The day intends to remind people of the tragedy of the transatlantic slave trade. It gives people a chance to think about the historic causes and the consequences of slave trade. This year the day has special meaning as 2011 is the International Year for People of African Descent.
In 1998 at its 29th session, the UNESCO Executive Board proclaimed 23 august the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and of its Abolition. The observance was first celebrated in a number of countries, in particular in Haiti, paying tribute to the night of 22-23 August 1791 when the uprising of slaves took place in Santo Domingo island (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic), an uprising began which set forth events which were a major factor in the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade.
The day is not to be confused with the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, observed annually on 2 December.
In Angola the day is marked by a conference organized by the Eduardo dos Santos Foundation at the Agostinho Neto University in Luanda, on the theme "Escravos angolanos povoaram tambem as Antilhas Neerlandesas" (“Angolan slaves also populated the Netherlands Antilles), by Angolan historian Simao Souindoula, member of UNESCO's Scientific Committee.
The day intends to remind people of the tragedy of the transatlantic slave trade. It gives people a chance to think about the historic causes and the consequences of slave trade. This year the day has special meaning as 2011 is the International Year for People of African Descent.
In 1998 at its 29th session, the UNESCO Executive Board proclaimed 23 august the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and of its Abolition. The observance was first celebrated in a number of countries, in particular in Haiti, paying tribute to the night of 22-23 August 1791 when the uprising of slaves took place in Santo Domingo island (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic), an uprising began which set forth events which were a major factor in the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade.
The day is not to be confused with the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, observed annually on 2 December.
In Angola the day is marked by a conference organized by the Eduardo dos Santos Foundation at the Agostinho Neto University in Luanda, on the theme "Escravos angolanos povoaram tambem as Antilhas Neerlandesas" (“Angolan slaves also populated the Netherlands Antilles), by Angolan historian Simao Souindoula, member of UNESCO's Scientific Committee.
Este e’ um ola’ atirado “as cegas” ‘a cortina, por vezes de fumo, por vezes de ferro, que nos vai transformando cada vez mais em “surdos-mudos” (e “cegos”?), mesmo quando usamos meios, como este, inventados supostamente para “nos aproximar e facilitar-nos a comunicacao”…
E’ um ola’ a um velho amigo que, ‘a falta de outra referencia mais recente, incluiria na minha Geracao R – uma geracao em que alguns interiorizaram de tal modo a “rejeicao” que, talvez por nao encontrarem outra saida, nela se 'perderam', enquanto outros, contra ventos, mares e calemas decidiram “rejeita-la” e passar ao largo dela para se afirmarem pessoal, cultural, social e profissionalmente como cidadaos dignos, responsaveis, validos e uteis a sociedade.
Mas creio que todos teremos passado, embora uns mais do que outros e cada um a seu modo, pelos dois lados da reaccao a tal “rejeicao”, e andamos por ai, com maior ou menor sucesso, fazendo a vida e tratando dela – menos os que ficaram pelo caminho e nos abandonaram neste mundo (como este nosso contemporaneo).
E’ um ola’ a um amigo, do que chamaria um pequeno circulo, embora nao exclusivo nem exclusivista e, em grande medida, precario e intermitente, que se manteve em contacto desde os tempos do movimento associativo estudantil de 74/75, se separou entretanto e se voltou a reencontrar, apenas brevemente em alguns casos, na primeira parte da decada de 80.
Ele era um dos poucos que me visitava regularmente sem constrangimentos no(s) meu(s) kubiko(s), quer no do predio da Novembro/Sociborda, quer no do Kinaxixi. Ficavamos a conversa um pouco sobre tudo e nada, ou jogavamos xadrez – demonstrando a nos proprios e a ‘todo o mundo’ que nisso pudesse estar interessado que e’ (sim!) possivel a Amizade e o Respeito Mutuo entre um Homem e uma Mulher sem que a sua relacao tenha forcosamente que envolver sexo e sem que por isso as suas respectivas masculinidade e feminilidade, ou mais precisamente a sua sexualidade, tenham que ser "questionadas"! … Mesmo quando “sozinhos em casa”… o que me lembra aqui, en passant, de uma outra grande amizade masculina nos mesmos moldes na minha vida, que “herdara” das amizades da minha mae, portanto de uma geracao que se separava da nossa por pelo menos uma decada: o Victor Simoes Alexandre (...que saudades…)!
Ja’ nao vejo o Matadi desde aqueles tempos, uns bons 25-30 anos, e apenas voltei a ouvir falar dele pela primeira vez brevemente quando o Buca, outro nosso contemporaneo, esteve comigo em Cape Town ha’ cerca de 5 anos e, mais recentemente, no ano passado, quando soube desta iniciativadele e de outros seus colegas aquando da tragedia do Haiti. E agora, ha’ alguns dias, atraves desta entrevista, que, para alem de noticias da minha geracao, tambem me deu outras noticias do meu pais.
Mas talvez mais do que um ola’ a um contemporaneo, trata-se de um ola’ a um tempo de angustias ‘a mistura com esperancas; um tempo de desenganos e de busca de certezas…
Este e’ um ola’ atirado “as cegas” ‘a cortina, por vezes de fumo, por vezes de ferro, que nos vai transformando cada vez mais em “surdos-mudos” (e “cegos”?), mesmo quando usamos meios, como este, inventados supostamente para “nos aproximar e facilitar-nos a comunicacao”…
E’ um ola’ a um velho amigo que, ‘a falta de outra referencia mais recente, incluiria na minha Geracao R – uma geracao em que alguns interiorizaram de tal modo a “rejeicao” que, talvez por nao encontrarem outra saida, nela se 'perderam', enquanto outros, contra ventos, mares e calemas decidiram “rejeita-la” e passar ao largo dela para se afirmarem pessoal, cultural, social e profissionalmente como cidadaos dignos, responsaveis, validos e uteis a sociedade.
