Compas

Compas (Haitian Creole: konpa) or kompa, is a modern méringue musical genre in Haiti with European and African roots.^[1] The genre was popularized following the 1955 creation of the ban Conjunto International by Nemours Jean-Baptiste.^[1] Compas is the main music of many countries such as Dominica and the French Antilles, etc. Whether it is incorrectly called zouk where French Antilles artists of Martinique and Guadeloupe have taken it or compas in places where Haitian artists have toured, this méringue style is very influential in the Caribbean, Africa, Cape Verde, Portugal, France, part of Canada, South and North America.^[2][3][4]

Etymology and characteristics

Compas is short for compas direct in French. In Creole, it is spelled as konpa dirèk or simply konpa. It is commonly spelled as it is pronounced as kompa.^[5]

The word “compás” in Spanish means “beat” or “rhythm,”^[1] and one of the most distinctive characteristics of compas is the consistent pulsating beat tanbou, a trait common to many styles of Caribbean music.^[1] Compas direct, literally means direct beat.^[6]

History

Nemours Jean-Baptiste presented his “Ensemble Aux Calebasses” in 1955 (named after the club “Aux Calebasses” located at Carrefour, a western neighborhood of Port-au-Prince; Haiti's capital where the band used to perform on weekends). Compas popularity took off likely due to the genre's ability to improvise and hold the rhythm section steady. Jean-Baptiste incorporated a lot of brass and easily recognized rhythms.^[7] Compas is sung in Creole,^[8] English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, etc. Nemours' popularity grew in and out of the country. Its clean horn section was remarkable and the band featured méringue tunes that gained instant popularity. For example, in Martinique, several music groups: Ensemble Abricot (bienvenue, festival compas), les djoubap's (Isabelle), combo jazz (electronique compas, pa gadem sou cote), Georges Plonquitte (vini dance compas direct), etc. have all within a year conquered the public with the many tunes or compositions of Nemours.^[9] Later Nemours became a favorite of Dominican president, Joaquín Balaguer who often contracted the band.^[10] This is why hits like "Ti Carole", "Chagrin d'amour" featured by known Dominican stars Luis Miguel and others are also sung in Spanish.

In the late 1950s Nemours and the Sicot Brothers from Haiti would frequently tour the Caribbean, especially Curaceo, Aruba, St Lucia, Dominica and mostly the French Islands of Martinique & Guadeloupe to spread the seed of the méringue-cadence or compas.^[11] Webert Sicot, the originator of cadence recorded three LPs albums with French Antilles producers: two with "Celini disques" in Guadeloupe and one with "Balthazar" in Martinique. Haitian compas or cadence bands were asked to integrate Antillean musicians. Consequently, the leading "Les Guais troubadours", with influential singer "Louis Lahens" along other bands, played a very important role in the schooling of Antilleans to the méringue compas or kadans music style. Almost all existing Haitian compas bands have toured these Islands that have since adopted the music and the dance of the méringue.

Dance style

The dance-style that accompanied konpa dirèk in the 1950s, was a two step dance called kare (square).^[12] As a méringue, a ballroom dance, compas is danced in pair. Sometimes partners dance holding each other tightly and romantically; in this case often most of the moves are made at the hips.^[13]

Mini-Jazz or small bands

During and after the US occupation, the word jazz has become synonymous with music bands in Haiti. So the mini-jazz is a reduced méringue-compas band. The movement started in the mid-1960s when young small neighborhood bands played konpa featuring paired electric guitars, electric bass, drum set-conga-cowbell; some use an alto sax or a full horn section, others use a keyboard, accordion^[14] This trend, launched by Shleu Shleu after 1965, came to include a number of groups from Port-au-Prince neighbourhoods, especially the suburb of Pétionville. Tabou Combo, Les Difficiles, Les Loups Noirs, Les Frères DéJean, Les Fantaisistes de Carrefour, Bossa Combo and Les Ambassadeurs (among others) formed the core of this middle-class popular music movement.

