trinidad and Tobago. There are several historical accounts by local scholars, such as Singh and Brereton, that trace the ethnic origins of both groups. In the 1780s and 1830s, enslaved Africans were brought to Trinidad and Tobago to work on estates owned by Europeans and to be a part of several systems of labor control. Africans, who were enslaved, naturally “brought their music with them,” according to Liverpool (82). Although the closest version of music brought with the Africans is found in the Orisa³ tradition, in other styles of Caribbean music, the general elements, such as call and response, syncopation, and communal performance, survived (Manuel). This, therefore, shows the movement of some aspects of culture from the African region to the Caribbean.

As it pertains to the East Indian traditions, Singh’s account shows that approximately half a million Indians from Asia migrated to the Caribbean continent in the period spanning 1838 and 1920 as “Indian indentured laborers” (1711). East Indian indentured laborers in Trinidad and Tobago engaged in several forms of cultural expressions such as music, religious rituals, and festivals, to maintain their cultural practices. Music in Indian films, the work of musicians, and religious leaders from India who taught Indian classical music were important in the development of their music in Trinidad’s Indian diasporic space (Ramnarine 9).

From both of these early movements outlined above, many local genres of music emerged, such as kaiso, soca, and chutney. The chutney and Indian classical music genres are typically associated with Indo-Trinidadian traditions (Brereton), showing a continuity of East Indian culture. Meanwhile, while the kaiso genre, its derivatives, and wider Carnival activities are associated with Afro-Trinidadian traditions (Brereton). Some thinkers associate these activities with diasporic music activities, particularly in relation to “West African satirical songs” (Brereton 234). However, the African traditions can also be seen as imagined because the sense of belonging is one that is perceived (Anderson). Nonetheless, these early movements of the Indian and African music traditions allow us, the authors of this article, to reflect on them through a diasporic lens.

In Hall’s examination of Asian and African cultural traditions within the United Kingdom, he argues they are “re-experienced through the categories of the present” (Hall 448) within the diaspora. A similar approach to that of Hall can frame the African and Indian traditions in Trinidad and Tobago, as the local musical traditions emerging from India and Africa are being reexperienced by Afro-Trinidadians and Indo-Trinidadians through imagination and active participation. In exploring this diaspora experience, Hall discusses the topic not with a purist view but from “ … a conception of ‘identity’ which lives with and through … difference. Diaspora identities are those which are constantly producing themselves” (Hall 235). Similarly, Wade maintains that diaspora is “a kind of cultural continuity” that contains critical characteristics of diasporic identities (41; see also Sahlins). In a similar vein, Gilroy refers to diasporic identities as those “creolized, syncretized, hybridized and chronically impure cultural forms” (129).

These ideas on diaspora identities provide a framework for examining cultural continuities in the music emerging from Trinidad and Tobago. Brereton maintains that these musical developments (particularly the use of calypso and of steelpan as the national instrument), construct an “‘African’ national identity” (235). By this, the author means that Afro-Trinidadians typically experience a sense of belonging to their African ancestors with these local types of music and instrument. On the other hand, Indo-Trinbagonians rejected the African national identity to preserve their East Indian identity. While these Afro-centric and Indo-centric narratives in Trinidad and Tobago provide a starting point for the diasporic musical influences, we will now consider the jazz influences emerging primarily from these initial diasporic movements.

Influences of Jazz in Trinidad and Tobago

The development of jazz in Trinidad and Tobago has resulted from migration, transnationalization, and diasporic interaction. Rohlehr refers to Trinidad’s “openness to constant immigration,” which made the island a “repository of a network of folk melodies, dances and styles from the Caribbean and from North America and England” (141). In this section, we briefly mention some of the critical historical events that have facilitated the impact of jazz on Trinidadian culture. There is not much documentation of the visitation of touring minstrels to the island in the 1800s, but the minstrel character and its music have remained to this day a part of the Carnival masquerade. Its association with vaudeville and ragtime might have been an early link to North American music and culture in Trinidad. Beginning in 1912 with Lovey’s String Band, musicians and calypsonians such as Sam Manning, Lionel Belasco, Atilla the Hun, The Roaring Lion, and others frequented New York for recording opportunities. At this time, many calypsos were derived from popular Caribbean folk songs, many of which were common to several islands (Quevedo 360–61; Rohlehr). The local musicians and calypsonians developed their music simultaneously in similar spaces to jazz and vaudevillian musicians, and there were documented exchanges between them (Cowley).

With the 1940s came World War II, and North American soldiers arrived at the Chaguaramas base in Trinidad. This prompted further music exchanges between the soldiers and the calypsonians, who entertained the former at various bars. In the late 1940s and 1950s, the film industry was also a source of musical influence on Trinidad’s soundscape. According to an interview with Errol Ince, the scores for much of the film music became available to the local Police Band. Musicians who played with dance bands that were extremely popular at the time were eager to learn and perform and frequented the St. James Barracks⁴ to collect whatever music they could, which included some jazz arrangements as well. Musicians’ repertoire and improvisation techniques were also shaped by a popular radio program called Sunday Serenade, through which they followed jazz greats such as Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, and John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie (Ince; Alexander interview).