Mas creio que todos teremos passado, embora uns mais do que outros e cada um a seu modo, pelos dois lados da reaccao a tal “rejeicao”, e andamos por ai, com maior ou menor sucesso, fazendo a vida e tratando dela – menos os que ficaram pelo caminho e nos abandonaram neste mundo (como este nosso contemporaneo).
E’ um ola’ a um amigo, do que chamaria um pequeno circulo, embora nao exclusivo nem exclusivista e, em grande medida, precario e intermitente, que se manteve em contacto desde os tempos do movimento associativo estudantil de 74/75, se separou entretanto e se voltou a reencontrar, apenas brevemente em alguns casos, na primeira parte da decada de 80.
Ele era um dos poucos que me visitava regularmente sem constrangimentos no(s) meu(s) kubiko(s), quer no do predio da Novembro/Sociborda, quer no do Kinaxixi. Ficavamos a conversa um pouco sobre tudo e nada, ou jogavamos xadrez – demonstrando a nos proprios e a ‘todo o mundo’ que nisso pudesse estar interessado que e’ (sim!) possivel a Amizade e o Respeito Mutuo entre um Homem e uma Mulher sem que a sua relacao tenha forcosamente que envolver sexo e sem que por isso as suas respectivas masculinidade e feminilidade, ou mais precisamente a sua sexualidade, tenham que ser "questionadas"! … Mesmo quando “sozinhos em casa”… o que me lembra aqui, en passant, de uma outra grande amizade masculina nos mesmos moldes na minha vida, que “herdara” das amizades da minha mae, portanto de uma geracao que se separava da nossa por pelo menos uma decada: o Victor Simoes Alexandre (...que saudades…)!
Ja’ nao vejo o Matadi desde aqueles tempos, uns bons 25-30 anos, e apenas voltei a ouvir falar dele pela primeira vez brevemente quando o Buca, outro nosso contemporaneo, esteve comigo em Cape Town ha’ cerca de 5 anos e, mais recentemente, no ano passado, quando soube desta iniciativadele e de outros seus colegas aquando da tragedia do Haiti. E agora, ha’ alguns dias, atraves desta entrevista, que, para alem de noticias da minha geracao, tambem me deu outras noticias do meu pais.
Mas talvez mais do que um ola’ a um contemporaneo, trata-se de um ola’ a um tempo de angustias ‘a mistura com esperancas; um tempo de desenganos e de busca de certezas…
Depois da viagem no tempo entre "a razao da nossa luta" e "o estado da nossa nacao", regresso a esta serie para uma viagem no espaco que me e’ sugerida por este texto de Ismael Mateus.
Ele transportou-me, ainda que por caminhos um tanto invios, de volta a este apontamento sobre Basquiat – esse que tambem, por seus proprios caminhos invios, nos diz algo sobre o Haiti…
Nao que o perfil e trajectoria dos personagens mencionados por Mateus (os “arlindos”, como lhes chama)* tenham alguma coisa a ver com a vida e obra de Basquiat – embora me ocorra um personagem Angolano, por sinal da minha geracao e, felizmente, ainda vivo, que se lhe assemelha bastante, apesar de se dedicar a outras artes… - e, nao obstante um dos "arlindos" mencionados ja' aqui ter sido apelidado "O Execravel Puto Pe' Descalco", os seus nada teem em comum com os artisticamente descalcos pes de Basquiat!
Tal como o que me levou a Basquiat naquele apontamento nao foi exactamente o proprio, tambem neste caso sao outras as linhas que a ele me transportam: nomeadamente, aquela percepcao de "misplaced identities" (identidades deslocadas, ou fora do seu "espaco de pertenca natural") e esses “seis graus de separacao” (que podem bem ser entre um cadeirao de chefe num novo arranha-ceus envidracado e um luando num velho quintal de terra batida, ou entre a cidade do asfalto e o musseke dos becos), mais a ideia, que se impoe como uma perene espada de Damocles sobre a precaridade de certas “conquistas”, de se estar sempre sujeito a ser-se, de subito, retornado ao lugar de onde se proveio ("go back to where you came from"), associada ao imperativo de, como convem a pobres e insignificantes criaturas, “saber-se sempre o que nos espera!”… Ao que alguns “intelectuais”, mui pomposa e vacuamente, chamariam “involucoes”, "declinacoes", ou "reconversoes" pos-coloniais de uma (ja’ longinqua?) “revolucao” anti-colonial…
Ah!... isso e o 'meu celebre' Basquiat “1960” que, tal como alguns postais ilustrativos da sua obra que comprei em New York no que parecem ser ja’ tempos longinquos, continua sumido num qualquer dos 'trunks' das minhas deambulacoesespaciais dos ultimos anos… mas do qual ontem finalmente (!) consegui encontrar uma imagem aqui – por estranha coincidencia (?) ilustrando (ad infinitum) precisamente um texto que na altura obtive de outras fontes e a que me referi naquele apontamento de ha’ 3 anos!
Et voila, c’est ca la vie au village, avec du bon fufu (funge) et du poisson grille' aromatise' que la grand-mere a prepare', como diria o nosso eterno Manu Dibango – esse que, entre muita outra boa musica criou e tocou Abidjan City, cidade que seria tambem a unica em Africa a ser visitada por Basquiat (embora a influencia do nosso continente na sua obra se revele muito mais vasta, chegando a incluir o Kongo e os seus Nkisi, como pode ser constatado aqui , o que nao sera' de todo uma ocorrencia "out of this world" se atendermos ao facto, aqui notado pelo academico Isaac Bigio, de a populacao do Haiti ser predominantemente descendente de escravos Africanos originarios da regiao Kongo-Niger...) – o que me leva a musica e a esse “You Were There”, ja’ antes bastante tocado neste blog e que aqui volta para nos (re)lembrar de "Marco Mulher" e de como “we're brought into this world” (…talvez em 1960, esse ano seminal para mim, para Basquiat e para a Africa pos-colonial…) e de como “we grow up and get taught the difference between right and wrong” e depois “we grow old and choose for ourselves what’s right and what’s wrong in our own lives”…
You Were There (Nontuthuzelo Pouane with Marcus Wyatt)
*Entretanto, soube que Arlindo Isabel ja’ se encontra a frente de uma nova editora, a Mayamba...
