SEETA PERSAD Tuesday, May 30 2006

Harry: Music keeps me young

Thirty-five years ago, his face was shown for the first time on television on the talent show Mastana Bahar. Today, the versatile musician and music director Harry Mahabir still looks as young and handsome as he did then.

“The music keeps me young at heart. I feel strong emotionally and physically,” said Harry with a deep voice that certainly showed he has the strength. He is the music director of the Winston Williams National Indian Orchestra of Trinidad and Tobago.

Displaying a liking for music from the age of 15, Harry joined the Naya Zamana Orchestra led by the late Oustad Nazir Mohammed from whom he received some of his early training. From 1965 to 1967, Harry was in India on a scholarship to study Indian music. In 1972 he was awarded the Hummingbird Silver Medal for music.

The “maestro” has played background music in several films including the movie Ram Aur Shyam while in India. Harry has been a close associate of producer Sham Mohammed since his early days with the Naya Zamana Orchestra. Since then, he has learnt to appreciate the high standards set by Mohammed and the quality of music he has been supplying over the years is ample proof of this.

Maestro Harry is one of the most qualified East Indian musicians in this country, having spent 50 years of his life in music.

Speaking from his home in Barataria, he said he was born in Sangre Grande, and grew up listening to his father Roopna Mahabir play the violin.

“The strings of this musical instrument really impacted on me as a child. I believe it is this instrument that really inspired me to get into music,” he said. As a young man Harry experimented with the harmonium and the dholak, and soon was playing music at public functions.

Mahabir was associated with the Mastana Bahar programme on which he lent his expertise for 20 years. “This series really dominated my life. Although we went on TV just once a week the auditions and rehearsals for contestants lasted many days,” he said. Because of his presence on Mastana, he had to interact with thousands of singers through the preliminaries, semi-finals and finals of this programme. He is known for playing the accordian. “Despite the fact that there are many modern instruments that can carry developed sounds, the accordian has a sweet sound that cannot be found in the electronic music,” he said.

Harry has taken his music to New York, Miami, Canada, and the UK.

Having spent so many years developing music, he is back with Mastana Bahar for the 2006 series.