Listeners of popular music are largely unaware that two musical greats of their respective genres, Jamaican ska legend Cecil Bustamente Campbell, better known as Prince Buster, and American Zydeco star Stanley Dural Jr, more popularly known by his stage name of Buckwheat Zydeco, left the music world a lot poorer as they both passed away in the month of September.
Ska is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to reggae as it combined elements of Caribbean calypso with American jazz and R&B [rhythm and blues].
Prince Buster was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and producer, and the records he released in the 1960s influenced and shaped the course of both Jamaican contemporary music and created a legacy of work that later reggae and ska artists globally still draw upon, such as New Delhi-based group Ska Vengers.
Meanwhile, Zydeco is a musical genre evolved in the southwest State of Louisiana in the U.S. by French Creole speakers that blends blues, R&B, and music indigenous to Louisiana Creole natives.
A sibling of zydeco is Cajun music, also largely based in Louisiana, and is rooted in French-speaking Canada. Cajun music is often mentioned in tandem with the Creole-based zydeco form, both having Acadiana origins.
In 2007, zydeco and Cajun achieved a separate category for themselves at the Grammy awards as the “Best Zydeco or Cajun Music Album” category.
Buckwheat Zydeco — born Stanley Dural Jr — died of lung cancer at age 68. He was an American accordionist who received the rarity of achieving mainstream success with his brand of zydeco, having performed with a large number of famous musicians, ranging from Eric Clapton [with whom he recorded Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad , featured In The Blues With EC, Vol.1 compilation from 2002, which contains songs that Clapton played lead guitar on], and with U2. Buckwheat Zydeco and his band also performed at the closing ceremonies of the 1996 Summer Olympics to an estimated global audience of three billion.
Closer home, to promote the less popular genres of folk and fusion, company NESCO initiated a two-day festival in Mumbai by the name of ‘Paddy Fields’ during October. While the location of the event [Bombay Exhibition Centre] is not really associated with live performances as the name of the venue suggests, producers Oranjuice Entertainment completely transformed a hall into a remarkable auditorium with a fabulous layout – both stage and seating – for performers and for the audience, respectively. While names of some performers were easily recognisable, such as Colonial Cousins, Papon, and Salim-Sulaiman, there were comparatively lesser known artistes — Mame Khan, Gangadhar & Tulika, Dhruv Ghanekar’s Voyage, to name a few — that received a tremendous boost of showcasing their talent at ‘Paddy Fields’ to a capacity audience.
However, for me, the highlights were Chaar Yaar — obviously lead by the erudite composer, vocalist, poet, and harmonium player Madan Gopal Singh, with acoustic guitarist Deepak Castelino, sarod player Pritam Ghosal, and tabla player Gurmeet Singh in support — who performed sounds ranging from bhakti music to sufi in an unconventional manner with the quartet even dwelling into John Lennon’s Imagine, and “a little more strange” rendition of Dama Dam Mast Qalandar, a traditional, spiritual song in Punjabi, initially written by Amir Khusrow, then further modified by Baba Bulleh Shah. Deepak’s usage of the banjo resulted in unprecedented listening of the rendition for me. But the best of ‘Paddy Fields’ was yet to arrive, and it did with folk music from Punjab, courtesy the Nooran Sisters.
Consisting of the Jalandhar-based sibling duo of Jyoti and Sultana, fabulously supported by family patriarch and father Gulshan Mir, who composes songs, plays harmonium, handles musical arrangements, and accompanies them on vocals, the Nooran Sisters performed as if they belonged to another world: haunting vocals, intermittent quick paced hand claps often in unison, animated emotions, and appeared as if possessed.
Effectively, the performance was mesmerising and nothing could have topped it, and nothing did. But full credit to the curator of Paddy Fields, Atul Churamani of Turnkey Music, for highlighting that folk and fusion can be as exciting as conventional popular music and in that, for me, ‘Paddy Fields’ was undoubtedly the event of the year.
While there is no doubt a reality check that, with the demise of musicians, lesser known genres are being discovered but, then again, also by taking a chance promoting unique festivals, these genres are finally heading mainstream!
The writer has been part of the media and entertainment business for over 23 years. He still continues to pursue his hobby, and earns an income out of it.