Um "arlindo" sortudo?
Depois da viagem no tempo entre "a razao da nossa luta" e "o estado da nossa nacao", regresso a esta serie para uma viagem no espaco que me e’ sugerida por este texto de Ismael Mateus.
Ele transportou-me, ainda que por caminhos um tanto invios, de volta a este apontamento sobre Basquiat – esse que tambem, por seus proprios caminhos invios, nos diz algo sobre o Haiti…
Nao que o perfil e trajectoria dos personagens mencionados por Mateus (os “arlindos”, como lhes chama)* tenham alguma coisa a ver com a vida e obra de Basquiat – embora me ocorra um personagem Angolano, por sinal da minha geracao e, felizmente, ainda vivo, que se lhe assemelha bastante, apesar de se dedicar a outras artes… - e, nao obstante um dos "arlindos" mencionados ja' aqui ter sido apelidado "O Execravel Puto Pe' Descalco", os seus nada teem em comum com os artisticamente descalcos pes de Basquiat!
Tal como o que me levou a Basquiat naquele apontamento nao foi exactamente o proprio, tambem neste caso sao outras as linhas que a ele me transportam: nomeadamente, aquela percepcao de "misplaced identities" (identidades deslocadas, ou fora do seu "espaco de pertenca natural") e esses “seis graus de separacao” (que podem bem ser entre um cadeirao de chefe num novo arranha-ceus envidracado e um luando num velho quintal de terra batida, ou entre a cidade do asfalto e o musseke dos becos), mais a ideia, que se impoe como uma perene espada de Damocles sobre a precaridade de certas “conquistas”, de se estar sempre sujeito a ser-se, de subito, retornado ao lugar de onde se proveio ("go back to where you came from"), associada ao imperativo de, como convem a pobres e insignificantes criaturas, “saber-se sempre o que nos espera!”… Ao que alguns “intelectuais”, mui pomposa e vacuamente, chamariam “involucoes”, "declinacoes", ou "reconversoes" pos-coloniais de uma (ja’ longinqua?) “revolucao” anti-colonial…
Ah!... isso e o 'meu celebre' Basquiat “1960” que, tal como alguns postais ilustrativos da sua obra que comprei em New York no que parecem ser ja’ tempos longinquos, continua sumido num qualquer dos 'trunks' das minhas deambulacoesespaciais dos ultimos anos… mas do qual ontem finalmente (!) consegui encontrar uma imagem aqui – por estranha coincidencia (?) ilustrando (ad infinitum) precisamente um texto que na altura obtive de outras fontes e a que me referi naquele apontamento de ha’ 3 anos!
Et voila, c’est ca la vie au village, avec du bon fufu (funge) et du poisson grille' aromatise' que la grand-mere a prepare', como diria o nosso eterno Manu Dibango – esse que, entre muita outra boa musica criou e tocou Abidjan City, cidade que seria tambem a unica em Africa a ser visitada por Basquiat (embora a influencia do nosso continente na sua obra se revele muito mais vasta, chegando a incluir o Kongo e os seus Nkisi, como pode ser constatado aqui , o que nao sera' de todo uma ocorrencia "out of this world" se atendermos ao facto, aqui notado pelo academico Isaac Bigio, de a populacao do Haiti ser predominantemente descendente de escravos Africanos originarios da regiao Kongo-Niger...) – o que me leva a musica e a esse “You Were There”, ja’ antes bastante tocado neste blog e que aqui volta para nos (re)lembrar de "Marco Mulher" e de como “we're brought into this world” (…talvez em 1960, esse ano seminal para mim, para Basquiat e para a Africa pos-colonial…) e de como “we grow up and get taught the difference between right and wrong” e depois “we grow old and choose for ourselves what’s right and what’s wrong in our own lives”…
You Were There (Nontuthuzelo Pouane with Marcus Wyatt)
*Entretanto, soube que Arlindo Isabel ja’ se encontra a frente de uma nova editora, a Mayamba...
Cristophe Colomb fut le premier à découvrir Haïti en 1492, un évènement qui devait transformer la région en une économie esclavagiste basée sur le commerce lucrative de la canne à sucre et autres produits agricoles. Au 17ème siècle, Haïti, la Martinique et la Guadeloupe étaient déjà devenues des colonies françaises. Haïti parvint à l’indépendence en 1804 suite à la révolte des esclaves, qui fut d’ailleurs la seule couronnée de succès de toute l’histoire.
La quasi totalité des genres musicaux venant d’ Haïti, de Martinique et de Guadeloupe est basée sur des rythmes traditionnels africains. Le compass Haïtien est un rythme medio tempo vraiment captivant et rempli de quiproquos à connotation sexuelle dont le saxophonist Jean Baptiste Nemours fut l’un des précurseurs. Sur le plan musical, ce style s’inspire directement de rythmes aussi variés que la merengue dominicaine, le calypso de l’ile de la Trinité, le jazz, le swing et plus récement le hip hop américain. Dès les années 60-70, le compass haïtien était également devenu le style de musique le plus populaire en Martinique et en Guadeloupe.
Michel Martelly, plus connu sous le nom de “Sweet Micky” a grandi à Carrefour, une banlieue de Port-Au-Prince, avec son frère et ses quatre souers. Son charme charimastique et sa voix brûlante ont propulsé Sweet Micky au firmament de la scène musicale compass haïtienne. Allors qu’il attribute son inspiration à des artistes comme Tabou Combo, Skah Shah et la légende du Cap Vert Cesária Évora. Micky a crée son propre son en alliant le compass avec quelques touches de reggae, de jazz, de soca et même de rara haïtienne (genre musical inspiré d’un festival folklorique haïtien).
