ANDAZ

About ANDAZ

The word “Andaz” is a Hindustani word meaning “something new”. Andaz is 55 years old, established way back in 1956. The band also spun “Gayatones” whose band leader Capil Gayadeen was one of the early members of Andaz. The famous chutney master Sundar Popo spent his early years with Andaz as did the current Chutney Soca king Rikki Jai. Andaz was formed by the esteemed Frankie Nanan, considered by many as a real life legend. He was a man well respected in the local Indian music industry and one of the Pioneers responsible for elevating local Indian music to higher standards in Trinidad. Starting with simply a hand organ, a drum set and a few percussion instruments, Andaz, under the leadership of Frankie, and the commitment of his family and band members were able to keep the name Andaz alive and make a dream into a reality. Unfortunately Frankie is no longer with us. He passed away on November 30th 2007, however his legacy lives on.

Andaz is the first Indian Music Band to include Calypso and Soca songs as part of their line up during their performances. This made Andaz the first "crossover band” of Trinidad and Tobago. In so doing it has placed Andaz amongst the top five Crossover Bands in the country. Andaz started touring North America way back in 1985, when we first performed at Toronto’s Caribana. Andaz continues to tour & has added Montreal’s & Hamilton’s Carnivals to its list. Andaz Canadian tour in 1989 took us to Lamport Stadium, Carnival City, the Apollo & numerous other clubs, as well as the road. The crowd went crazy to the sweet sounds & the sweet voice of the lead singer Sidney Wellington. Before going to the 1990 tour Asha released her first Soca Hold it. The 1990 tour started in Montreal Carifesta before returning to Toronto for Caribana. Caribana tours continued through the 90’s.

In the early 90’s Andaz briefly changed it’s name to “Crossfire” to break into the Soca arena. Andaz has done musical battles alongside bands like Shandileer, Blue Ventures, Atlantik, Traffik, Second Imij as well as other Cross-Over bands like JMC Trevini, T&TEC Gayatones, SSL Melo Bugs, Dil-E-Nadan & D Rampersad Indian Art. Musical battlefields included Carnival Village, Toronto & Montreal, Ontario Place, Lamport Stadium, London, We Place, Soca Village, Guaracara Park, Union Hall, Reinzi Complex, Samar & Anand Entertainment Centres etc. In the latter 90’s Andaz did promotions for “White Magic”, “Dairy Dairy” & “Samba Beer” also backing up all artistes for the “National Chutney Mornach Competition” during this time. The band has toured extensively to Canada and the United States over the past 27 years. Frequent visits were also made to England, Guadeloupe, Suriname, and Guyana. In 1998 the band made a change in their operating philosophy addressing the need to promote and market the service they provide by building and creating brand awareness.

This philosophy is represented in the release of the band’s first CD “Millennium Uprising” in 1999, followed by a second CD “Soca Invasion” in 2000. Other notable achievements during 1999 & 2000 were playing for Mastana Bahar’s prelims, quarterfinals, semi-finals & all stars shows. Andaz launched their 2001 CD “Smooth Style” a prelude to the band’s tour to North America on June 30th 2001. Andaz performed for Caribana in Toronto; Carifesta in Montreal; Vancouver & New York. Again in 2004 & 2005 Andaz took part in the Chutney- Soca Brass Festival. Andaz also made in-roads into Port of Spain Carnival, playing live music on the road for Mas Band Poison in 2004 who were then 10,000 masquaraders strong, only the second Indian Crossover band to achieve this. This was followed by playing for “The Dream Team” one of the components of Poison in 2005. This year also saw the production of the CD “Smooth Styles – II” & participation in “Chutney meets Rock” and “The Sugar & Energy Festival”.

In the ensuing years 2006 - 2008 Andaz pursued sponsorship to support it’s growth effort in continued production of music CDs & soliciting air play on the local media without much success. None the less the band completed the music for a CD called “Something New”, comprising of 4 chutney songs and 4 Soca songs, all original tracks. It wasn’t until the latter part of 2009 that two of these original chutney songs were released with a third on 2010. In 2007 Richard also assisted his brother Stephen in the launch of the band “Destiny”. The members of this band are all ex-members of Andaz living in Toronto.

The band experienced a great loss with the passing of Frankie on 30th Nov 2007. This saw a period of very low band activity, resulting in the departure of some former band members. In 2008 these members formed the band Xtreme now Mystic. Other members went to a variety of other up & coming bands. Again Andaz needed to re-define itself. In the latter half of 2009 Asha Nanan Ramrattan returned to the band after a period of 10 yrs which she spent in building her family. Asha now holds the position of Band Manager. She released an original Chutney Soca single – “Culture Fusion”. A second original chutney single Licks by Reshma Maharaj was also released. The band continued its studio recordings in 2010 after entering the Chutney Soca competition for the first time with Culture Fusion. Andaz also took part in the “Battle of the Bands” The Band recorded 7 more songs with Rishta Naate making it to the top of the charts. Andaz re-entered the 2011 Chutney Soca Competition with the original renditions Katrina Gyul sung by Chris Doodal and D’ Stinger sung by Rajesh Sylvester. In May 2011 the band released its tenth single Tum Chayne Ho completing its CD "Unplugged” which was released on the 30th November 2011, in recognition of its Founder Frankie Nanan To end off the year the band released its first single of the next CD Dem BoyZ an original Chutney Soca number and is currently working on its second release for the 2012 Chutney Soca season.