Jai releases reggae songs

The musician is set to release six songs under VPAL, VP’s associated label, on August 28. Jai said that the business has morphed a lot since his initial entry in 1988 when he first sang “Sumintra”. The “veteran” – as he does not like being called– found a renewed burst of favour on the soca scene– with his 2016 hit “Leh We Fete”.

Jai said he is always keeping his eye on what’s new, working with younger hit makers such as De Red Boyz from Barbados and Jason “Shaft” Bishop.

What prompted him to sing reggae? “I consider myself an adventurer/ an explorer of sorts. If you recalled when I started in 88/89 there were few Indo-Trinbagonians doing soca music.

Drupatee might have been ahead of me.

There was, prior to that, Hindu Prince and the Rajah. But the list was very small. When I ventured into party music in 1989 and it became a hit with ‘Sumintra’ and ‘Pumpin’ that was the beginning of my adventurer days.

“In 1996, I started moving into the chutney soca area. That took me all the way up to where I am,” he said. Jai has seen what he referred to as the” oil booms and recessions of the local music industry”.

“As I look around my industry I have seen the oil booms in the industry and the recessions in the industry and I think currently where we are the entertainment industry is at its lowest in Trinidad in terms of events that people put on where you would see local acts being featured.” He said there are some places with entertainment but gone are the days where you had a chutney show or shows. He said it became very seasonal only happening at Christmas and Carnival time. Even the outside markets, he said, have begun to dwindle. “A lot of entertainers would tell you the work is not as it used to be.” A few, he said, has made inroad into the mainstream markets but at home things are not what it used to be.

This was the catalyst for him seeking other ventures outside of the norm. He added that with 32 radio stations in TT chutney and soca, the two main genres of indigenous music were the least played. “I have seen people’s tastes and likes change over the years and being in the business for a while, I am not one to sit and let things collapse around me. I pride myself on being the all-rounded entertainer.

You can find me in a parang party. You find me in a calypso tent. You can find me in a soca fete. I think that is my strength.” So Jai found a challenge in producing reggae music. Ultimately, Jai plans to release a tentrack CD of reggae music. However, the six songs done is a sort of “lover’s rock mix/ crooning like Maxi Priest”.

Songs such as “I’m Sorry” tells of trying to apologise to a lover he lost in his youth and is now trying to win her back. “Let Go Her Hand” translates the emotions of a father who walks his daughter down the aisle.

The essence of music, to Jai, is to create a song that everyone would have on their lips, he said, referencing Lionel Richie.

Although he is yet to do that, Jai’s career has been littered with titles and awards–which to many is a measure of success. “I can sit and sip my tea and pat myself on by back and say you have not done bad.” The six songs being released on August 28 are “I’m Sorry”, “Let Go Her Hand”, “One Night Stand”, “Who God Bless,” “See You Again” –a collaboration with popular reggae artiste Duane Stephenson and “Dil May Tum Ho” - the Hindi reggae version of “Red, Red, Wine.”