[Pa Manyen Fanm Nan - Michel Martelly]
“Pa Manyen Fanm Nan” a été enregistré dans le cadre du très acclamé projet Haïti Twoubadou. La musique de cette chanson, rendue célèbre dans le monde entier par Cesária Évora, reprend l’hymne de Ramiro Mendes.
[Angola - Cesária Évora]
The enthralling style of music known as twoubadou dates back to the turn of the 20th century, when Haïtian migrant workers, returning from Cuban sugar plantations, brought this guitar-driven genre back with them. The Haïti Twoubadou project’s producers Fabrice Rouzier and Clement Belizaire put together a lineup that reads like an all-star list of the contemporary Haitian music scene. It features Michel Martelly, Les Freres Dodo, James Germain, Fabrice Rouzier, Michael Benjamin, Ralph Papillion, Hans Peters, Black Alex, Don Kato, Jackito, Beethova Obas and many others. These troubadours have also used the spotlight that the project has generated to help raise awareness for a variety of social problems in Haïti, including support for better education and the fight against AIDS.
Haïti Twoubadou has become such a success that the series has now extended to four volumes. This romantic sound that evokes Haïti’s windswept beaches is now being imitated in countless new twoubadou recordings, and has sparked a revival of acoustic music in the Haïtian diaspora.
[Ki Demon Sa-a - Haïti Twoubadou]
Emeline Michel was born in Gonaives, Haiti. She began singing gospel music in her local church. After studying music professionally at the Detroit Jazz Center; Michel returned to Haiti, where she released the first of her seven CDs, and was subsequently dubbed, “The Queen of Haitian Song.” Michel has made a name for herself through both her consciously aware songwriting and captivating performances. Her music combines traditional Haitian melodies with a plethora of sounds including compass, twoubadou, rara, jazz, rock, blues, bossa nova and samba.
“Moso Manman” is from Michel’s album Cordes et Ame (Strings and Soul). It is a self-produced collection of predominantly acoustic songs centered around the theme of perseverance (many are references to the political and social struggles that Haiti has been going through). Emeline Michel wrote “Moso Manman (Strong Mama)” as an ode to mothers. The lyrics say, “Dance with me mama, come dance with me mama, because even with diamonds, I can never repay you.”
[Moso Manman - Emeline Michel]
Alex Abellard launched the cutting-edge Haitian compass band Zin while he was attending City College of New York in the late 1980s. Zin is a Haitian creole word that can be interpreted both as “extraordinary” and “gossip”, two ideas that, as the group’s founder Alex Abellard puts it, “conjure up the image of the group, something that’s amazing, perhaps gossip, but something that you certainly want to hear.”
In the late 1980s, after the Haitian dictator Duvalier was overthrown, compass experienced a revival in Haiti and in expatriot communities like Miami and Brooklyn (now, the place with the second largest Haitian population in the world after Port au Prince). “When we came to New York,” explains Abellard, “we were listening to other music such as disco and hip-hop. We wanted to create a sound that was both from our own country [Haiti] while modernizing it at the same time.”
[Kanpe Sou Yon Bit - Zin]
In the late 1990s, Carlo Vieux, Richard Cave’, and Mickael Guirand decided to leave their native Haiti to pursue musical careers in the United States. All three men had strong backgrounds in Haitian compass, having played in the past with a number of popular groups. When they united in New York City, they moved to create a dynamic new form of Haitian compass, adding touches of zouk, reggae and hip-hop. Their name is a fusion of the band members’ names: Carlo, Richard, and Mickael.
“Ayiti (Bang Bang)” is the title track from their groundbreaking debut recording. The song became an immediate smash, and helped the group win “Album of the Year” at the 2001 Haitian Music Awards. Carimi uses the song as a strong indictment on the current socio-economic situation in Haiti, comparing it to the lawlessness portrayed in comic books (The reference to “Lucky Luke” in the song comes from a Belgian comic book character) and Hollywood’s images of the wild west: “My country has turned into a cowboy movie/ Bang Bang, Lucky Luke/ My country’s not a game/ Stop playing with it.”
[Ayiti (Bang Bang) - Carimi]
Tendo comecado com uma cancao em que se podem ouvir notas de outras ilhas musicais (Cabo Verde), termino com duas que, por sua vez, revelam a influencia do Haiti na linguagem musical de outras ilhas do Caribe/Antilhas, nomeadamente a Martinica e Guadeloupe (neste caso com os Kassav - que, interessantemente, em mwangole' se traduz para, mais do que apenas mandioca, funje - e um certo Rete', ja' tocado neste blog ha' uns tempos, que tambem diz algo sobre o (re)contagio destes estilos musicais com alguma da musica feita por Angolanos, como pode ser constatado aqui). Veja-se tambem, a este proposito, embora neste caso nao se possa falar propriamente de um directo "(re)contagio", o Kanpe Sou Yon Bit dos Zin, acima, em relacao a alguma da musica de um certo Afroman...
[Man Biswenw - Jean-Luc Alger]
Jean-Luc Alger hails from Martinique and had a long and illustrious career on the Caribbean music scene. He joined his first band in 1970, Les Sympas, with which he performed Haitian style compas. After a brief stint in the military, where he was part of the army band, he embarked on a successful career as bandleader and singer for the group Lazair. One highlight of this period was his work with famed singer Edith Lefel, with whom he recorded the hit song “Ice Manman” in 1984. Since the early 1990s, Alger has been working with the band Klima, and has specialized in hard-driving zouk performed with a real horn section and rhythms that keep a close connection to the roots and folklore of the French Caribbean. Recently, Alger has been working closely with producer Ronald Rubinel, one of the most respected and inventive composers and producers in modern French Caribbean music.
[Rete' - Kassav]
The world’s leading zouk band, Kassav, began with the inspiration of three men from Guadeloupe: brothers Pierre-Edouard and Georges Decimus and Jacob Desvarieux. They used the latest studio technology from Paris and created a new sound by fusing salsa, compass, reggae and other Caribbean styles with the folk rhythms of Martinique and Guadeloupe. “Before we got started”, explains Desvarieux, “the scene here in the French Antilles was dominated by Haitian compass. We wanted to create something new.”
