Call for tassa to be national instrument

THE Tassa Association of Trinidad and Tobago (TATT) has called on Government to declare the well-known Indian musical instrument as the country’s second national musical instrument, after the pan.

The establishment of the tassa as the second national musical instrument has been placed high on the agenda of TATT according to association chairman Dr Vijay Ramlal, as he met with members on Monday at the Triangle Amphitheatre, Rio Claro to update them on a meeting held with Prime Minister Patrick Manning. “Tassa as we know, has become an important component of the culture of TT. It is because of this, we have had a very successful meeting with the Prime Minister who agreed to discuss with members of Cabinet, the issue of establishing tassa as the next national instrument of TT,” Ramlal said during the meeting.

Ramlal mentioned the success of several tassa competitions held this year and also called on the various tassa groups across the country to upgrade their styles and work on getting more youngsters involved in playing the tassa. “We have to modify tassa on the whole. We must be able to move tassa into the 21st century. I have seen steps taken by tassa groups where they are now using synthetic materials as opposed to the goat skins and I see this as a great step in the right direction,” he continued.

Dr Ramlal said that although there were some people who could not cope with the changing times, he urged the association members to continue taking steps towards modernising the tassa as a recognised musical instrument. “Only when we do this, can we rightly say that we have moved on to better things,” Ramlal ended.