Compas

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Compas (Haitian Creole: konpa) is a modern méringue dance music of Haiti.^[1] The genre was popularized following the creation of Ensemble Aux Callebasses in (1955), which became Ensemble Nemours Jean-Baptiste In 1957. The frequent tours of the many Haitian bands have cemented the style in all the Caribbean. Therefore, compas is the main music of several countries such as Dominica and the French Antilles.^[2] Whether it is 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 influential in part of ^[3] the Caribbean, Portugal, Cape Verde, France, part of Canada, South and North America.^[4][5][6]

Etymology and characteristics[]

The word "Compas" means "measure" "in Spanish. or "rhythm,"^[1] and one of the most distinctive characteristics of compas is the consistent pulsating tanbou beat, a trait common to many styles of Caribbean music.^[1] Compas direct translates as direct beat.^[7]In Creole, it is spelled konpa^[8] though it is most popularly spelled with an "m" instead of an "n".

History[]

Mini-jazz and 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.^{[citation needed]} The movement started in the mid-1960s when young small neighborhood bands played compas featuring paired electric guitars, electric bass, drum set-conga-timbales and 2 cowbells, 1 for the timbales and the other to be played with the floor tom ; some use an alto sax or a full horn section, others use a keyboard, accordion^{[9][not specific enough to verify]} This trend, launched by Shleu-Shleu after 1965, came to include a number of groups from Port-au-Prince neighbourhoods, especially the suburb of Pétion-Ville. Les Corvington, 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.^{[citation needed]}

These young musicians were critical in the creation of new technics that contribute to the fanciness^{[to whom?]} of the style. Although Raymond Gaspard (Nemours) had already started it in the 1950s, however, guitar players such as Michel Corvington (Les Corvington), Henry Celestin (founder of Les Difficiles de Pétion Ville), Robert Martino (Les Difficiles/Gypsies/Scorpio/Topvice...), Dadou Pasket (Tabou combo/Magnum Band), Jean Claude Jean (Tabou Combo/Super Star...), Serge Rosenthal (Shleu-Shleu), Hans Felix, (Les Ambassadeurs/Volo Volo de Boston), 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.^{[citation needed]}

Nemours Jean-Baptiste[]

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). At the beginning (1955), Ensemble ‘Aux Callebasses‘ Of Nemours Jean-Baptiste played rhythms such as Cuba's Guaracha and Cha Cha Cha as well as Haiti's Bannann Pouyak, Grenn Moudong, and Méringue Lente. In 1957, Nemours Jean-Baptiste -with the assistance of conga player Kreudzer Duroseau ans accordionist Richard Duroseau- created compas which has its roots in Haitian traditional Meringue and the Vodou traditional rhythms. Its popularity took off likely due to the genre's ability to improvise and hold the rhythm section steady and the facility with which dancers could absorb, feel and express the new rhythm. Nemours Jean-Baptiste incorporated a lot of brass and, in 1958, the first electric guitar in Haitian urban dance music.^[10] Compas is sung in Creole,^[11] English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese. Nemours' popularity grew in and out of the country. The bands clean horn section was remarkable and the band featured méringue tunes that gained instant popularity. For example, in Martinique, several music groups such as Ensemble Abricot, Les Djoubap, Combo Jazz, Georges Plonquitte (fr) (Vini Dance Compas Direct) conquered the public with the many tunes or compositions of Nemours.^[12] Later Nemours became a favorite of Dominican president, Joaquín Balaguer who often contracted the band.^[13] This is why hits like "Ti Carole", "Chagrin D'amour" featured by known Dominican stars Luis Miguel and others are also sung in Spanish.

Rise in popularity[]

In the early 1960s Nemours and the Sicot Brothers from Haiti frequently toured the Caribbean, especially Curaçao, Aruba, Saint Lucia, Dominica and mostly the French Islands of Martinique & Guadeloupe to spread the seed of the méringue-compas and cadence rampa.^[14] Webert Sicot, a prominent Haitian saxophone player and the originator of cadence rampa, recorded three LP 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 cadence rampa music style. Almost all existing Haitian compas bands have toured these islands that have since adopted the music and the dance of the méringue.

From 1968 to the 1970s prominent bands like Bossa Combo, Volo Volo de Boston, Les Shleu-Shleu, Les Ambassadeurs, Les Vikings, Les Fantaisistes, Les Loups Noirs, Les Freres Dejean, Les Difficiles, and Les Gypsies have exerted a dominance on the Caribbean and many places in Europe and South America musical scene. The band Tabou Combo, perhaps one of the most legendary compas ensembles, took the musical style to greater heights when they toured countries like Senegal and Japan during their world tours. Their performances in Panama enamored the population, earning them the title of "Official Panamanian Band". The band's impact on local Panamanian music was so profound that to this day, Panamanians still consider compas (or what they call, "reggae haitiano") as part of their national music. Throughout the seventies, Tabou Combo remained on the Paris Hits Parade for weeks with their "New York City" album, and held performances attended by thousands in New York's Central Park.^{[15][better source needed]}. The artist, Coupe Cloue and his band Trio Select also had a similar impact in compas' popularity. During his tours in West Africa, he picked up regional sounds and genres like soukous and incorporated it into his music, giving way to the sub genre he coined as "compas manba" which is characterized by its emphasis on guitars and drums rather than blaring trumpets and horns which were popular during this time period. Another band, Orchestre Septentrional D'Haiti (or the Northern Orchestra of Haiti) also had a lot of popularity during this time period and cemented the style of large orchestras as part of the northern signature of compas.