Their name comes from the popular Caribbean dish, cassava (a mix of manioc paste and coconut). The band took shape with some of the leading musicians and vocalists from Guadeloupe and Martinique such as Jocelyn Beroard, Ralph Thamar and Jean-Phillipe Marthely. They quickly became one of the most successful bands both in France and the Caribbean, recording over a dozen hit albums, and inventing a genre.
By the mid-1980s, the group was selling out stadiums around the world with tours that spanned six continents. Kassav’s live version of the Jean-Philippe Marthely composition “Rete” is from their legendary 1986 concert at the Zenith in Paris.
*{In response to the devastating earthquake in Haiti, Putumayo Recordsis re-releasing their French Caribbean CD (first released in 2003 and on which this post is based) and donating 100% of the proceeds from the sale of each CD to The Red Cross, throughout 2010. Five of the (10) songs on the collection are by Haitian musicians.}
Cristophe Colomb fut le premier à découvrir Haïti en 1492, un évènement qui devait transformer la région en une économie esclavagiste basée sur le commerce lucrative de la canne à sucre et autres produits agricoles. Au 17ème siècle, Haïti, la Martinique et la Guadeloupe étaient déjà devenues des colonies françaises. Haïti parvint à l’indépendence en 1804 suite à la révolte des esclaves, qui fut d’ailleurs la seule couronnée de succès de toute l’histoire.
La quasi totalité des genres musicaux venant d’ Haïti, de Martinique et de Guadeloupe est basée sur des rythmes traditionnels africains. Le compass Haïtien est un rythme medio tempo vraiment captivant et rempli de quiproquos à connotation sexuelle dont le saxophonist Jean Baptiste Nemours fut l’un des précurseurs. Sur le plan musical, ce style s’inspire directement de rythmes aussi variés que la merengue dominicaine, le calypso de l’ile de la Trinité, le jazz, le swing et plus récement le hip hop américain. Dès les années 60-70, le compass haïtien était également devenu le style de musique le plus populaire en Martinique et en Guadeloupe.
Michel Martelly, plus connu sous le nom de “Sweet Micky” a grandi à Carrefour, une banlieue de Port-Au-Prince, avec son frère et ses quatre souers. Son charme charimastique et sa voix brûlante ont propulsé Sweet Micky au firmament de la scène musicale compass haïtienne. Allors qu’il attribute son inspiration à des artistes comme Tabou Combo, Skah Shah et la légende du Cap Vert Cesária Évora. Micky a crée son propre son en alliant le compass avec quelques touches de reggae, de jazz, de soca et même de rara haïtienne (genre musical inspiré d’un festival folklorique haïtien).
[Pa Manyen Fanm Nan - Michel Martelly]
“Pa Manyen Fanm Nan” a été enregistré dans le cadre du très acclamé projet Haïti Twoubadou. La musique de cette chanson, rendue célèbre dans le monde entier par Cesária Évora, reprend l’hymne de Ramiro Mendes.
[Angola - Cesária Évora]
The enthralling style of music known as twoubadou dates back to the turn of the 20th century, when Haïtian migrant workers, returning from Cuban sugar plantations, brought this guitar-driven genre back with them. The Haïti Twoubadou project’s producers Fabrice Rouzier and Clement Belizaire put together a lineup that reads like an all-star list of the contemporary Haitian music scene. It features Michel Martelly, Les Freres Dodo, James Germain, Fabrice Rouzier, Michael Benjamin, Ralph Papillion, Hans Peters, Black Alex, Don Kato, Jackito, Beethova Obas and many others. These troubadours have also used the spotlight that the project has generated to help raise awareness for a variety of social problems in Haïti, including support for better education and the fight against AIDS.
Haïti Twoubadou has become such a success that the series has now extended to four volumes. This romantic sound that evokes Haïti’s windswept beaches is now being imitated in countless new twoubadou recordings, and has sparked a revival of acoustic music in the Haïtian diaspora.
[Ki Demon Sa-a - Haïti Twoubadou]
Emeline Michel was born in Gonaives, Haiti. She began singing gospel music in her local church. After studying music professionally at the Detroit Jazz Center; Michel returned to Haiti, where she released the first of her seven CDs, and was subsequently dubbed, “The Queen of Haitian Song.” Michel has made a name for herself through both her consciously aware songwriting and captivating performances. Her music combines traditional Haitian melodies with a plethora of sounds including compass, twoubadou, rara, jazz, rock, blues, bossa nova and samba.
“Moso Manman” is from Michel’s album Cordes et Ame (Strings and Soul). It is a self-produced collection of predominantly acoustic songs centered around the theme of perseverance (many are references to the political and social struggles that Haiti has been going through). Emeline Michel wrote “Moso Manman (Strong Mama)” as an ode to mothers. The lyrics say, “Dance with me mama, come dance with me mama, because even with diamonds, I can never repay you.”
[Moso Manman - Emeline Michel]
Alex Abellard launched the cutting-edge Haitian compass band Zin while he was attending City College of New York in the late 1980s. Zin is a Haitian creole word that can be interpreted both as “extraordinary” and “gossip”, two ideas that, as the group’s founder Alex Abellard puts it, “conjure up the image of the group, something that’s amazing, perhaps gossip, but something that you certainly want to hear.”
In the late 1980s, after the Haitian dictator Duvalier was overthrown, compass experienced a revival in Haiti and in expatriot communities like Miami and Brooklyn (now, the place with the second largest Haitian population in the world after Port au Prince). “When we came to New York,” explains Abellard, “we were listening to other music such as disco and hip-hop. We wanted to create a sound that was both from our own country [Haiti] while modernizing it at the same time.”