Another influence on the syncretic process in Trinidad and Tobago involved musicians who migrated to the United Kingdom and were exposed to jazz techniques and spaces. Clive “Zanda” Alexander stated, in episode three of a podcast interview with Nigel Campbell, that he frequented jazz clubs to listen to jazz (Campbell, “Episode 3”). Additionally, he and other Trinbagonian musicians performed and experimented with calypso and improvisation in their own Caribbean diasporic performance spaces. This eventually led to collaborations with Scofield Pilgrim upon his return to Trinidad, which yielded the kaiso jazz concept in the 1960s (Alexander interview). For Alexander, kaiso jazz composer and improviser, this meant “a substantial amount of extemporization over kaiso rhythms is now being incorporated into the tapestry of evolving jazz forms” (quoted in Campbell 5).

Pilgrim, who was interested in the fusion of jazz with Caribbean folk and other music, used his instrumental ensemble at Queen’s Royal College as a vehicle for experimentation. He actively recruited musicians who he thought could contribute to his jazz improvisation and Caribbean folk fusion project (Pinckney; Campbell), and Mungal Patasar was one of those he found. It is also notable that, around the same time, Andre Tanker experimented with Caribbean folk music to create a unique fusion that also shared with jazz the practice of improvisation.

The performance of jazz music in Trinidad and Tobago had thus been very close to calypso’s evolution, yet concentrated outside of the East Indian part of society. This did not stop musicians’ experimentation with East Indian rhythms, as there are a few notable pieces identified by Clive Alexander that emerged. “Chip Down,” by Alexander himself, integrated tassa and calypso rhythms on drums, bass, and piano with rhythmic and harmonic elements of bebop. Annise Hadeed’s “Fingers” features him playing the steelpan with his fingers instead of the usual mallets in a way that imitates the sound of a tabla.

Despite the East Indian influence on these pieces, none of them was created by East Indians, who remained deeply entrenched in purer forms of their cultural music. The 1974 film BIM, directed by Hugh Robertson, yielded the biggest collaboration between André Tanker and Mungal Patasar to create music that was not jazz but Caribbean folk. Patasar became the only East Indian musician to consistently collaborate with others of African ethnicity, and he created fusion music that is inspired by Indian classical, jazz, calypso, and Caribbean folk, among other stimuli. Later in the article, we highlight Patasar’s interactions with the kaiso jazz fraternity and the ways he and Pantar grappled with their individual identities in creating what they refer to as “national-inspired music.”

The steelpan has become one of the signature sounds in the performance of kaiso jazz music in Trinidad and Tobago and in the diaspora. The Pan Ramajay competition and Pan Jazz festival are two steelpan events that encouraged syncretic exchanges between calypso and jazz. They took place in the 1990s and gave rise to pannists developing their skills in improvisation, which began with prearranged pieces containing calypso and jazz idioms and eventually grew into full-fledged kaiso jazz improvisation. One now-established way of measuring the proficiency of a steelpan soloist is by the level of dexterity shown during improvisation. The Pan Ramajay⁵ and Pan Jazz⁶ events created a space for steelpan soloists to experiment with, develop, and exchange an array of improvisation techniques that fused Caribbean and jazz music. Many well-known local and foreign jazz artists participated in the Pan Jazz initiative, and Mungal Patasar was among the guests who improvised alongside the pannists (Stuempfle).

There is thus a clear link between the steelpan-jazz practice and the kaiso jazz concept. Patasar was open to these influences in his initial performances with Lennox “Boogsie” Sharpe and then with his own concept of Pantar, which we discuss in more detail below. Jazz’s interweaving with calypso and Carnival history, as outlined above, speaks to the routes the style took as its presence was established, giving insight into what we refer to today as “jazz-influenced” music in Trinidad and Tobago. The narrative above shows that jazz, among other genres, has been fused and has had influences on our local music, all the while maintaining the cultural aesthetics of our local musical tradition.

Based on the discussions above, the discourse of jazz in Trinidad and Tobago, on the one hand, can be viewed as one that is diasporic in nature in its connections to India and what some may argue as imagined connections to Africa. These diasporic influences of jazz in the local music were “invented in the process of being disseminated” (Johnson 39). On the other hand, the jazz discourse in Trinidad and Tobago also draws on various external influences, particularly from North America and Britain.

National Identity and Syncretism

During the post-colonial periods, the concepts of nationhood and nation-building within the context of Trinidad and Tobago emerged just before 1962, as the country prepared for its independence. As part of the decolonization process, Dr. Eric Williams used culture and the arts to create a sense of nationhood that Ballengee (145) describes as nationalizing creole culture, which can also be seen as “African-European syncretism.” The challenge with this nationalist approach is that it was centered on calypso and Carnival activities. However, these activities solely represented African traditions, and the East Indian aspects of Trinbagonian culture were lacking in what represented Trinbago’s identity. The disparity between the lived diasporic experiences of Africans and East Indians on the island accounted for this. Whereas Africans had to resort to imagining and creating a new culture, the East Indians maintained strong ties to their “ancestral homeland” throughout their cultural changes, hence the perception that national creole culture was largely Afro Saxon ‌(Manuel 321; Ramnarine; 10). As such, Indo-Trinidadians have rejected the creole or African culture as a national identity.

