I’m going to Guyana tomorrow. Boa Vista, Roraima, Brasil and then on to Georgetown to be exact. I’ve got another job as sound recordist for a documentary. I’ve had about 2 weeks to get things together for this trip, so my musically oriented research has been pretty sparse. Here’s about what I know….

I heard about Chutney from DJ Feelfree of Visionary Underground a year or two ago, but he didn’t have anything to show me. Eventually, I found some stuff on soul seek, but wasn’t able to learn too much about the artists and the style or even the exact geographic distribution of it. As it turns out, Guyana and Trinidad are the main centers of Chutney. Check this article out - very detailed history of Chutney in the Caribbean. From the article….

“Chutney music came with the arrival of East Indian indentured laborers to the Caribbean. They were brought by the British as a replacement for the enslaved laborers on the sugar plantations, who were freed after emancipation. The majority of the indentured laborers came from……..Many of these East Indians settled in the then British colonies of British Guiana, now Guyana, Trinidad and Jamaica……”

Wikipedia has something to say about Chutney. the tracks I’ve found of Chutney vary from Hi-NRG Bollywood dance to Reggaeton and more straight acoustic Chutney (not much of this). So, I’m on the look out….

uh, did I not say, Hi-NRG dance music?

You can check out some samples and a very cool collection of album covers here.

Here’s a whole list of Desi Chutney Internet Radio Stations.

And now some video….

GuyanaNJ FM Desi Radio presents Wedding Dance in Essequibo Coast, Guyana.