[Kanpe Sou Yon Bit - Zin]
In the late 1990s, Carlo Vieux, Richard Cave’, and Mickael Guirand decided to leave their native Haiti to pursue musical careers in the United States. All three men had strong backgrounds in Haitian compass, having played in the past with a number of popular groups. When they united in New York City, they moved to create a dynamic new form of Haitian compass, adding touches of zouk, reggae and hip-hop. Their name is a fusion of the band members’ names: Carlo, Richard, and Mickael.
“Ayiti (Bang Bang)” is the title track from their groundbreaking debut recording. The song became an immediate smash, and helped the group win “Album of the Year” at the 2001 Haitian Music Awards. Carimi uses the song as a strong indictment on the current socio-economic situation in Haiti, comparing it to the lawlessness portrayed in comic books (The reference to “Lucky Luke” in the song comes from a Belgian comic book character) and Hollywood’s images of the wild west: “My country has turned into a cowboy movie/ Bang Bang, Lucky Luke/ My country’s not a game/ Stop playing with it.”
[Ayiti (Bang Bang) - Carimi]
Tendo comecado com uma cancao em que se podem ouvir notas de outras ilhas musicais (Cabo Verde), termino com duas que, por sua vez, revelam a influencia do Haiti na linguagem musical de outras ilhas do Caribe/Antilhas, nomeadamente a Martinica e Guadeloupe (neste caso com os Kassav - que, interessantemente, em mwangole' se traduz para, mais do que apenas mandioca, funje - e um certo Rete', ja' tocado neste blog ha' uns tempos, que tambem diz algo sobre o (re)contagio destes estilos musicais com alguma da musica feita por Angolanos, como pode ser constatado aqui). Veja-se tambem, a este proposito, embora neste caso nao se possa falar propriamente de um directo "(re)contagio", o Kanpe Sou Yon Bit dos Zin, acima, em relacao a alguma da musica de um certo Afroman...
[Man Biswenw - Jean-Luc Alger]
Jean-Luc Alger hails from Martinique and had a long and illustrious career on the Caribbean music scene. He joined his first band in 1970, Les Sympas, with which he performed Haitian style compas. After a brief stint in the military, where he was part of the army band, he embarked on a successful career as bandleader and singer for the group Lazair. One highlight of this period was his work with famed singer Edith Lefel, with whom he recorded the hit song “Ice Manman” in 1984. Since the early 1990s, Alger has been working with the band Klima, and has specialized in hard-driving zouk performed with a real horn section and rhythms that keep a close connection to the roots and folklore of the French Caribbean. Recently, Alger has been working closely with producer Ronald Rubinel, one of the most respected and inventive composers and producers in modern French Caribbean music.
[Rete' - Kassav]
The world’s leading zouk band, Kassav, began with the inspiration of three men from Guadeloupe: brothers Pierre-Edouard and Georges Decimus and Jacob Desvarieux. They used the latest studio technology from Paris and created a new sound by fusing salsa, compass, reggae and other Caribbean styles with the folk rhythms of Martinique and Guadeloupe. “Before we got started”, explains Desvarieux, “the scene here in the French Antilles was dominated by Haitian compass. We wanted to create something new.”
Their name comes from the popular Caribbean dish, cassava (a mix of manioc paste and coconut). The band took shape with some of the leading musicians and vocalists from Guadeloupe and Martinique such as Jocelyn Beroard, Ralph Thamar and Jean-Phillipe Marthely. They quickly became one of the most successful bands both in France and the Caribbean, recording over a dozen hit albums, and inventing a genre.
By the mid-1980s, the group was selling out stadiums around the world with tours that spanned six continents. Kassav’s live version of the Jean-Philippe Marthely composition “Rete” is from their legendary 1986 concert at the Zenith in Paris.
*{In response to the devastating earthquake in Haiti, Putumayo Recordsis re-releasing their French Caribbean CD (first released in 2003 and on which this post is based) and donating 100% of the proceeds from the sale of each CD to The Red Cross, throughout 2010. Five of the (10) songs on the collection are by Haitian musicians.}
For the earth that shivered its skin like an old horse For the shout of the sun, of the earth as it broke its heart For the white palace that fell into itself like snow For the hospital, for its rows of white graves For the cathedral that folded on emptiness calling God's name as it went For its psalms of sorrow, the prayers of the living and dead For each house crushed with its cots and cushions and cups cooking pots pressed between pages of stone For the small lung of air that kept someone alive For the rescuer's hand reaching into the void For the slip of a life from its grip For the smile of daylight on a woman's face For her daughter dead in the dark For the baby born in the rubble For tomorrow's whistling workmen with their hods of bricks For scaffolding and walls rising from the grave over rosaries of bones
When Carol Ann Duffy heard about the cataclysmic earthquake in Haiti, the Poet Laureate felt it was not enough to pull out her credit card and donate some money to those left suffering in its wake. Instead, she contacted 23 of Britain's most eminent poets to mobilise them for one of the biggest charity poetry jamborees for decades. Two hours after she requested their help, she had received a deluge of enthusiastic replies. Some pledged to write new poems relating to the disaster, while others said they would read verses filled with love, humour, sadness and death, some to music, to mark the moment. Poetry Life for Haiti, which takes place today at Westminster Central Hall, has been billed as Band Aid for poets. Roger McGough, the former poet laureate Andrew Motion, Brian Patten, the national poet of Wales Gillian Clarke, Elaine Feinstein, and the Costa-prize winning Christopher Reid will all be taking part, as well as Duffy herself.
N.B.: You can read about Haiti's History in this textwhich I annexed some time ago tothis post.You can also read about the challenges facing Small Islands Development States (SIDS), which include Haiti, here.