From 1968 to the 1970s prominent bands like Bossa Combo, Les Shleu Shleu, Les Ambassadeurs, Les Vickings, Les Fantaisistes, Les Loups Noirs, Les Freres Dejean, Les Difficiles, Les Gypsies and mostly the majestic Tabou Combo have exerted a dominance on the Caribbean and many places in Europe and South America musical scene. For example, Tabou Combo has remained on the Paris hit parade for weeks with its "New York City" hit. Tabou did filled New York Central park in the same period.^[15] These young musicians were critical in the creation of new technics that contribute to the fanciness of the style. Although Raymond Guaspard (Nemours) had already started it in the 1950s, however, guitar players such as Corvington (Les Corvington), Robert Martineau (Les Difficiles/Gypsies/Scorpio/Topvice...), Dadou Pasket (Tabou combo/Magnum Band), Jean Claude Jean (Tabou Combo/Super Star...), Serge Rosenthal (Shleu Shleu), Ricardo/Tiplum (Les Ambassadeurs)Claude Marcellin (Les Difficiles/D.P. Express/Zèklè...), Police Nozile (Les Frères Déjean/D.P. Express...) and many more have created intricate mostly rhythmic guitar styles that constitute a strong distinguishable feature of the méringue.

Méringue-compas or cadence and its derivatives

The méringue-compas, deeply rooted in many countries, has been a strong influence and even called other names: Some examples are zouk, coladeira, kizomba, cadence-lypso.

Zouk

Zouk was a brief experiment; an attempt to develop a proper local music that should lessen or even eradicate the méringue-kadans or compas influence from the French Antilles. When the MIDI technology came out, Kassav' used it fully creating new sound in both their fast zouk béton and kompa. The Antilleans were all over with zouk, but as other bands from the Caribbean and Africa added the MIDI technology to their music people got use to it. Because it was a jump up beat the fast zouk béton faded away; and Antilleans would continue to play and dance méringue-cadence or compas. After all French Antilleans and Dominicans are important players of the méringue-compas or cadence style. However, the problem is the fact that musicians from Martinique and Guadeloupe have calculatedly labeled compas as zouk in order to stay in the game; creating a big confusion in Africa, Cabo Verde, Angola, Brazil, Portugal and other places. French Antilles Kassav', the originator of the zouk béton is a superb compas band that has taken kompa to many places. Today, zouk or zouk-love is the French Antilles cadence or compas.^[16]

Coladeira

There is a strong compas influence in Cape Verdean music.^[17] During the 1960s-1980s Haitian artists and bands such as Claudette & Ti Pierre, Tabou Combo and mostly Gesner Henry alias Coupe Cloue and the Dominican group Exile One were very popular in Africa. In addition, the French Antilles kassav and other French Antillean musicians, which main music is compas toured Cabo island in various occasions. Many Cape Verdean artists feature compas. Talented Tito Paris "dança mami Criola" 1994, is a good example; this CD featured music close to Haiti Tabou Combo, Caribbean Sextet, Tropicana and French Antilles Kassav, etc. Cape Verdeans artists have been exposed to konpa in the USA and France.^[18] Today the new generation of Cape Verdean artists features a light compas close to Haitian and French Antillean. Until Haitian musicians could tour Cabo verde, the tittle compas promoted as zouk by French Antillean artists would not be popular.

Cadence-lypso

Webert Sicot, the originator of cadence known for his great virtuosity, mostly harmonic skills, was well appreciated in the Caribbean. This is why the term cadence was more popular than compas. Cadence-lypso is the Dominican kadans.

Cadence and calypso were the two dominant styles in Dominica hence the name cadence-lypso. The great majority of the songs are either calypso, reggae and mostly cadence or compas. If there is any fusion it should not be significant enough to be listed on album or CD covers. Finally cadence-lypso is danced the same way as compas.