According to Baronov and Yelvington, ethnicity refers to the differences between distinctive cultural identities based on retention from their origins, while nationality focuses on the “homogeneous and unifying cultural identity” that is also tied to a place and transcends ethnicity (209–212). However, Bhabha resists the homogenization of cultures and considers nationalism as a tool that propels cultural loss. Meanwhile, Manuel posits that the East Indian community is engaged in reformulating ethnic and national identities within mainstream and multicultural frameworks (318). During the 60 years of the nation-building process, there have been ongoing negotiations among ethnicities regarding national culture and politics in Trinidad and Tobago.

Syncretism is a concept that has been at the center of much scholarly controversy, revolving around its historical, theological, and political meanings. One of the initial ideas presented regarding syncretism highlights a relationship and an exchange between old and new cultures, typically together with an emotional connection (Herskovits). Baron, in his foundational work, discusses the ambiguity that emerges out of syncretism as it pertains to cultural identity. More recent concepts of syncretism in music refer to “the blending together of cultural elements that previously existed separately” (Gioia 5). The concept of syncretism is now regarded as a flexible idea because of its multifaceted nature and the constant revisions of its meaning (Lambropoulos).

Manuel refers to syncretism as synonymous with creolization, with the latter being more appropriate in a Caribbean setting. This notion has, however, been challenged in the Trinidad and Tobago ethnic context by Stoddard and Cornwell, who discuss one difficulty presented by the Trinbagonian understanding of the term “creole.” There are problematic and conflicting meanings, as the term refers to both descendants of immigrants born on the island and the dominant Afro-centric culture of Trinidad and Tobago. It is thus one reason for the rejection of the term, mostly by East Indians, to describe African or East Indian fusions.

This article fully respects syncretic artforms particularly as “syncretism has created genres that are distinctly Trinidadian” (Henry, Daniell, and Trotman 4). This article focuses on the mixing process of Trinidad and Tobago’s music and a range of factors that affect this process within the cultural environment. In this work, we investigate what happens between the Indo-Trinidadian tradition, represented by Indian classical music, and Afro-Trinidadian traditions, which are represented by mixtures of steelpan, calypso, folk, and jazz music. This provides an approach for examining the way syncretism occurs within the musical context of Trinidad and Tobago. This continues the process of documentation and analysis that contributes to the scholarly knowledge of little-explored areas of Caribbean music. As alluded to in the previous section, these local music traditions include genres such as kaiso, calypso, and chutney music. By incorporating foreign musical styles and instrumentation not only as a syncretic process, we explore the emergence of Trinidad and Tobago’s national identity. Therefore, the study of Mungal Patasar and Pantar’s philosophy through their experimentation with Indian Classical, calypso, jazz, and Caribbean folk music allows us to examine music emerging out of a positioning of national consciousness and to consider the way pluralistic identities and ethnic groups are negotiated within a nationalistic space.

Mungal Patasar and East Indian Fusions in Trinidad and Tobago

This section examines Patasar’s journey as a musician both before and after the creation of Pantar, its development, and its rapid rise to its current, widely recognized status. It also establishes the context for the Pantar concept of fusing East Indian music with other local music cultures and jazz improvisation. Patasar’s cultural and musical experiences shaped his cognitive approach to Pantar and to the music produced in that context (Blacking 24).

According to Patasar, before he became Trinidad and Tobago’s renowned sitar player, he was exposed to playing westernized music including jazz, which shows the types of musical influences on Patasar’s compositions. In interviews (October 11 and 21, 2021), he reminisced about his interactions playing other instruments, including the clarinet, in his secondary school’s music ensemble as part of his music education at St. Benedict’s College in Trinidad and Tobago. As a teenager, he formed his own band, Sangam Sangeet, and was also involved with the Indian music band Dil-E-Nadan. Later, he played the mandolin in the BWIA National Indian Orchestra. Patasar further identified Andre Tanker, Scofield Pilgrim and the Gayap workshop, Lennox “Boogsie” Sharpe, Clive “Zanda” Alexander, and Michael “Toby” Tobas, among other well-known musicians with whom he collaborated during the 1970s and 1980s. Most of these musicians belonged to the kaiso jazz fraternity. As Patasar recalled, Pilgrim, for whom he had great admiration, once referred to him as the only musician of East Indian descent in the country who could perform improvisation in the way he, Pilgrim, would expect. Certainly, in examining the trend of Patasar’s music collaborations, one may conclude that he had developed an affinity for the syncretized practice of blending music cultures using his sitar together with other instrumentations early in his music career. Patasar did not stop there in his quest for the ideal music fusion and established the group Mungal Patasar and Pantar.