For the earth that shivered its skin like an old horse For the shout of the sun, of the earth as it broke its heart For the white palace that fell into itself like snow For the hospital, for its rows of white graves For the cathedral that folded on emptiness calling God's name as it went For its psalms of sorrow, the prayers of the living and dead For each house crushed with its cots and cushions and cups cooking pots pressed between pages of stone For the small lung of air that kept someone alive For the rescuer's hand reaching into the void For the slip of a life from its grip For the smile of daylight on a woman's face For her daughter dead in the dark For the baby born in the rubble For tomorrow's whistling workmen with their hods of bricks For scaffolding and walls rising from the grave over rosaries of bones
When Carol Ann Duffy heard about the cataclysmic earthquake in Haiti, the Poet Laureate felt it was not enough to pull out her credit card and donate some money to those left suffering in its wake. Instead, she contacted 23 of Britain's most eminent poets to mobilise them for one of the biggest charity poetry jamborees for decades. Two hours after she requested their help, she had received a deluge of enthusiastic replies. Some pledged to write new poems relating to the disaster, while others said they would read verses filled with love, humour, sadness and death, some to music, to mark the moment. Poetry Life for Haiti, which takes place today at Westminster Central Hall, has been billed as Band Aid for poets. Roger McGough, the former poet laureate Andrew Motion, Brian Patten, the national poet of Wales Gillian Clarke, Elaine Feinstein, and the Costa-prize winning Christopher Reid will all be taking part, as well as Duffy herself.
N.B.: You can read about Haiti's History in this textwhich I annexed some time ago tothis post.You can also read about the challenges facing Small Islands Development States (SIDS), which include Haiti, here.
On Tuesday, a catastrophic earthquake struck near Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The full extent of the damage is still being assessed, but the death toll -- already in the thousands -- is climbing fast.
This is the worst earthquake to hit the area in more than 200 years. Entire communities have been ripped apart and as many as 3 million people have been directly affected, including tens of thousands of American citizens who are in Haiti.
Our neighbors in Haiti are racing to confront the enormous devastation -- and the OFA community can help.
Footage is pouring in of homes collapsing, Haitians carrying injured family members, and hospitals being overrun in what was already the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere.
I have directed my administration to respond with a swift, coordinated, and aggressive effort to save lives. Personnel from the United States and our partners in the international community are on the ground in damaged areas right now, working side by side with the Haitian people. They're providing much-needed food, water, and sanitation supplies, saving lives and helping local communities start to rebuild.
Despite the fact that we are experiencing tough times here at home, I encourage those who can to reach out and help. It's in times like these that we must show the kind of compassion and humanity that has defined the best of our national character for generations.
Click here to find out what you can do:
http://my.barackobama.com/Haiti
As this story continues to unfold, I hope you will continue to keep the people of Haiti in your thoughts and prayers, as well as the many Haitian-Americans who have done so much to enrich our country and who are worried about friends and loved ones in this time of need.
There is that fine line between reality and fiction, truth and untruth, face and mask, genuine and fake, real and imagined which we all claim to know… and it seems to me that nowhere in life that line is more blurred than in art… fortunately, or unfortunately. In fact, there’s those ‘six degrees of separation’ which some claim to have we all in the planet at a short distance from each other through a chain of interconnections, but in reality always seem to keep us apart… as if at such a short distance we could all claim to ‘know’ each other, but never quite so… or maybe not! Whatever the case, I always think of these things when I think about Jean-Michel Basquiat. And, when I think about Basquiat, I always think of the strange, often devious, ways in which issues of identity, authenticity and the like are resolved, or unresolved, in (or through) art and in life in general…
“I cross out words so you will see them more – the fact that they are obscured makes you want to read them” "The History of Black People"
In the words of Robert Knafo, one of his biographers, “In his short life (1960-1988), Jean-Michel Basquiat came to personify the art scene of the 80s, with its merging of youth culture, money, hype, excess, and self-destruction. And then there was the work, which the public image tended to overshadow: paintings and drawings that conjured up marginal urban black culture and black history, as well as the artist's own conflicted sense of identity. He was, all at once it seemed, the ultimate party animal, a wannabe street kid and graffitist hiding his black Brooklyn middle class roots, an advocate and interpreter of the marginal and dispossessed at the court of the mainstream, an angry black aspirant to the all-white art canon, a precocious talent, a creature of cynical marketing and a fraud, a proto-multiculturalist, an American original.”
Indeed, in his angry aspiration to that "all-white art canon” he met Andy Warhol, the ring-master of the so called 'Neo-Expressionist movement' and of clever, cynical marketing fakery - some, certainly Knafo, would call it fraud - to whom in their first encounter he sold a postcard for one dollar, and went on to date Madonna while keeping his “real life” heroes Malcolm X, Jimi Hendrix and Charlie Parker close to heart until he died of a drugs overdose aged 28. Born of a Haitian father and a Puerto-Rican mother, his art is perhaps the best, albeit most disturbing, expression of a misplaced Black/African identity in spite of Knafo's claim of him being “an American original”… or maybe not… or maybe yes... because that’s what makes for “American originality”: misplaced identities, isn't it? Anyway, I’m not an art critic and after all here’s what he thought of them: “I don’t think about art when I’m working. I try to think about life… I don’t listen to what art critics say. I don’t know anybody who needs a critic to find out what art is.”
I also always think of Basquiat when I think of that movie, made out of a stage play, “Six Degrees of Separation” (1993), featuring Will Smith (in what I think is his best role ever!), Donald Sutherland and (Sir) Ian McKellen among other fine actors such as Stockard Channing, who was nominated for a Golden Globe and an Oscar for her role in it. Why? I haven’t got the faintest idea! Having seen it twice, I don’t recall anything in it relating to Basquiat… but maybe he was just away from the plot by six degrees... because Paul (Smith) - while presenting himself as "the son" of Sidney Poitier (something also evocative of "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner"), whose father was in reality, as Basquiat's, of Haitian descent - plays the ultimate faker and double-crosser in his angry quest for an all-white cultural "background" and behavioural and literary canon... or just because Louisa (Channing) and Flanders (Sutherland) play rich NYC art dealers, while their South African business partner Miller (Mckellen) brings them all to his “reality” about race relations… or, probably, because Paul eventually dies, just as Basquiat very young but not of drugs, in prison, when he was finally taken back to the "reality" of his own social and racial condition, or, put shortly, when he was taken back to "where he came from"!... I don’t know. There’s a movie that’s really about him though, “Basquiat” (1996), starring David Bowie, Dennis Hopper and Benicio del Toro, which I haven’t seen yet.
