Music of the Lesser Antilles
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| Caribbean music |
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| Bahamas |
| Bermuda |
| Cayman Islands |
| Cuba |
| Dominican Republic |
| Haiti |
| Jamaica |
| Lesser Antilles |
| Puerto Rico |
| Turks and Caicos Islands |
The Lesser Antilles, an island chain composed of Martinique, Guadeloupe, Dominica and other countries and dependencies, is best-known internationally for the mid-1980s international craze zouk.
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French Antilles
Zouk's development can be traced back to the Guadeloupan gwo ka and Martinican tambour and twi ba traditions. Gwo ka is a type of percussion music which consists of seven basic rhythms and variations on them. It has been modernized into gwo ka moderne, though traditional rural performances (lewoz) are still common. Like many Antillean genres, the band Kassav' helped bring gwo ka to the forefront of international consciousness by including a gwo ka ensemble in the studio and incorporate influences from drumming legends like Velo.
Tambour/twi ba ensembles is the origin of Martinican chouval bwa, biguine and later, zouk. Chouval bwa includes multiple distinctive instruments and includes internationally famous performers like Claude Germany, Dede Saint-Prix, Pakatak and Tumpak, while biguine has achieved international fame since the 1920s and has since been modernized and adapted for pop audiences, making it a major influence on zouk.
In the 1950s, Haitian compas and cadence rampa became the dominant pop sound of the Lesser Antilles. Weber Sicot and Nemour Jean-Baptiste were especially popular, and were followed by mini-jazz artists like Les Gentlemen, Les Leopards and Les Vikings de Guadeloupe in the late 1970s. The following decade saw the invention of a distinctively Antillean cadence music, especially as the result of Gordon Henderson's Exile One, who invented cadence-lypso by adding calypso horns. Exile One also helped to turn the mini-jazz combos into guitar-dominated big bands, paving the way for the success of La Perfecta, Les Aiglons, Experience 7 and Malavoi, among others.
Drawing on these influences, the supergroup Kassav' invented zouk and popularized it with hit songs like "Zouk-La-Se Sel Medikaman Nou Ni". Kassav' arose from Paris in 1978 and adopted a nationalistic tone to their pan-Caribbean and pan-African fusions. Kassav' soon added rock and roll and other influences and became some of the biggest stars in the Caribbean, France and elsewhere as zouk diversified into multiple subgenres. These include zouk-love, pop ballads by artists like Edith Lefel and Gilles Floro. Zouk funk artists like Elza Bruta and Muriel Custos and ragga-zouk bands like RuffNeg, Lord Kossity and Karukeragga have fused the genre with other influences.
Dutch Antilles
The islands of Curaçao, Bonaire, Aruba, St. Eustatius and St. Martin are known for the Combined Rhythm, which includes local favorites like Happy Peanuts and Expresando Rimto i Ambiente. The South American country Surinam is dominated by the native kaseko music, which was developed by Surinamese in their native land as well as in the Netherlands; pioneers include Yakki Famiri and Carlo Jones.
Notable recordings
- Collection Patrimoine, collected by Sully Cully, featuring a large array of traditional biguine, belair and other folk musicians, as well as some newer material
- Voici Les Loups by Djo Dezermo -- one of the few artists to combine social commentary and popular music in his native lands
- Blan Mange by Eugene Mona -- his final album, released shortly before his death, sold extremely well and helped return zouk to its roots
- Chouval bwa sans Frontieres by Dede Saint-Prix -- critically acclaimed chouval bwa album
- Siwo by Jocelyne Beroard -- widely regarded as one of the best albums from any of the Kassav' offshoots
- A L'Olympia by Edith Lefel -- popular live album from one of the most popular modern zouk performers
- Plezi by Palavire -- Martinican fusion of multiple genres, created by Emmanuel and Claude Cesaire as an offshoot of Malavoi
- "Zouk la se sel meedikaman nou ni" (Zouk Is the Only Medicine We Have) by Kassav' -- probably the most popular, acclaimed and influential recording from Kassav'
References
- De Ledesma, Charles and Gene Scaramuzzo. "Dance-Funk Creole-Style". 2000. In Broughton, Simon and Ellingham, Mark with McConnachie, James and Duane, Orla (Ed.), World Music, Vol. 2: Latin & North America, Caribbean, India, Asia and Pacific, pp 289-303. Rough Guides Ltd, Penguin Books. ISBN 1-85828-636-0