TRINIDAD — RIKKI JAI’S CHARISMATIC CHUTNEY

As far as we’re concerned, Rikki Jai will forever be the only Chutney Soca King.

Indian indentured servants who came to Trinidad from 1845 to 1917 brought their music with them and eventually fused it with island music to form a genre called chutney. Traditional chutney music added Indian instruments like the dholak and the harmonium to Caribbean songs, as well as a religious sensibility and, often, vocals in Hindi.  Today chutney has blended with soca to form “chutney soca,” which has become popular international dance music. In this video chutney soca star Rikki Jai gives us a taste.