Farrell notes that “attempts at fusions with Indian music, especially with jazz, go back to the late fifties.” He highlights the relevance of sitarists Ravi Shankar and Alla Rakha, who appeared before massive audiences at events in 1986 and received tremendous adulation. As far as East Indian music fusion in Trinidad and Tobago is concerned, Patasar acknowledges that fusion with other local music can be traced back to roughly twenty years before Pantar. He recalled an East Indian composition which he referred to as “Bolo Ji Bolo,” written years ago, that featured Hindi lyrics and infused a calypso treatment as an earlier example of pre-Pantar music fusion. This piece was later recorded by Sundar Popo, one of the first well-established singers of chutney music, another syncretic Indian form indigenous to Trinidad and Tobago. Patasar sang the melody to demonstrate the contour and rhythm of the opening motif (Figure 1).

Figure 1. The opening motif of Bolo Ji Bolo. Source: Ali, Sholay and Melody Makers. Bolo Ji Bolo. Transcribed by Clarence Morris. Trinidad and Tobago: Balroop’s Record Shop, 1961.

Another example of fusion is the work of the BWIA National Indian Orchestra. This was an Indian orchestra that comprised a multitude of conventional instruments, the occasional mandolin, and traditional Indian instruments. According to Myers, the BWIA National Indian Orchestra stood out as one of the most significant contributors to the manifestation of Indian film music in Trinidad during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Accordingly, Patasar credits Harry Mahabir, who led the BWIA National Indian Orchestra, as one of the local champions of fusion music from the Indian film industry with other local genres.

The Pantar Concept

After Patasar completed his university studies in India, he returned to Trinidad and Tobago in 1990 and, in anticipation, went in search of musicians to form an ensemble. Steel pannists Harold “Harry” Headley and Marlon Charles were among the first to be approached. Together, they formed the core unit with Patasar’s teenage son, Prashant Patasar, on tabla. As time went by, the group increased to twelve members. Commenting on the composition of the band, Mondezie points out Pantar’s range of different social and ethnic backgrounds. As Mondezie notes, Pantar is “the epitome of racial integration … religious, ethnic and musical integration.” Subsequently, the full instrumentation of Pantar also included a keyboard, rhythm and bass guitars, a saxophone, drums, and percussion. Central to the understanding of the Pantar concept is the philosophical thinking behind Mungal Patasar. A key aspect of his thought process in naming the group Pantar is expressed explicitly here in the Trinbagonian vernacular:

Pantar takes into consideration the steelpan … .Is “pan,” and “taar” is the Hindi word for strings. That is why sitar is seven strings, “saat-taar.” So, pan and strings. And the concept is that Trinidad is what you call a migrant population, so it belongs to everybody who [is] here. And so, too, the culture of everybody who here informs the culture to create a culture called Trinidad culture. So, everybody has an equal place with … every creed and race kind of thing, was well thought out practically. I think [it’s] the culturescape of Trinidad and Tobago. (Interview with Patasar, 11 October 2021)

Therefore, at the heart of our understanding of Pantar, a group in existence for more than three decades, is the significance of music as a discipline. Moreover, Pantar attempts to unite and blend, without any critical thinking, a multicultural society. This is syncretism in its most natural form, and the Pantar concept came alive as the band Mungal Patasar and Pantar was born.

In 1994, the then-Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Patrick Manning, requested a performance from Patasar and his band. According to Patasar (interview, 11 October 2021), he wanted music with an ethno-culturally diverse mix, a blend of Indo-Trinidadian and Afro-Trinidadian music cultures, with the use of Indian instruments and the steelpan. Manning’s request came because of past musical collaborations between Patasar and Lennox “Boogsie” Sharpe, Clive Alexander (the founder of kaiso jazz), and others. This was a concept that Patasar was in favor of, since it was by nature the blend in instrumentation and culturally diverse music to which he had become accustomed. Additionally, both Headley (interview) and Charles (interview) admit that the mixture of people and music of Mungal Patasar and Pantar was unique in Trinidad and Tobago. This view is supported by Mondezie, who describes Patasar as the “legendary fusion master” and the music of Mungal Patasar and Pantar as the “unique East-meets-West Indian sound.”

As discussed above, Mungal Patasar and Pantar epitomizes both ethnic and musical integration. Charles explains that the group shares a collective understanding and philosophy of respect, compromise, and selflessness. He further states that both he and Headley advocated for the focus of the repertoire to be more on the compositions of Patasar, placing the spotlight on the sitar. Additionally, Patasar notes that apart from the original compositions by band members, he always insisted that the band perform local, indigenous, calypso music. As far as Mungal Patasar and Pantar is concerned, both Headley and Charles agree that unity is at the core of the Pantar concept. For Headley, the music of Pantar conveys a sense of one family, and it is all-embracing. Likewise, Charles describes the Pantar concept as one that expresses love, unity, and team effort.

