Here is a little musical exercise to tease your brain. Take a listen to the two songs presented in this post. One is from 1973 by Lord Shorty and is titled Indrani. Yes it is that song, the song that started the fusion of Calypso and East Indian rhythms by the late Lord Shorty. Now the second song is a very recent song that was done by Vincy/Trini Zoelah. In St. Vincent they call this music Ragga Soca and in Trinidad we call it Groovy Soca. However, that is not what this post is about. I am way past the contention of Trini Groovy Soca and Vincy Ragga Soca. This post is about the rhythmic structure of both music tracks. Listen to the rhythms of both songs and give me some feed back regarding what you hear. The base rhythms of both songs, in my humble opinion, are the same! Yes I said they are the same!
So what do I hope to achieve by this.. well I did not come up with this idea but I am part of the discussion and would like to ensure that this is made known to all. On islandmix.com Lord Shorty's name has been dragged through the mud by people from the islands up the Caribbean chain. The main dissidents come from St. Vincent, Dominica and Guyana. Now when Soca music became known the only person to lay claim to the music was Lord Shorty. He named it Sokah and Ivor Ferreira of the Trinidad press mistakenly spelt it as Soca! Nobody cared much about Soca in the beginning but that is not the case today. Lord Shorty even talked about how he created the new music on several recorded programs that can be seen on YouTube. No one else has done that but a few have quietly laid claim to creating the music but cannot provide the information that Lord Shorty did. Swaggerific from islandmix posted the two songs and pointed out the similarities in the rhythms. Why is that important? Well Indrani was the beginning of Soca. However, there was resentment in Trinidad by both African and East Indian communities that caused Lord Shorty to remove the Indian instruments from the music but he kept the accent of the Indian rhythms in the music. That change in the concept brought about the album he named Endless Vibrations. The soca you know today... need I say more? Both songs presented below have the same rhythmic patterns... and it is all good... it is Soca music then and now!
Please be advised that the music is presented here for your listening pleasure and for promotional purposes only ("Fair Use" Musical Content Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976). Lend me your ears... Enjoy!
♫ Please press the play button to listen (small triangle below).So what do I hope to achieve by this.. well I did not come up with this idea but I am part of the discussion and would like to ensure that this is made known to all. On islandmix.com Lord Shorty's name has been dragged through the mud by people from the islands up the Caribbean chain. The main dissidents come from St. Vincent, Dominica and Guyana. Now when Soca music became known the only person to lay claim to the music was Lord Shorty. He named it Sokah and Ivor Ferreira of the Trinidad press mistakenly spelt it as Soca! Nobody cared much about Soca in the beginning but that is not the case today. Lord Shorty even talked about how he created the new music on several recorded programs that can be seen on YouTube. No one else has done that but a few have quietly laid claim to creating the music but cannot provide the information that Lord Shorty did. Swaggerific from islandmix posted the two songs and pointed out the similarities in the rhythms. Why is that important? Well Indrani was the beginning of Soca. However, there was resentment in Trinidad by both African and East Indian communities that caused Lord Shorty to remove the Indian instruments from the music but he kept the accent of the Indian rhythms in the music. That change in the concept brought about the album he named Endless Vibrations. The soca you know today... need I say more? Both songs presented below have the same rhythmic patterns... and it is all good... it is Soca music then and now!
Please be advised that the music is presented here for your listening pleasure and for promotional purposes only ("Fair Use" Musical Content Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976). Lend me your ears... Enjoy!
Indrani - Lord Shorty
Wine Up On Me - Zoelah