Music of Martinique

The music of Martinique has a heritage which is intertwined with that of its sister island, Guadeloupe. Despite their small size, the islands have created 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 Martinique and Guadeloupe.^[1] Zouk's origins are in the folk music of Martinique and Guadeloupe, especially Martinican biguine, chouval bwa, and Guadeloupan gwo ka. There's also notable influence of the pan-Caribbean calypso tradition and Haitian kompa.

Folk music

French Antillean Carnival in Paris

Carnival is a very important festival, known as Vaval on Martinique. Music plays a vital role, with Martinican big bands marching across the island. Vaval declined following World War II, bouncing back with new band formats and new traditions only in the 1980s. Like Guadeloupe, Martinique features participatory, call-and-response style songs during its Vaval celebrations.

In the early 20th century on Martinique, Creole bands travelled on trucks or small carts during Vaval, playing a music known as biguine vidé (or just videé). After the decline of Vaval in World War II, the tradition began anew in the 1980s, when large marching bands of fifty or more people became common, including a number of horn players, percussionists and dancers. These large bands, known as groups à pied, are each identified with a neighborhood.

Biguine vidé

Biguine vidé is an up tempo version of the biguine rhythm, combining other carnival elements. It participatory music, with the bandleader singing a verse and the audience responding. Modern instrumentation includes a variety of improvised drums made from containers of all kinds, plastic plumbing, bells^{[disambiguation needed ]}, tanbou débonda, chacha, tibwa and bel-air drums. Aside from the biguine vidé bands, Vaval includes song and costume contests, masquerading and zouk parties.^[2]

Bèlè

Bèlè (or bel-air) is a early form of biguine which incorporates group dance and song accompanied by drumming, often led in a call and response style. Accompanied by the tambour bèlè and tibwa rhythm sticks,^[3] the martinican bèlè is the origin of several important Martinican popular styles, including chouval bwa and biguine, and also exerted an influence on zouk. The bèlé song-dances include, bèlé dous', pitjè, biguine bèlé, belya, and gran bèlé.^[4]

Edmond Mondesir is a popular bèlé musician from Martinique.

Chouval bwa

Chouval bwa is a kind of Martinican traditional music, featuring percussion, bamboo flute, accordion, and wax-paper/comb-type kazoo. The music originated among rural Martinicans, as a form of celebratory holiday music played to accompany a dance called the manege (which translates as merry-go-round; chouval bwa is a Creole version of cheval bois, which refers to the wooden horses seen on merry-go-rounds). Chouval bwa percussion is played by a drummer on the tanbour drum and the ti bwa, a percussion instrument made out of a piece of bamboo laid horizontally and beaten with sticks; the most traditional ensembles also use accordions, chacha (a rattle) and the bel-air, a bass version of the tanbour.^[1]

Popular music

Though Martinique and Guadeloupe 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. Chouval bwa has diversified into pop genres like zouk chouv, which includes electric instrumentation and has been popularized by Claude Germany, Tumpak, Dédé Saint-Prix, and Pakatak. Germany is the most traditionally-styled of the popular zouk chouv performers, while Marce Pago of Tumpak is particularly influential, and is also known for coining the term zouk chouv in 1987.^[1]

Martinique is also the birth-place of the Gibson Brothers who achieved significant chart success worldwide, most notably with their single "Cuba".

Biguine

Biguine is a Martinican form of clarinet and trombone music which can be divided into two distinct types:

• bidgin bélè or drum biguine – originates in slave bèlè dances and characterized by the use of bélè drums and tibwa rhythm sticks, along with call and response, nasal vocals and improvised instrumental solos; has its roots in West African ritual dances, though ceremonial components do not survive in Haitian biguine.
• orchestrated biguine – originates in Saint-Pierre in the 18th century, highly influenced by French music^{[disambiguation needed ]} though vocals are usually in creole.

Evolving out of string band music, biguine spread to mainland France in the 1920s. Early stars like Alexandre Stellio and Sam Castandet became popular. Its popularity abroad died relatively quickly, but it lasted as a major force in popular music on Martinique until Haitian compas took over in the 1950s and mini-jazz artists like Les Gentlemen and Les Vikings de Guadeloupe became popular in the late 1960s. In the later part of the 20th century, biguine musicians like clarinet virtuoso Michel Godzom helped revolutionize the genre.

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.

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, biguines and mazurkas, 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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Biguine moderne

Throughout the long history of the biguine, the dominant sound has been that of the clarinet and trombone, both solo and as a duet, and, while the phrasing often recalls New Orleans jazz, the overall sound is unmistakably Caribbean. The signature sound of the biguine is the interplay between the clarinet and trombone, which can still be heard today throughout the Antilles musical milieu, from the most traditional music to the music of the cadence era or the pop sounds of today's zouk. Any contemporary music that uses biguine as its base, even that which ventures as far off as contemporary jazz, is considered "biguine moderne."

Music festivals

Two large, international music festivals have further bolstered Martinique's music scene. Jazz à la Martinique and Carrefour Mondial de Guitare alternate years. The country's best jazz musicians are featured during Jazz à la Martinique, but major worldwide players like Branford Marsalis also perform. Honoring the guitar, Carrefour Mondial de Guitare celebrates a wide range of guitar genres, including flamenco, blues, jazz, rock, and pop. Both festivals last approximately a week, with concerts in various locations throughout Martinique.

Notes

References

• Gerstin, Julian (2000). "French West Indies". In New Grove Dictionary of Music, 2nd edition. Ed. Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan (2001). Article available online at "Julian Gerstin". http://www.colorquilts.com/julian/NewGrove.html. Retrieved September 27, 2005. 
• Ledesma, Charles de and Gene Scaramuzzo (2000). "Dance Funk Creole Style". In 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. , pp. 289–303.

Further reading

• Berrian, Brenda F. (2000). Awakening Spaces: French Caribbean Popular Songs, Music and Culture. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-04456-4. 
• Desroches, Monique (1996). "Musical Tradition in Martinique: Between the Local and the Global". Revista Transcultural de Música (Transcultural Music Review), 2 (1996) ISSN:1697-0101. (Translated from French by Sharon Berman and Catherine Potter).
• Manuel, Peter (1995). Caribbean Currents: Caribbean Music From Rumba to Reggae. Temple University Press. ISBN 1-56639-339-6.