However, with all familial relationships come compromise, and the syncretic music produced by this family results from negotiation. It is interesting how the members of Mungal Patasar and Pantar work together to reconcile the limitations they encounter in the fusion of music. First, the layout of notes on the sitar makes it difficult to access certain pitches that are naturally used in Western scale patterns. Band members are always aware of their choices of key and guide the melodic construction of their compositions to more easily accommodate East Indian instruments. Conversely, Patasar has physically changed his sitar by adding an extra string and a fret to increase its range and by limiting the use of the drone on his instrument to ensure the harmonic comfort of his band members. These are examples of the level of compromise required to create successful fusion music at the level of his band, but also for those who had not been exposed to different East Indian musical concepts.

Composition

Patasar’s philosophy is manifested in his music and how he creates it. He argues that most of his compositions and those of other band members are more akin to the local genre, calypso, than to any other music genre. He further states that he uses ragas as stimuli to create many of his compositions. In fact, “Vani,” one of his compositions, is based both on a motif from an old Trinidad and Tobago folk song titled “Everytime Ah Pass,” and on the raga Kirvani, which is based on a minor modality. It is important to note that East Indian music, and Indian classical music in particular, is built on a system that differs from Western music and thus cannot be adequately described in Western terms. The nature of syncretism practiced by Mungal Patasar and Pantar has caused Patasar to develop his own language for describing what he does using both Indian and Western terms. The excerpt above (Figure 2) shows the motif from which the completely new melodies of Vani’s various movements were created.

Figure 2. Motif from “Everytime Ah Pass.” Source: Olive Walke’s La petite Musicale. Everytime Ah Pass. Transcribed by Clarence Morris. Trinidad and Tobago: RCA Victor, 1963.

In the ad-lib opening of Vani (1st movement), there exists a dialogue between the sitar and steelpan. Soon thereafter, the tabla is introduced together with a calypso rhythm played by the drum kit, while the melody is established on both the sitar and steelpan. A moderate tempo, simple duple-meter syncopated rhythmic patterns, and the foundation on the drone work together to convey a feeling of relaxation and contribute to a light, Caribbean mood. The sitar and steelpan take turns improvising, and the steelpan uses the harmonic minor scale and clear Indian idioms almost as though it mimics the sitar. Moreover, the tone color created by the sitar and steelpan as they play in unison is unique.

“Dreadlocks,” another one of Patasar’s signature pieces, is based on the raga Saraswatie. Commenting on the piece, Patasar mentions that his inspiration for the melody came as a visual stimulus during a sound check at a hotel in Trinidad. He observed a Rastafarian man shaking his dreadlocks as he exited the swimming pool, all while rays of sunlight shone through the sprinkles of water leaving his dreadlocks. He claimed that, spontaneously, within three minutes, he came up with the melody and that the band subsequently performed the song at the same-day concert event. Other compositions by members of Mungal Patasar and Pantar include Headley’s “One Unit.” As explained by Headley, the piece is in jazz style and was given its name because of the unity in the band and the deep-seated brotherly love that the members have for each other. Charles’s “Tapanja” is another original piece based on the pentatonic scale. “Tapanja” has a rhythm-and-blues “A” section that is slow and soothing and precedes the up-tempo, calypso-styled groovy “B” section. According to Charles, he came up with the idea for the melody out of a desire to allow freedom in creative and expressive improvisational ideas from the sitar, steelpan, saxophone, and other instruments employed by the band.

Improvisation

To determine the effect of Mungal Patasar and Pantar’s line of fusion, one must consider not only the music compositions and their harmonic features but also the method of improvisation practiced by Patasar,⁷ the approach to jazz improvisation by the other band musicians, and how they all come together. To continue this section, we provide insight into some complexities and ways in which Mungal Patasar and Pantar musicians fashion their approach to improvisation. Pannist Harold Headley, who grew up listening to a great deal of Beethoven, Chopin, and von Suppé’s music, notes that early in his music career he was also exposed to playing Latin music as a member of the Trinidad Tripoli Steelband. He asserts that these experiences – alongside being under the directorship of several steelband arrangers throughout his career – significantly affected his overall technical development. He further states that the way he expresses himself and manipulates his creative ideas musically reflects his country’s diverse cultural heritage. According to Headley, this explains how his style of improvisation is informed. In describing his improvisational process, Headley claims that each time he improvises in a performance he attempts to take his creativity to a new level. At the same time, he emphasizes that he consistently follows the harmonic structure of the piece but occasionally moves away from it. In addition, he adopts the infusion of arpeggiated lines, scale patterns, sequential thirds, and other musical devices and jazz nuances but ultimately strives to produce a melodious outcome that captivates his audiences. Reflecting on how the band started, Headley, like Patasar, recounted an earlier performance he said he could not forget. He stated laughingly:

We played for nearly two or three hours … .We played “Old Lady Walk a Mile and a Half” for nearly an hour … .Then we played Nirvana, and we come back and we played “Old Lady Walk a Mile and a Half” … .All that time we [were] improvising and ting.⁸

Charles reveals that, in improvisation, he takes on a more supporting posture by allowing Headley to assume the lead role. However, he refers to his approach to improvisation as simple, describing it as “improv … the Marlon Charles way.”

