Caribbean Voyage: East Indian Music in the West Indies Review

This is quite an interesting set of recordings. I bought it because of the title alone. I have plenty of Indian musics from India, but not knowing all that much about the West Indies I had no idea that there was/is a sizeable Indian population there.
I guess it's strange that my first cd of Indian folk musics ended up being recorded in Trinidad and Guadeloupe.
I'm not sure whether this is inherent to all field-recordings of Indian folk music or just this one, but there is indeed almost an African feeling of communal spirit about many of these recordings. Part of me would tend to think that this could just be an aspect of this music because of the geographical location of these people, yet from the liner-notes I also get the feeling that there wasn't a ton of interaction between these Indian communities and the rest of the island cultures. I don't know... maybe it's almost influence-by-osmosis? Or maybe it's just attributable to those island breezes!
This is still seriously Indian music, though. If you don't like any sorts of African music you need not worry.
This disc gives us work songs, funeral songs, wedding songs, etc...
Mainly made up of strains influenced by North Indian musics, but there are also some South Indian tracks. In case you may be wondering, no, this isn't pop music. This is still very much roots-music, it's just that time, distance, and new social settings have caused the music to mutate so that it may not necessarily be all that similar to the musics that initially influenced it.
There is a small mix-up in the track listing in the liner-notes. Song 7 is track 5, song 5 is track 6, and song 6 is track 7.
All in all, a very rewarding set of recordings. We get various communal drumming styles, vocal-and-harmonium, vocal-and-sarangi, work songs, etc...
It's almost refreshing to go from the superhuman world of Indian classical musics to the musics of the everyday people. These are the songs that get people through their lives, whether it be in joy, mourning, work, or celebration.
A great, and probably quite rare addition to any collection of Indian musics. This also has one of the best segments of any Lomax recording I have, in terms of hearing him be with the people he is recording. You really get a feel for the type of giving, open person he was.

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