The journey continues.....: Latin Rhythms Part 2

Well, previously I covered the most popular and basic Latin American rhythms and musical genres that exists. Caribbean music is very similar to Latin genres because it is also a syncretic genre that is based on multiple inflluences and origins - African, European, Asian, indigenous and more but the base rhythms are heavily influenced by African rhythms due to the majority of cultural influence in the region coming from the descendants of African slavery.
Below I will give some examples of the wide diversity that exists and even some imitations of our culture by people from outside the region.

The Caribbean is a region that in the minds of most people today is relegated to the TRIPLE S steroptype - sea, sun and sand, but in the last 500 years or so the Caribbean, besides providing these very envious benefits it is a region with hundred of islands which have been fought over by mosty European nation states for the financial wealth that they provided through the cocoa, sugar, coffee, cotton and other agricultural industries. This wealth, fueled the development of Europe and its progression into the Industrial Age and technological advancements in the 1600s.....hence it is all connected...sugar? coffee? cocoa lead to the lives we have now? think about it

I have covered most of the musical forms that emerged in the Spanish Speaking Caribbean but now we will look at the forms in the French and English speaking Caribbean

The Caribbean has been a region with a lot of interconnection and movment of peoples and cultures from place to place, like any region in the world. As a result, music from each region, besides having common origins, also influenced each other's development.

The FRENCH Caribbean (Antilles)

Martinique and Guadeloupe (see map below) are the largest of the many islands that make up the Caribbean archipelago formally known as the Lesser Antilles. Officially recognized as individual overseas departments of France, the two islands are commonly referred to as French Antilles or, alternately, the French West Indies. Although they are linked historically and politically, each island has made its distinct contribution to the cultural fabric of the region.

Originally inhabited by Arawaks, who were then conquered by the Caribs, both Martinique (Matinino) and Guadeloupe (Karukera) were colonized by French settlers in 1635 and annexed to France in 1674. Slaves were imported from West Africa to support a plantation system based primarily on sugar, rum and coffee production, which continued until slavery was abolished in 1848. Throughout the colonial era, popular European social dances such as mazurka, quadrille, contradanse and waltz became the foundation on which locally based musical styles began to take root. Meanwhile, many Africans were able to escape to the interior of the islands, mixing in with the remaining indigenous population, where their legacy continues in the musical traditions of chouval bwa (Martinique) and gwo ka (Guadeloupe), both of which are still performed at carnival times. Today the popular music of the French Antilles, known broadly as zouk, is a reflection of this blend of cultures throughout the region's history.

Zouk (a French Creole word meaning "party") has become one of the most important contemporary pop innovations, achieving international popularity since its emergence in the 1980s. Borrowing from local genres such as cadence (also kadans), biguine, quadrille and the roots traditions of the islands, zouk began as the creative expression of Jacob Desvarieux and Pierre Eduard Decimus, two extraordinary musicians from Guadeloupe who had settled in Paris and founded the seminal band Kassav', featuring the dynamic singer Jocelyn Beroard. Their music was equally informed by influences from European, American, Caribbean and African pop styles—heavy-metal guitar, funk and soul, Congolese soukous and a variety of Latin rhythms—as well as the electronic studio-engineering techniques of the period.

Some examples of my favourite zouk songs:

Ali Angel - Juste nous

Previous to that, beginning in the 1960s and continuing through the '70s—the heyday of the independence era throughout the Caribbean and other formerly European colonies—the prevalent music of the French-speaking islands was kadans, sharing popularity in both Haiti and the French Antilles. Notable in these years were the Creole swing-dance bands of Guadeloupe, such as Les Aiglons and La Perfecta, along with the great bandleaders Henri Guédon and Eddy Louiss, who introduced the big-band Latin-jazz sound to the popular rhythms of the French Caribbean. In this period and through the 1980s, touring Haitian orchestras came to dominate the local music industry, including radio airplay, record sales and in dance clubs. But while Haitian-style kadans evolved into present-day compas (or konpa), the Antillean kadans bands utilized the same musical vocabulary to create a their own dialect, which ultimately became zouk.

Soumia (originally Moroccan)- Ton Silence

Since the 1990s, inspired by an international singer-songwriter movement and resurgent interest in folk traditions, zouk itself has continued to take new forms as well—shifting from a fast-paced, high-tech party sound to the gentle "zouk-love" songs of Patrick Saint Eloi or Edith Lefel—alongside the roots revivals of artists such as Kali and Marcé et Tumpak, from Martinique, and the biguine, mazurka and waltz restylings of key groups like the Vikings of Guadeloupe and Malavoi. Today we can hear the influence of zouk in dance rhythms around the world, from Brazilian lambada to Caribbean styles as diverse as merengue and soca; from Cameroonian makossa, Congolese soukous and Cape Verdian funana to zouglou from Ivory Coast and even zouk-mbalax from Senegal.

Info taken from National Geogrpahic