In the same vein, Patasar underscores that, in the band’s music, improvisation is applied as a key element of each performance. Mondezie identifies Patasar’s mode of improvisation, noting that his music is based on modal scales. Similarly, Patasar states that, in his approach to improvisation, he draws from the original ragas or scales of Indian classical music. As he improvises on the sitar playing Lord Kitchener’s (Aldwyn Roberts) “Old Lady Walk a Mile and a Half,” Patasar explains that this piece fits ideally into the Kirvani raga. He notes that, in manipulating the ragas, he creates various patterns of improvisation based on his knowledge of Indian classical music. According to Patasar, he typically structures his improvisatory approach on the background of a sustained drone bass (pitch D) while combining the scale patterns with his rhythmic interpretations during solo performances. What stands out about the syncretic process is that while Patasar’s thought process is based on Kirvani, the other musicians approach the music from an F major point of view, which could be seen as a relative major. The juxtaposition of both ideas works extremely well to show that the resulting music is heterogeneous.

One of the key features of the sitar is its drone; however, Patasar usually excludes the drone during performances with his band. Though this may be seen as a limitation in terms of playing the sitar, he maintains it is an opportunity to expand his technique on the instrument. Patasar believes that his improvisational style is robust. For example, he employs speed exclusively to mesmerize and captivate audiences with his instrument. On the question of the relationship between Indian classical music and jazz improvisation, Patasar argues that there are some common traits among them. However, he claims that Indian classical musicians are not accustomed to being limited by the harmonic chord progressions used in jazz music. In response to the question “Do you see anyone taking over from the Pantar concept of music fusion?,” Headley replies, “I doubt it; I don’t think anybody in Trinidad. I wish there could be [someone] … .”

Based on the descriptions given by members of Mungal Patasar and Pantar, the pannists of the band approach their compositions and improvisations from a calypso and jazz perspective, while Patasar does so from his Indian classical and calypso perspective. Their thought processes are fundamentally different, and even though there is a successful negotiation, their differing musical foundations do not change and are not lost. The musical characteristics of Mungal Patasar and Pantar can be traced to India and Africa, which demonstrates a cultural continuity of music from the diaspora. Here, the influences of jazz included in Mungal Patasar and Pantar’s performances present a diasporic perspective that has been excluded from the conventional jazz narrative.

Sociocultural Implications Surrounding Mungal Patasar and Pantar

The journey to Patasar’s syncretism has been less than smooth because of the ethnic hypersensitivity that is characteristic of Trinbagonian culture. There is a community referred to on the islands as “Douglas,” who are of Afro-Indo⁹ mixed ethnicity. They encompass a growing part of the population and are increasingly developing a sense of ethnic pride, but an Afro-Indo conflict stemming from their histories of struggle is still experienced by the group (Reddock 190). The struggle has resulted in cultural and political polarization between many persons of African and East Indian ancestry, as well as a sense of confusion for those who are of mixed descent.

Despite the resistance by Patasar’s ethnic community toward his fusion music and his performances at many state-run cultural events over the years, he has stayed the course. From as early as his performance with “Boogsie” Sharpe in Jamaica, which was documented in the magazine Jazz Forum (Pilgrim), to his first playing of the Trinidad and Tobago National Anthem at a state event early in his career, his music has brought him a sense of rising above the ethnic conflict. Through his band dynamic and music, he has transcended the conflict by delving deeply into his national consciousness. This does not mean in any way that Patasar denies his East Indian identity. In fact, his strongly represented East Indian lived expression is almost paradoxical. His mode of dress, instrumental expertise, and connection with India speak to his commitment as a Trinbagonian East Indian. However, he goes beyond this with his nationalistic claims, summarized in words that explain his musical expression:

Trinidad is the rock on which I stand

India is my memory

Europe is my doorway to the world

My music, a gift from God is available to everyone.

Patasar’s grounding in his national consciousness informs his musical expression, while the music reciprocates this, grounding him in his nationality. The novelty and deep Trinbagonian character of his music make it an apt representation of the Trinbagonian multicultural reality and defy racism and the ethnic struggle for power and dominance. His own openness and national identity resonate in his work in ways that attempt to build ethnic bridges and heal the historical wounds inflicted by the colonial “divide and rule” philosophy. The traditional African folk music, calypso, jazz improvisation, and East Indian classical approaches to improvisation and instrumentation, coupled with the use of steelpan in Mungal Patasar and Pantar, are a source of praise and condemnation all at once in Trinidad and Tobago. Conversely, the band has enjoyed its greatest successes in Europe, where there is much greater acceptance and appreciation of the music offered by mostly nondiasporic communities (Patasar) without compromise or concerns about authenticity. Patasar still believes that his band provides the answer to local cultural conflict by making his art “available to everyone” and explains, using the concept represented in the artwork of their CD, Calebasse Cafe:

You will see on the cover of it … a building … A place where everybody could go … dey foot eh reaching the ground,¹⁰ they floating with the music of Pantar, and there, nobody eh seeing the color of your skin and the color of mine, or the texture of your hair and the texture of mine. We all belong to one family, and that family have no friction amongst them. And that is the music of Pantar.