80s and 90s[]

In order to compete with the rise of the French Caribbean genre, zouk, as well as American pop, hip hop, and RnB which began to invade Haitian radios, compas, which had previously been meant for ballrooms, was reworked for concert halls and clubs.

Dance style[]

The dance-style that accompanied compas in 1957, is a two-step dance called carré (square) introduced by Nemours Jean-Baptiste in 1962.^[16] As a méringue, a ballroom dance, compas is danced in pairs. Sometimes partners dance holding each other tightly and romantically; in this case often most of the moves are made at the hips.^[17]

Spread[]

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Throughout the world many popular artists have featured compas tunes. For instance, Carlos Santana-foo foo, Wyclef Jean-several CDs, Tabou combo-essentiall, French Antilles kassav-most CDs, Cabo Verdean Tito Paris-danca mi Creola + several tunes, Dominican Juan Luis Guerra-several tunes of Nemours, Oscar de Leon and Columbian kike Harvey-"guede zaina", Wilfrido Vargas and Bonny Cepeda - many tunes of DP Express and Tabou Combo, Don Omar-ayer la vi, danza kuduro, and other reggaeton artists like Dady Yankee, Los Salvajes-a quien le toco, toco, etc. African artists, Finally, artists from Martinique and Guadeloupe, Dominica, and other places have become master of the compas styles.

Derivatives of Compas[]

The méringue-compas, deeply rooted in many countries, has been a strong influence in Caribbean islands.

Zouk[]

Zouk was an attempt to develop a proper local music that would lessen or even eradicate the meringue-cadence or compas influence from the French islands. When the MIDI technology came out, Kassav' used it fully, creating new sound in both their fast carnival beat and compas. 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 used to it. Because it was a jump up beat the fast zouk béton faded away In the same 1980s^[18] and Antilleans would continue to play and dance meringue-cadence or compas. After all, French Antilleans and Dominicans are important players of the style. However, the problem is that musicians from Martinique and Guadeloupe have calculatedly labeled compas as zouk in order to remain on the map (keeping in mind compas was created in 1950 by Haitians); creating a big confusion in Africa, Cabo Verde, Angola, Bresil, Portugal and other places. Kassav', the originator of the zouk béton, is a compas music band that has taken compas to many places, and is the only band that continues to include zouk béton in its repertoire, though to a lesser extent.

Coladeira[]

There is a strong compas influence in Cape Verdean music.^[19] 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, whose main music is compas, toured Cabo island on 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 compas in the US and France.^[20] 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, compas that was promoted as zouk by French Antillean artists would not as popular.^{[citation needed]}

Cadence-lypso[]

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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 grammacks or exile one. They featured calypso, reggae and mostly cadence: Grammacks: mediba (kadans), banana (sweet kadans), ou pa bon, (kadans), ou pitit (kadans), reggae down, disco live (kadans) this same tune is categorized as zouk retro by Deejay Zak (midlay kadans 11/24/2011) Exile one: akiyaka, gade deye...(Midnight) get ready 1997, etc.

Exile One, the leader of the word cadence-lypso, featured some reggae, calypso and mostly cadence music. For example: Album "Exile one - Gordon Henderson 40 volume 1" features 14 kadans out of 18 tunes. 1. Rosita 2. ba yo boi 3. jumbolo 4. jamais voir ca (calypso tune) 5. reflexion 6. n'homme ka batte n'homme 7. gadez deye 8. ah ta ta 9. Ico vole 10. pompilili 11. aki yaka 12. vivent les vacances aux Antilles (calypso tune) 13. Ilyne (calypso tune) 14. nous travail pou ayen 15. cadence lypso 16. sexile 17. come here (reggae tune) 18. interlude. The song cadence lypso is a kadans tune. A third album "Collector kadance lypso" features twelve méringue cadence tunes. The album also features tunes from other kadans bands: 2. Rigrete (Midnight Groover), Serpent la (C Top 6), la vie vini plus raid (Belles combo) 9. Coq et perroquet (Liquid Ice) 12. mwen di ou fe (Black Affairs) 7. Chanson d'amour Ophelia (Exile one).

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 1970s, 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 toured many places with kadans music: Japan, the Indian Ocean, Africa, North America, Europe, The Cape Verde islands. Other Dominica cadence bands included the Grammacks. Review Exile one CD 40 anniversary, Grammack collection 74–76 and others available at amazon music: 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[]

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In the 1970s with the frequent tours of the Sicot brothers, Exile One, and so many meringue bands, compas or cadence rampa has 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.

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".

See also[]

• Cadence rampa
• Cadence-lypso
• Caribbean music
• Haitian Carnival
• Méringue
• Music of Latin America

References[]