Originally the word cadence or kadans was on album covers whether it's grammacks or exile one. They featured calypso, reggae and mostly cadence.^[19] Exile One, the leader of the word cadence-lypso, featured some reggae, calypso and mostly cadence music.^[20] It is not sure whether the band's intent was to fusion Trinidadian calypso with Haitian cadence or compas since little was done. The song "La Dominique" in the Album "Exile One Old School Session" could be an attempt, however, not often repeated. The band music repertoire is mostly cadence or compas with all the features of the style.The album "Exile one-Old school Session: Gree/Vert" features mostly méringue cadence or compas: 6 out of 8 tunes. 1) fete commune 2) torti 3) famille Creole 4) d'leau 5) sauvez riviere la and 7) Sylvie of course the band had its personality; it was a great kadans band. In the early 70's, The full-horn section kadans band Exile One led by the talented Gordon Henderson was the first to use the synthesizers to their music that other young cadence or compas bands from Haiti (mini-jazz) and the French Antilles emulated in the 1970s. Exile One exported kadans music to many places: Japan, the Indian Ocean, Africa, North America, Europe, The Cape Verde islands Other Dominica cadence bands included the Grammacks,^[21] Black Roots, Black Machine, Naked Feet, Belles Combo, Mantra, Black Affairs, Liquid Ice, Wafrikai, Midnighte Groovers and Milestone, while the most famous singers included Bill Thomas, Chubby Marc, Gordon Henderson, Linford John, Janet Azouz, Sinky Rabess, Tony Valmond, Jeff Joseph, Mike Moreau and Anthony Gussie. Ophelia Marie is a popular singer of cadence in the 1980s.

Soca

In the 70s with the frequent tours of the Sicot brothers, Exile One, and so many meringue bands, compas or cadence rampa as become very influential in several parts of the world, specifically the Caribbean. Its influence on the calypso gave rise to Soca, closer to cadence or compas.[16]

The calypsonian Lord Shorty of Trinidad was the first to really define his music and with "Indrani" in 1973 and "Endless Vibration" (not just the song but the entire album) in 1975, calypso music really took off in another direction. Later in 1975 Lord Shorty visited his good friend Maestro in Dominica where he stayed (at Maestro's house) for a month while they visited and worked with local cadence or compas artists. You had Maestro experimenting with calypso and cadence. Sadly a year later Maestro would die in an accident in Dominica and his loss was palpably felt by Shorty, who penned "Higher World" as a tribute. In Dominica, Shorty had attended an Exile One performance of kadans, and collaborated with Dominica's 1969 Calypso King, Lord Tokyo and two calypso lyricists, Chris Seraphine and Pat Aaron in the early 1970s, who wrote him some Creole lyrics. Soon after Shorty released a song, "Ou Petit", with words like "Ou dee moin ou petit Shorty" (meaning "you told me you are small Shorty"). Soca's development includes calypso, cadence/compas, and Indian musical instruments—particularly the dholak, tabla and dhantal—as demonstrated in Shorty's classic compositions "Ïndrani" and "Shanti Om".

Kizomba

Kizomba is a popular music from Angola. It is a derivative of traditional Angolan samba with the French Antilles compas. Although most music came from Africa, Angola has been receiving Haitian influence for years. For instance, great meringue queen, Haitian Martha Jean-Claude lent her voice and music to the Angolan revolution; she came with the Cuban troops.[20] During the 70, Haitian bands and artists such as Coupe Cloue, Tabou Combo, Bossa combo, DP Express and Dominican bands like Exile One and Grammacks were popular in Africa. After many Cape Verdean emigrants arrived in France where they were exposed to compas music in the 80s, they mixed it with a traditional Cape Verde style, the coladera, creating the Cabo love, which is very similar to kizomba and typically sung in Cape Verdean Creole. It is this rhythm that was confused with kizomba, and was heard in Portugal when Eduardo Paim arrived there and released his first record with kizomba music. During the 80s-90s, French Antilles Kassav has toured the country with its compas, leaving influence. Lately, kizomba has been close to French Antilles and Cape Verdian light compas and sung generally in Portuguese. No wonder why kizomba shows that strong similarity with meringue-compas.[21]

Notable compas artists

• Nemours Jean-Baptiste
• Ensemble Webert Sicot
• Carimi
• Exile One
• Gramacks
• Kassav'
• La Perfecta
• T-Vice
• Tabou Combo
• Sweet Micky

See also

• Cadence rampa
• Cadence-lypso
• Caribbean music
• Haitian Carnival
• Méringue
• Zouk

References

External links

• Experience Haitian music on Mizikpam Internet Radio