The East Indian community takes great care in the preservation of their traditions and culture. At some points, Patasar’s work seemed to be perceived as a threat. This has resulted in the rejection of and resistance to his music by the East Indian community and even his siblings, which he explains as their inability to culturally identify with the music (Mondezie). Nevertheless, Mungal Patasar and Pantar have contributed indelibly to the preservation and promotion of East Indian aspects of culture in Trinidad and Tobago. The “manj” on which the Indian instrumentalists are seated at the center of his band and the attire of all members are physical representations of this.

Patasar’s use of the steelpan disrupts what has been a source of debate for some time. Although the steelpan has been declared the national instrument of Trinidad and Tobago, some members of the East Indian community believe that this instrument is of African heritage and does not reflect the culture of Trinidad and Tobago in its entirety (Manuel 327; Dudley). Mungal Patasar and Pantar embrace the steelpan and treat the instrument as equal to both the sitar and tabla. Whether or not the steelpan is accepted as the national instrument, it remains the primary source of the kaiso jazz improvisatory presence in the band. Although straight-ahead jazz is not a dominant culture in Trinidad and Tobago, the derivative kaiso jazz fusion resonates more with citizens.

Mungal Patasar and Pantar have become a model of the future third space (Bhabha), paradoxically invoking nationality. The traditional East Indian community has resisted syncretization for fear of losing their traditions; however, Patasar never compromises his Indianness, instead using similarities in traditions rather than differences to fuel his creativity. The core of Mungal Patasar and Pantar’s music is improvisation, whether it be Indian classical or jazz-influenced differences; members believe it transcends ethnic boundaries and represents the resolution of cultural conflicts. This belief leads to questions about the type of impact of the band’s music on social practices, audiences, and wider communities, areas that require further research. Nonetheless, the notions of sitar and tabla versus steelpan, African versus East Indian, and raga versus folk songs are all challenged in the nationalistic space. A new musical product is formed, while its parent cultures remain intact and separate from what the music says.

Conclusion

This study explored the East Indian and African music traditions in Trinidad and Tobago using the band Mungal Patasar and Pantar as a case study. Mungal Patasar and Pantar practices the syncretism of East Indian music with kaiso jazz and Caribbean folk music. This music fusion represents distinct articulations of music from the diaspora, various ethnic groups, and Trinidad and Tobago. The fusion music created is shaped by several factors, including Patasar’s own philosophy, the country’s historical background regarding African and East Indian ethnicities, perceptions of nationalism, and the negotiations made among these in the syncretization process.

One finding that emerges from this study is that the nationalistic thinking of Trinbagonians has been shaped by their historical background; what nationalism means individually to one group may not be the same for another. Internationally, none of these scenarios exist, and the freedom with which Mungal Patasar and Pantar operates has been guided by Patasar’s own philosophy of his band and what he wanted to achieve in the music. The study also shows that the music of Mungal Patasar and Pantar represents a mixing of music cultures that was conceptualized and framed from Patasar’s vision.

Nevertheless, within the confines of this study, no supporting evidence was found to substantiate the impact of Mungal Patasar and Pantar on the society. In general, therefore, it seems that there may have been no direct influence on the reality of the societal tensions that exist locally. These tensions always existed. Certainly, there remain separate ideologies and perspectives within and without the main groups of people of the different ethnic persuasions.

Both Patasar and his band members have clearly demonstrated the unity of the group and how it has compromised based on the limitations surrounding his instrument. While he made minor modifications to his sitar in order to bring a level of comfort to the members, they likewise simultaneously agreed to accommodate him by allowing the spotlight to be focused on him and the sitar. Whether this approach is idealistic in nature also cannot be fully discussed within the scope of this study and instead invites further research in this area. In addition, the findings further demonstrate that, in the thought processes of Patasar and the other members who play the Western traditional musical instruments, they are clearly opposite. Patasar’s thinking is based on an East Indian classical approach, while the other members’ thought process naturally appears to be based on Western music traditions.

This resulting music cannot be considered homogeneous due to the varying cognitive approaches practiced simultaneously by band members of different musical and ethnic backgrounds. Notwithstanding the social and ethnic barriers that are a part of Trinidadian culture, along with the challenges that Patasar himself experienced, the music seems to present an abstract representation of projected possibilities regarding Trinidad and Tobago’s social and cultural landscape. Perhaps Mungal Patasar and Pantar’s work is a rearticulation of nationalism, not in a purist sense, allowing for the duality of African and Indian ethnic identities. Within the music fusion, national and ethnic identities interact in such a way that each facet maintains its most basic characteristics, while contributing to something new.

Within the remit of this study, the methodological focus has been placed on the band’s perception of itself through the views of its members. There were two major limitations we acknowledge, one regarding perceptions that have been noted from the members’ stories, and the other being the idealistic nature in which members view their contributions to the healing of ethnic tensions. Our intention is not to suggest that these are the only perceptions that exist, nor to avoid interrogation of the ideas presented, but to recognize the value of self-perceptions in the construction of identities through music and to the syncretic process. This highlights the opportunity for further study that could include the juxtaposition of public perceptions and the self-perceptions noted in this article.