You can find Basquiat works (mostly print copies) and memorabilia pretty much everywhere these days. And it can come cheap too, from as low as ₤3 to an average ₤30 per print, on eBay for instance, unless you are well off enough to get a signed copy at something like ₤1200… but it doesn’t seem really to go over ₤2000-₤3000 on average, so apparently you don’t need to be very rich to buy something signed Basquiat these days (of course I'm not talking about the really pricey originals here - most of them held in museums and not for sale anyway; or auctioned by big houses, where they can get to millions of pounds)*.
I’m not rich, old or new, so I got mine some 12 years ago (a print copy titled “1960”, which apparently is rare since I couldn’t find it anywhere on the web…) for ₤10 at the ever so popular Camden Market!
*E.g. his Untitled (1981) sold one month after this post was written by Sotheby's (New York) for $14,600,000 or his Grillo (1984) sold by Phillips de Pury & Company (London) yet a month later that same year for £4,948,000!
There is that fine line between reality and fiction, truth and untruth, face and mask, genuine and fake, real and imagined which we all claim to know… and it seems to me that nowhere in life that line is more blurred than in art… fortunately, or unfortunately. In fact, there’s those ‘six degrees of separation’ which some claim to have we all in the planet at a short distance from each other through a chain of interconnections, but in reality always seem to keep us apart… as if at such a short distance we could all claim to ‘know’ each other, but never quite so… or maybe not! Whatever the case, I always think of these things when I think about Jean-Michel Basquiat. And, when I think about Basquiat, I always think of the strange, often devious, ways in which issues of identity, authenticity and the like are resolved, or unresolved, in (or through) art and in life in general…
“I cross out words so you will see them more – the fact that they are obscured makes you want to read them” "The History of Black People"
In the words of Robert Knafo, one of his biographers, “In his short life (1960-1988), Jean-Michel Basquiat came to personify the art scene of the 80s, with its merging of youth culture, money, hype, excess, and self-destruction. And then there was the work, which the public image tended to overshadow: paintings and drawings that conjured up marginal urban black culture and black history, as well as the artist's own conflicted sense of identity. He was, all at once it seemed, the ultimate party animal, a wannabe street kid and graffitist hiding his black Brooklyn middle class roots, an advocate and interpreter of the marginal and dispossessed at the court of the mainstream, an angry black aspirant to the all-white art canon, a precocious talent, a creature of cynical marketing and a fraud, a proto-multiculturalist, an American original.”
Indeed, in his angry aspiration to that "all-white art canon” he met Andy Warhol, the ring-master of the so called 'Neo-Expressionist movement' and of clever, cynical marketing fakery - some, certainly Knafo, would call it fraud - to whom in their first encounter he sold a postcard for one dollar, and went on to date Madonna while keeping his “real life” heroes Malcolm X, Jimi Hendrix and Charlie Parker close to heart until he died of a drugs overdose aged 28. Born of a Haitian father and a Puerto-Rican mother, his art is perhaps the best, albeit most disturbing, expression of a misplaced Black/African identity in spite of Knafo's claim of him being “an American original”… or maybe not… or maybe yes... because that’s what makes for “American originality”: misplaced identities, isn't it? Anyway, I’m not an art critic and after all here’s what he thought of them: “I don’t think about art when I’m working. I try to think about life… I don’t listen to what art critics say. I don’t know anybody who needs a critic to find out what art is.”
I also always think of Basquiat when I think of that movie, made out of a stage play, “Six Degrees of Separation” (1993), featuring Will Smith (in what I think is his best role ever!), Donald Sutherland and (Sir) Ian McKellen among other fine actors such as Stockard Channing, who was nominated for a Golden Globe and an Oscar for her role in it. Why? I haven’t got the faintest idea! Having seen it twice, I don’t recall anything in it relating to Basquiat… but maybe he was just away from the plot by six degrees... because Paul (Smith) - while presenting himself as "the son" of Sidney Poitier (something also evocative of "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner"), whose father was in reality, as Basquiat's, of Haitian descent - plays the ultimate faker and double-crosser in his angry quest for an all-white cultural "background" and behavioural and literary canon... or just because Louisa (Channing) and Flanders (Sutherland) play rich NYC art dealers, while their South African business partner Miller (Mckellen) brings them all to his “reality” about race relations… or, probably, because Paul eventually dies, just as Basquiat very young but not of drugs, in prison, when he was finally taken back to the "reality" of his own social and racial condition, or, put shortly, when he was taken back to "where he came from"!... I don’t know. There’s a movie that’s really about him though, “Basquiat” (1996), starring David Bowie, Dennis Hopper and Benicio del Toro, which I haven’t seen yet.
You can find Basquiat works (mostly print copies) and memorabilia pretty much everywhere these days. And it can come cheap too, from as low as ₤3 to an average ₤30 per print, on eBay for instance, unless you are well off enough to get a signed copy at something like ₤1200… but it doesn’t seem really to go over ₤2000-₤3000 on average, so apparently you don’t need to be very rich to buy something signed Basquiat these days (of course I'm not talking about the really pricey originals here - most of them held in museums and not for sale anyway; or auctioned by big houses, where they can get to millions of pounds)*.
I’m not rich, old or new, so I got mine some 12 years ago (a print copy titled “1960”, which apparently is rare since I couldn’t find it anywhere on the web…) for ₤10 at the ever so popular Camden Market!
*E.g. his Untitled (1981) sold one month after this post was written by Sotheby's (New York) for $14,600,000 or his Grillo (1984) sold by Phillips de Pury & Company (London) yet a month later that same year for £4,948,000!
