Global grooves

Putumayo, the US company that took obscure global music and made it mainstream, wants the world grooving to Trinidad and Tobago’s  pan and parang.  And the man who pressed the play button was Simeon Sandiford, managing director of Sanch Electronix, in Curepe. Although the two companies had partnered to distribute the Putumayo label in TT and sought to develop new business opportunities in the market since 1995, a new project takes them a step further to putting TT’s music out into the global market. Malice Grant, International Marketing Coordinator and Web and Lifestyle Marketing Coordinator, Putumayo World Music, said both companies agreed to look at how TT’s  music could be incorporated on Putumayo’s label. Given Sanch’s long history of involvement and distribution of local music, Grant said this was a  good opportunity for the local company to take TT music global.

In  July, Grant visited Trinidad for the first time to hear what TT had to offer and visited steel bands practising for October’s International Competition in London. “It was one of the most amazing things I ever heard,” she said, in a telephone interview from her office in New York. “When people think of pan, they see four or five people playing, a very narrow picture,” she said, noting that it was a mind-blowing experience up close. “If that kind of music can be brought  to the forefront, it would be wider appreciated and break down the stereotype of how people see the steelpan,” she added. Putumayo, she said, wanted pan to have an  increased presence in world music. She was also exposed to parang for the first time, a genre that she felt sure could go beyond TT and the Caribbean. “It is  uniquely Trinidadian but it has world appeal,” is how she put it. In 1996 Sandiford went to France and hooked up with Putumayo at the Midem international music fair. He has been selling their stuff ever since.

“We are looking to go further to see whether some  of our music could go on to their compilation,” he said of the renewed relationship. Putumayo, he said, was looking at cataloguing our parang, pan and folk music. “As a team, the two companies will help to foster a curiosity for and appreciation of the music the world has to offer,” he said. Sanch, he said, will be key to raising the visibility of Putumayo in both the traditional and non-traditional music markets.  In addition, the two will work to explore opportunities beyond retail, including music education and appreciation, he added. Currently, Putumayo has six compilations from the Caribbean, which include music from Cuba, Jamaica, Puerto Rico and the French Caribbean, but nothing to really groove with from TT. All they have on calypso are Harry Blelafonte-type cuts,  and Andre Tanker, Sandiford said. “We are trying to broaden horizons,” he said.

To this end, Putumayo has taken out an advertisement  in Cultural Rhythms music show that takes place on September 5 at UWI, St Augustine, where 60 titles of their music will be exhibited. “We have been the distributor for Putumayo for the past ten years,” said Sandiford, and is elated that they have expressed an interest in our music. “They had nothing specific from Trinidad,” he said, “but we aim to change that as they especially seem to enjoy parang and steelpan music.” “Both Sanch and Putumayo work towards the same goal of providing and exposing the world at large to the music of different cultures,” the companies said a joint press statement. “Sanch has long been the leader in developing high quality recordings of the music of Trinidad and Tobago.

They have pioneered the recording and distribution of steelpan music beyond Trinidad’s borders, as well as capturing the richness of parang and other musical legacies,” Putumayo said of the local company. Putumayo is in its  11th year of producing upbeat and melodic compilations of international music. With a catalogue that spans music from Argentina to Zimbabwe and all locales in between, the label has developed a unique business-to-business plan that works directly with “cultural creatives,” or the network of gift shops, ethnic stores, and cultural institutions. “All over the world, Trinidad and Tobago’s representation has been limited,” Grant said.