Interviews

Alexander, Clive (Zanda). Personal interview by Clarence Morris and Jill-Ann Walters-Morris. Diego Martin, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. 17 Apr. 2019.

Charles, Marlon. Online interview by Clarence Morris. 21 Jan. 2022.

Headley, Harold. Telephone interview by Clarence Morris. 24 Nov. 2021.

Ince, Errol. Telephone interview by Clarence Morris. 3 Aug. 2019.

Patasar, Mungal. Online interview by Clarence Morris. 11 Oct. 2021.

Patasar, Mungal. Online interview by Clarence Morris. 21 Oct. 2021.

Discography and Podcast

Calebasse Café. Recorded by Mungal Patasar and Pantar. CD. Trinidad and Tobago. Prashant Enterprises. 2005. https://www.allmusic.com/album/calebasse-cafe-mw0001539577/releases.

“Chip Down.” Written by Clive Zanda. Recorded by Clive Zanda. Clive Zanda Is Here with “Dat Kinda Ting.” Calypsojazz Innovations. 1975.

Clive Zanda Is Here with “Dat Kinda Ting” Calypsojazz Innovations. Recorded by Clive Zanda. LP.

Trinidad and Tobago. 1975. https://www.discogs.com/release/6098004-Clive-Zanda-Clive-Zanda-Is-Here-With-Dat-KInda-Ting-Calypsojazz-Innovations “Episode #3: Clive Zanda.”

Island Jazz Chat, 25 Jan. 2019. https://podcast.jazz.tt/detail3.html. Accessed 21 Aug. 2022.

(Interview of Clive Zanda by Nigel Campbell.)

“Fingers.” Written by Clive Alexander and Annise Hadeed. Recorded by Clive Alexander, Annise Hadeed, and the Gayap Music Workshop Trinidad & Tobago. Pan Jazz Conversations. 1994.

Nirvana. Recorded by Mungal Patasar & Pantar. CD. Trinidad and Tobago. Rituals CO2597.

https://www.discogs.com/release/7816673-Mungal-Patasar-Pantar-Nirvana.

Pan Jazz Conversations. Recorded by Clive Alexander, Annise Hadeed, and the Gayap Music

Workshop Trinidad & Tobago. CD. USA. Delos DE 4019. 1994. https://www.discogs.com/release/8408806-Clive-Alexander-Annise-HadeedGayap-Music-Workshop-Trinidad-Tobago-Pan-Jazz-Conversations.

Filmography

Bim. Film. Directed by Hugh A. Robertson. Trinidad and Tobago. 1974. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0195557/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_2.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s). Although the authors of this article are relatives, throughout this study they maintained the highest ethical standards.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jill-Ann Walters-Morris

Jill-Ann Walters-Morris is a music educator and performer of Trinidad and Tobago. She has studied Musical Arts and Cultural Studies at the University of the West Indies (UWI), St. Augustine Trinidad. Her interests lie in Caribbean cultural studies, ethnomusicology, practice-based research through music performance, and music education.

Clarence Morris

Clarence Morris is well-known in the steelpan fraternity of Trinidad and Tobago as a soloist and arranger extraordinaire and has asserted himself as one of the top arrangers locally and regionally. He is also a music educator and holds an Associate degree in Performing Arts at the College of Science, Technology and Applied Arts of Trinidad and Tobago (COSTAATT), a Bachelor of Arts degree in Musical Arts (Hons.) from the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, and a Master of Arts in Carnival Studies from the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT). For several years Clarence has been involved with the Trinidad and Tobago National Steel Symphony Orchestra and has also traveled extensively promoting the steelpan.

Rachel-Ann Charles-Hatt

Rachel-Ann Charles-Hatt a Trinidad and Tobago national, is a lecturer at the Birmingham Institute for Media and English (BIME) and a researcher at the Birmingham Centre for Media and Cultural Research (BCMCR), Birmingham City University. She is currently exploring research in the Caribbean Diaspora to include jazz practices emerging from Trinidad and Tobago.

Notes

1. Port of Spain (which is located in Trinidad) is the capital of Trinidad and Tobago.

2. Trinbagonian – something or someone that originates from Trinidad and Tobago.

3. The Orisa (Orisha) religion “is a complex system of beliefs and practices drawn from a number of cultural traditions.” This practice has been connected to African religion traditions (Houk 329).

4. St. James Barracks (now known as the Police Academy) is a facility used to train officers.

5. Ramjay refers to spontaneity through the use of a steelpan.

6. Pan Jazz is the name of an event involving the performance and fusion of calypso and jazz, using the steelpan as the principal instrument. The term eventually grew to represent a concept in which it became “the term commonly used to describe the fusion of Caribbean rhythms and melodies with jazz harmony and improvisation” (“What Is Pan-Jazz?”).

7. This refers to Patasar’s use of East Indian ragas.

8. “Ting” is the Trinidad vernacular word meaning “thing.”

9. Afro-Indo – an abbreviated term used locally for African-Indian.

10. The quote “Dey foot eh reaching the ground’ is written in Trinbagonian dialect and is translated as follows: “Their foot is not reaching the ground.”