Compas music
Compas music (written as Compas Direct in French and Kompa or konpa in Haitian Creole) is a modern Méringue, the national music genre of Haiti that people have been dancing and singing since the 1800s. Popularized by Haitian sax and guitar player Nemours Jean-Baptiste in 1955, Compas is the main music of many countries such as Martinique, Guadeloupe, Dominica, 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 meringue style is very influential in the Caribbean, Africa, Cape Verde, Portugal, France, part of Canada, South and North America.
History
Compas direct is a modern meringue popularized in 1955 by the sax and guitar player Nemours Jean Baptiste. Nemours Jean-Baptiste presented his orchestra “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. Compas music is sung in Haitian Creole, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, etc.
Nemours' popularity grew in and out of the country. Its clean horn section was remarkable and the band featured meringue tunes that gained instant popularity. 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.[6] Haitian compas and 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 meringue compas or kadans music style.
Mini-jazz
The Mini jazz movement started in the mid-1960s, small bands called mini-djaz (which grew out of Haiti’s light rock and roll yeye bands of the early 1960s) played kompa featuring paired electric guitars, electric bass, drumset and other percussion, often with a saxophone. 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. Tabou Combo, Les Difficiles, Les Loups Noirs, 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 mini-jazz 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. Guitar based mini-jazz such like Les Difficiles and Gypsies influenced many flamenco artists. The guitar was the king instrument.
These young Haitian mini-jazz musicians were critical in the creation of new technics that contribute to the fancyness of the style. Although Raymond Guaspard (Nemours) had already started it in the 50s, however, guitar players such as Corvington (Les Corvington), Ricardo/Tiplum (Les ambassadeurs), Robert Martineau (Les Difficiles/Gypsies/Scorpio/Topvice...), Dadou Pasket (Tabou combo/Magnum band), Jean Claude Jean (Tabou combo/Super star...), Claude Marcellin (Les Difficiles/DP. Express/Zekle...), Police Nozile (Freres Dejean/DP. Express...) and many more have created intricate mostly rhythmic guitar styles that constitute a strong distinguishable feature of the meringue.
Cadence/in the Caribbean
Cadence rampa or kadans is a modern Haitian meringue popularized by the talented sax player Webert Sicot in the early 60s. Webert Sicot left Nemours Jean-Baptiste compas band and called his music cadence to differentiate it from compas, however, either compas or cadence is a modern meringue; only rivalery between Sicot and Nemours created these names. Because of the frequent tours of the Sicot brothers, cadence became very influential in the Caribbean.
Maestro Webert Sicot was well regarded in Guadeloupe where musicians liked his rigorous harmonic skills. In Dominica, cadence is often called cadence-lypso while in the French Antilles kadans is the Creole world for cadence rampa.
Digital era, new generation or light compas
In the late 80s, After Robert Charlot Raymonvil came out with Top Vice, young Haitian music groups applied the MIDI technology that in addition to reduce the band's size offers a variety of new sounds. They were called nouvelle generation; however, most of them later, along with many other musicians in the world, went back to a full band with live instruments. The new generation was a moment of experiment with the MIDI technology. French Antilles kassav, which music repertoire is 85% compas music, was the first in the Caribbean to apply the MIDI already in use in pop and rock bands. Popular new generation bands were Zin, Phantom, Lakole, Papash and a few more. Phantom was the first to return to a full band in less than two years while zin, lakol and papash continued with the MIDI without a live horn section.
In the early 2000, several compas bands such as Carimi, T-vice, Top vice, and Zeglen toured the French Antilles as usual with success. The singer Vro who sang in duet with Digital Compas pioneer Robert Charlot on her album Softcore and many others Antillean artists have adopted this light compas style, which is more popular in France and the Caribbean. The compas' fine guitar lines with the chorus and other synthesizer effects is being heard now in the lighter French Antilles compas. For example, French Antilles singer Tanya St. Val who has collaborated with many great Haitian compas artists like Alan Cave, Dadou Pasket from the great Magnum band, etc. is very close to this style. The beauty of this is that these compas lands influence one another with nice chorus, guitar lines, female voices...within the team up of the conga-drum-cowbell.
Cabo Verdean, Caribbean and African artists usually feature one another via compas songs. Popular artists includes artists like Jacky Rapon in song like "Mi Amor", Ludo in song like "Weekend", Jackito in song like "Je l'aime a mourir" and Priscillia in song like "Dis le moi", Ali Angel in song like "Zouk Bordel 2003", and Iron in song like "Mr DJ" .
