Taken from NewsDay Newspaper:
LOCAL ENTERTAINMENT promoter Randy Glasgow is planning the first ever World Indian Music Festival scheduled to take place here in TT next August. Glasgow told Newsday the event will be bigger that the Plymouth Jazz Festival as several big names in the East Indian entertainment have agreed to perform here.
“Over three days Caribbean people will be treated to music created by Indian artistes from India and the North America. I am also looking at artistes from the Caribbean who have gained international status from their art,” he said.
Glasgow said that the musicians and singers to be featured in the inaugural festival will appeal to a wide cross-section of people. He said he has been aware of the influence of bhangra, a lively form of music and dance originating in India’s Punjab region which has enjoyed inceasing worldwide popularity over the last three decades, both in its traditional form and as a fusion with genres such as hip-hop and reggae. The folk music has become a pop sensation in the United Kingdom and North America.
He said he was also inspired by Indian pop music, better known as filmi, or songs from Indian musical films. India’s film industry has supported that country’s indigenous music, giving reverence to classical music while using the western orchestration to support Indian melodies.
Glasgow pointed out that mainstream hip-hop artistes have sampled songs from Bollywood movies and have collaborated with Indian artistes. Examples include Timbaland’s “Indian Flute”, Erick Sermon and Redman’s “React”, Slum Village’s “Disco”, and Truth Hurts’ hit song “Addictive”, which sampled a Lata Mangeshkar song. The Black Eyed Peas sampled Asha Bhosle’s “Yeh Mera Dil” in their hit single “Don’t Phunk With My Heart” and in 1997, the British band Cornershop paid tribute to Bhosle with their song “Brimful” of Asha, which became an international hit. British-born Indian artiste Panjabi MC also had a Bhangra hit in the US with “Mundian To Bach Ke” featuring rapper Jay-Z. Asian Dub Foundation are not huge mainstream stars, but their politically-charged rap and punk rock influenced sound has a multi-racial audience in their native UK. Recently international star Snoop Dogg appeared in a song in the hit film Singh Is Kinng.
A little input from moi: Ya Truth Hurts song "Addictive" with Rakim definitely lives up to it's name. It's one of those songs that just never gets old.
And here are The Black-Eyed Peas with "Don't Phunk With My Heart"
Glasgow has joined forces with a show coordinator from Mumbai, India, and two counterparts from New York and Florida in the United States, as well as two local promoters for the festival. He is anticipating that the event will attract a lot of foreigners to these shores.
“This is also going to boost tourism as music is one of the most powerful attractions in any country,” said Glasgow, who added that a huge food festival will be staged alongside the main event with chefs from Indonesia and India highlighting the best in Asian cooking. Approximately 100 different style of cooking will be featured.
The World Indian Music Festival is just one of several major musical events being organised by Randy Glasgow Productions. Also in the pipeline are Chutney Brass, Chutney Survivor, Chutney meets Rock, Ladies Night Out, the Political Monarch Competition, and the Learie Joseph Stress Reliever Tour in the upcoming weeks.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Post a Comment