Music of Guadeloupe

The music of Guadeloupe encompasses a large popular music industry, which gained in international renown after the success of zouk music in the later 20th century. Zouk's popularity was particularly intense in France, where the genre became an important symbol of identity for Guadeloupe and Martinique .^[1] Zouk's origins are in the folk music of Guadeloupe and Martinique, especially Guadeloupan gwo ka and Martinican biguine, chouval bwa, and the pan-Caribbean calypso tradition.

Folk music

French Antillean Carnival in Paris

Carnival is a very important festival in Guadeloupe and Martinique. Music plays a vital role, with Guadeloupean gwo ka ensembles, zouk music and guadeloupean big bands marching across the island, and travelling and performing music known as biguine vidé (or just videé) in a manner akin to Brazilian samba schools. Carnival in both islands declined following World War II, bouncing back with new band formats and new traditions only in the 1980s. Both islands feature participatory, call-and-response style songs during their Carnival celebrations.

Biguine vidé

Biguine vidé is an up tempo version of the biguine rhythm, combining other carnival elements. It is participatory music, with the bandleader singing a verse and the audience responding. It allows one to grab an improvised percussion instrument and join in. Traditionally, Carnival includes dances of African origin, including laghia, haut-taille, grage, calinda and bel-air. Traditional instruments include the chacha, maké, boula, ti bwa, tanbou chan and tanbou bas drums. Aside from the biguine vidé bands, Vaval includes song and costume contests, masquerading and zouk parties.^[2]

Gwo ka

Gwo ka is a family of hand drums used to create a form of folk music from Guadeloupe. There are seven basic rhythms in gwo ka, and multiple variations on each. Different sizes of drums establish the foundation and its flourishes, with the largest, the boula, playing the central rhythm and the smaller, markeur (or maké) drums embellishes upon it and interplays with the dancers, audience or singer. Gwo ka singing is usually guttural, nasal and rough, though it can also be bright and smooth, and is accompanied by uplifting and complex harmonies and melodies.^[1]

Rural Guadeloupans still use gwo ka drums in communal experiences called lewozes; this is the most traditional manifestation of gwo ka in modern Guadeloupe. Gwo ka is also played at Carnival and other celebrations. A modernized and popularized form of gwo ka is well-known on the islands; it is known as gwo ka moderne.^[1]

Popular music

Though Guadeloupe and Martinique are most frequently known only for the internationally renowned zouk style, the islands have also produced popular musicians in various updated styles of traditional biguine, chouval bwa and gwo ka. The world-famous zouk band Kassav' remains easily the most famous performers from the island, while the Guadeloupan Carnival band Akiyo has become the only group in that style to record commercially.^[1]

Kadans/Compas

In the 1970s, a wave of Haitian immigrants to Guadeloupe and Martinique brought with them the kadans, a sophisticated form of music that quickly swept the island and helped unite all the former French colonies of the Caribbean by combining their cultural influences. These Haitians drew upon previous success from mini-jazz artists like Les Gentlemen, Les Leopards, and Les Vikings de Guadeloupe.

After its introduction, some Dominican musicians combined it with calypso, creating a style known as cadence (or cadence-lypso). Gordon Henderson's Exile One innovated this style, as well as turned the mini-jazz combos into guitar-dominated big bands, paving the way for the success of groups like Experience 7, 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' formed from Paris in 1978. Kassav' soon added elements of rock and other influences and became some of the biggest stars in the Caribbean, France and elsewhere.

Cadence-lypso

The most influential band in the development of cadence-lypso was Exile One (based on the island of Guadeloupe) in 1973 that combined cadence rampa and calypso.^[3] It was developed in the 1970s by groups from Dominica, and was the first style of Dominican music to find international acclaim.

Cadence-lypso was a precursor for zouk and soca.

Zouk

Zouk arose in the early to mid-1980s from kadans, and the cadence-lypso of Dominica, as popularized by Grammacks and Exile One. Elements of gwo ka, tambour, ti bwa and biguine vidé are prominent in zouk. Though there are many diverse styles of zouk, some commonalities exist. The French Creole tongue of Martinique and Guadeloupe is an important element, and are a distinctive part of the music. Generally, zouk is based around star singers, with little attention given to instrumentalists, and is based almost entirely around studio recordings.

The band Kassav' remain the best known zouk group. Kassav' drew in influences from balakadri and bal granmoun dances, biguine's and mazurka's, along with more contemporary Caribbean influences like compas, reggae and salsa music. Zouk live shows soon began to draw on American and European rock and heavy metal traditions, and the genre spread across the world, primarily in developing countries.

Zouk has diversified into multiple subgenres. These include zouk-love, pop ballads by artists like Edith Lefel and Gilles Floro, Zouk-R&B, and ragga-zouk bands like Lord Kossity who fused the genre with other influences.

	Kassav' "Zouk La Sé Sèl Médikaman Nou Ni" A major zouk hit by Kassav'
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Gwo ka moderne

A more modernized version of gwo ka is gwo ka moderne, which adds new instruments ranging from conga or djembe drums and chimes to electric bass guitar. At root, however, these styles all use the same fundamental seven rhythms as folk gwo ka. Zouk legends Kassav' played an important role in the modernization of gwo ka, giving urban credibility to a style that was seen as backward and unsophisticated; they initially played in a gro ka format, using songs from the gwo ka Carnival tradition of mas a St. Jean and even placing an homage to traditionalist drumming legend Velo on their earlier albums.^[1]

Gwo ka moderne artists include Pakala Percussion, Van Lévé and Poukoutan'n, alongside more pop-influenced musicians like Marcel Magnat and Ti Celeste, while Gerard Hubert and others have fused gwo ka with zouk. The most famous modern gwo ka performer, however, is William Flessel, whose Message Ka in 1994 became an international hit.^[1]

Bouyon

Bouyon (Boo-Yon) is a form of popular music of Dominica, also known as jump up music in Guadeloupe and Martinique. In 1987, Exile One recorded a Chanté mas and lapo kabwit song entitled l'hivenage, commonly referred to as tchwe yo, the French Antilleans called that beat Jump up music because of the carnival flavor. This jump up beat was later modified to become bouyon or modern soca music. (As printed on Exile One's album "creole attitude").^[4] In Guadeloupe and Martinique, "Jump up" refers generally to bouyon music.

Bouyon has diversified into multiple subgenres. These include bouyon soca, bouyon-muffin and alternative bouyon.

References

• "French West Indies". New Grove Dictionary of Music. http://www.colorquilts.com/julian/NewGrove.html. Retrieved September 27, 2005. 
• Broughton, Simon and Mark Ellingham with James McConnachie and Orla Duane (2000). Rough Guide to World Music, Vol. 2. Rough Guides Ltd.. ISBN 1-85828-636-0.  - "Dance Funk Creole Style" by Charles de Ledesma and Gene Scaramuzzo, pgs. 289-303

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Ledesma and Scaramuzzo, pgs. 289-303
2. ^ Gerstin
3. ^ > "Zouk: world music in the West Indies". By Jocelyne Guilbault. http://books.google.com/books?id=VlBZVi-KUggC&pg=PA93&lpg=PA93&dq=Exile+one+and+cadence-lypso#v=onepage&q=Exile%20one%20and%20cadence-lypso&f=false>. Retrieved August 10, 2010. 
4. ^ > "Bouyon/jump up". YouTube:. http://exileone.com/Biographies.html>. Retrieved November 11, 2011. 

Further reading

• Berrian, Brenda F. (2000). Awakening Spaces: French Caribbean Popular Songs, Music and Culture. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-04456-4.