Tribute to the late cultural icon Sagar Sookraj Tuesday, May 17 2011
TRINIDAD NEWSDAY - By SEETA PERSAD - Members of several cultural groups including the Mere Desh Committee, The Nritanjali Theatre, and the National Council for Indian Culture have paid tribute to the late tabla player and singer Sagar Sookraj.
Sookraj, who passed away on May 7, has been hailed as one of TT’s best musicians. He provided accompaniment for a number of vocalists in the Indian film industry including CH Atma, Hari Om Sharan, Manna Dey and the late Mukesh Chanmatur. He was awarded a naal (drum) by Chanmatur for excellence in drumming.
Sookraj was also sang and played the harmonium and tabla for India’s renowned Kathak and Orissi dancers, Pratap and Priya Pawar while they taught in Trinidad during the period 1976 to 1980. He later accompanied their replacement, the Kathak dancer and musician, Shri Pradeep Shankar.
Sookraj performed in several ballets (Nritya Natikas) of Nrityanjali Theatre directed by Sat Balkaransingh, including the Penal Harvest, Ram Katha (2000), Krishnayana(2003), and Shakuntala a joint production of then-Indian High Commissioner HE Virendra Gupta and Nrityanjali Theatre, which was staged at the Central Bank auditorium. He was a judge at many competitions including the Republic Bank’s annual Tassa Taal Competition.
According to cultural activist Ajeet Praimsingh, Sookraj was one of, if not the most popular members of the famous Sookraj family of artistes of Trinidad.
“He was not only a singer and percussionist but he composed Indian folk melodies including the chatak songs popularly referred to as chutneys,” Praimsingh said.
According to Balkaransingh, Sookraj had been performing as soloist and as part of a group with the Sookraj family since he was a child. He performed extensively in the Caribbean, North America, Europe and South America.
“The Caribbean was his stomping ground. He performed in six Carifesta festivals. He has taught, performed, demonstrated, and was an enclyclopaedia of knowledge and an excellent source of information for researchers,” Balkaransingh said.
Sookraj was born on June 20 1945, the fifth of nine children, and had two brothers and six sisters — Jasodra, Lakpatia, Bissoon, Munilal Sagar, Rajdaye, Rani, Rakhi, and Bharatdaye, popularly known as Polly. He grew up in the village of Campo in Cunupia in the heartland of central Trinidad. His grandparents were indentured immigrants from Gorakpur in Uttar Pradesh, the heart of the Bhojpur region and culture.
By the age of six he had already began receiving formal music training from his father, learning to play the harmonium and the percussion instruments tabla and dholak. He learnt the techniques of rendering several varieties of rhythmic patterns on the dholak, performing for local classical singing, semi classical and the range of light folk melodies such as chautaal, ulara, biraha, jhoomar and many others plus the religious tunes, bhajans and qawalis.
By age 12, Sookraj was already accompanying his father and their troupe of performers in the dance dramas of Harischand, Indarsabha and Sarwan Kumar. As a regular member of the troupe and musical accompanists for other types of Indian music he performed throughout the country at weddings and other public occasions for the Indian community.
In 1962, playing his accordion, he accompanied the then famous local Indian classical singer, Jhagroo Khawal at the Port-of-Spain Town Hall for the national celebrations of Trinidad and Tobago’s Independence.
His contribution to the music of Trinidad and Tobago, the Caribbean and its diaspora is significant. He sang the range of local Indian Classical including Dhrupad, Bhairavi, Tillana Ghazal and folk melodies such as Kajri, Sohar, Jhumar, Ulara, Chautaal, Biraha and Chutney with the same intensity and gusto as he does the modern film songs, bhagans, kirtans and Geets.
Richly endowed with a booming, resonant, voice that easily reached the high octave (taal saptak) and did not require amplification, he was always a favourite of the crowd, whether it was chanting Ramayana at yagnas, singing bhajans for wakes, at concerts or at public performances of local classical or chutney singing.
At home he has performed in almost every competition featuring of local Indian classical music including the National Council of Indian Culture’s (NCIC) annual Local Classical Singing competition. There has been hardly a public gathering of Indian artistes where he was not present and performing.
Sookraj recorded eight long-playing discs and one 45rmp. He taught young students at various primary schools, particularly at St Helena, Aranguez, Tunapuna and Endeavour Hindu Schools for the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha, or at UWI Creative Arts Centre, St Augustine and the Tobago House of Assembly. At UWI he provided musical accompaniment and taught many local Indian folk melodies over the last five years, demonstrating the nuances of these melodic strains and providing other research information on these respective genres to a cross section of enthusiastic students. His last teaching cum -demonstration session was at UWI in November 2010. Last November he complained of feeling unwell and after a few weeks, thinking he was suffering from dengue, was forced to visit the doctor.
By January he had surgery for a failing kidney, but upon operating it was discovered that he had cancer in an advanced stage. He passed away on May 7 at his home.
