Artists
who's who and who's doing what?Mungal Patasar & Pantar
- country:Trinidad and Tobago
- region:Caribbean
- style(s):Calypso Indian
- label:CMG
- type:Band
- gender:male
- instrumentation:instrumental
- artist submitted by:
Do not miss Mungal Patasar & Pantar live at 1 am 28th October
2006 at the WOMEX off stage.
The Caribbean is the world's navel. A feminine navel studded
with diamonds. A rosary of islands where, like nowhere else
across the planet, all races and all the people who make up
humanity come together.
From the sister islands of Trinidad and Tobago, a unique artiste
has arrived in our midst. His name is evocative of Esperanto:
Mungal Patasar. As often happens in the
tropics, Mungal has taken the time to live his life and his art.
Born in Trinidad in 1946 of parents whose parents had
emigrated from India before Independence, Mungal first learnt
the intoned singing of ancestral prayers the ragas which are
modulated as the singer improvises around a precise
musical grid. From the time he was eight years old, curious and
eager to explore the mysteries of this music, he began to try out
the instruments: the harmonium, the centuries-old dolak and
dhantal, the clarinet, the mandolin. By instinct. By ear. He
finally chose the king of all instruments, the sitar.
"I am a musician of the world. India is my memory, Trinidad the
ground under my feet, Europe my door to the world. My music
is a gift that belongs to everyone".
"During my stay in India, I discovered what the expression 'to
work yourself to the bone' meant. After eight hours of daily
sitar exercises, the toughest skin gives in. I understood that
once I returned home I had to regenerate the ancient art of the
raga by exposing it to Caribbean rhythms. My music is holistic
in its essence, but pluralistic in form."
Mungal mulled over and matured his project. His first album
"Dreadlocks", with its already so familiar simple
"Dreadlocks" is a deep and yet playful homage to Man in general
and to African Man in particular. A homage to brillant colours,
to infinite nuances.
His second album "Calbasse Cafe" is a hymn to spiritual and
humanist inter-marriage, a positive eclectic vibration that (yet
again) proves the universality of music. it is this totally original
new melodies that Mungal is now offering.
Please listen to the sound file of Dreadlocks and
visit our website www.caribbeanmusicgroup.com
Available for licensing and touring.
Links
Images
