CP NEWS: Soca: The Soundtrack of Carnival

[ddm-news]

-By Julie Salickram

Soca is the soundtrack of Carnival.

And those that make the annual pilgrimage to this pre-lent celebration can tell you, the biggest week of partying in the Caribbean can put any US Mardi Gras celebration to shame. With men dousing themselves in oil from head to toe (pay up, or they mess you up), stilt-walkers, scantily-clad glimmering ladies, and fetes (parties) that overlap from jouvert morning to the repenting dawn of Ash Wednesday, there is an undeniable madness in the music.

That kind of energy is catching on outside of Trinidad. The sound of Trinidad and Tobago, echoed in neighboring Caribbean isles like St. Vincent and Barbados, is finding its way across the globe. Often mistaken for dancehall reggae, and officially gaining its name from soul-calypso, soca’s infectious, high energy beats are spreading faster than a cold on a plane.

The music, much like the island's heritage, is a blend of African, East Indian, Chinese and European-Caucasian. Those of Afro-Trinidadian descent reign supreme in soca, with an occasional exception. One such exception is Shammi Salickram.

Shammi is of East Indian descent, and by island standards he should be singing chutney (East-Indian influenced) music, or "chutney soca" at best. Shammi, however, believes, “People should do the music that moves them, rather than what people tell them they’re supposed to do.”

Working with this prejudice against him, Shammi made waves at Carnival 2003 with his collaborative Soca Bhangra, with ragga-soca (reggae influenced soca) star Bunji Garlin. His ability to blend Indian Bhangra with island soca got him attention. His command of the stage, singing whatever strikes him at the moment, got him notoriety as time and time again the local papers said he stole the show. He swept through all the major fetes of Carnival 2003 along with Bunji and the Godfather’s Asylum riding that wave all the way to shows here in the US.

He arrived via NYC, hub of Trinidadians in the US, to play some shows and return home. He never left though (I'm partially to blame, as he stayed and married me).

Leaving his home behind has begun to work in his favor, and in favor of all soca artists, despite missing out on the past few Carnival seasons. As the music of soca has begun to spread elsewhere, the “riddims” driving their way into the UK Garage scene, their sway hypnotizing US audience in R&B style ballads like Kevin Lyttle’s “Turn Me On” or Rupee’s “Tempted to Touch,” and the energy captivating music fans throughout Germany, Sweden and Poland, Shammi has been hatching his own soca influenced tunes.

Never one to do the same old thing as everyone else, he is using his exposure to other worldly music sounds here in the US (rock, house, Latin, hip-hop, freestyle and dance) to blend soca further into the fabric of mainstream music worldwide.

His work with NY’s Kingheart Beat Entertainment is being sold throughout Japan on the “New York Soca Vibe” compilation. Producers in Germany and England are eager to work with him, virtually or anyway they can. His songs have even appeared as required listening on a Harvard University syllabus for a class on Electronic Music from the 60’s through today.

He is also looking to collaborate with Minmi, the first soca-influenced artist out of Japan, making waves back in Trinidad with her soca/dance style hit “Summertime.”

Shammi has a new CD due out soon, his first since residing in the states. While the energy and origin are very much soca and true to his roots, there is a variety of styles mixed up in it. “Music speaks to everyone,” says Shammi, “Someone in Japan may not know anything at all about Trinidad and how life is there, but they know they like the music and that it gets them up, jumping and feeling good. Sometimes, that’s all that really matters.”

Click here to listen to some of Shammi's new work. And here for more info.

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