V.A. Tanbou Toujou Lou: Meringue, Kompa Kreyo, Vodou Jazz, And Electric Folklore From Haiti 1960-1981

Selected from an array of private collections and radio archives in Brooklyn, New York, and multiple digging trips in Port-au-Prince, Jacmel, Gonaives, and St. Marc, are twenty tracks that encompass the vast diversity of styles during the seminal years of musical innovation and percussive potency in Haiti. From the legendary, elegant big band dance parties in iconic nightclubs of Port-au-Prince to the rhythms of the countryside; from accordion-driven meringue and Vodou-derived drum patterns, to hypnotic tenor sax arrangements and psychedelic interpretations of folklore, the music of 1960's, '70's, & '80's Haiti enjoys a royal repute across the Caribbean, West Africa, and the Colombian coast. Between the 1960s and 1980s, experimentation and electric reinterpretation of traditional rhythms was rife, along with the sophisticated balancing of a host of influences. There's the jazz-era instrumentation, brought during the early 20th century American occupation, which introduced horn sections to Haitian ensembles. Cuba, cultural imperator of the Afro-Atlantic and perennial ally of Haiti, imbued Meringue, Mambo, Son, Guajira, Charanga, and a slew of Afro-Cuban styles into the Haitian repertoire. Accordion-driven Colombian Cumbia and Dominican Merengue left their mark. A melting pot of sound was all held together by the countless rhythms, drum patterns, and percussion brought across the Atlantic from Africa, surviving slavery's violent cultural repression.