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Commentary: In a kompa state of mind
Published on Tuesday, April 13, 2010
By Bevan Springer
New York Amsterdam News
Over the past few months, I have been listening to the creole rhythms of an incredible musical genre called kompa.
As a young West Indian lad traveling around the Caribbean on national tennis duty, I was exposed and attracted to both Spanish and French Caribbean melodies which have contributed to my musical appreciation of the creative cultural sounds that emanate from all corners of the region.
But I am not quite sure what got me hooked on this latest round of musical vibrations this year. Could it be the background music while getting my hair cut at the Haitian barber shop in New York that I have frequented for more than a decade? Or was it because I had worked tirelessly on a fundraiser for Haiti with a fellow islander who speaks French in Toronto? Even as I write this, the sounds of kompa on YouTube are the musical inspiration for this weekly column.
Kompa, the Haitian music with African and European roots, has been adopted and recognized as the national music of Haiti, and it is often featured at Haitian festivals and events, including the three spots I visited within the last week to hear exponents of the art form at their very best.
The first stop was at La Brasserie Creole restaurant in Queens where after enjoying a delectable seafood offering of snapper and king fish with another dear friend from the Caribbean, we then kompa'd the night away to the new generation sounds of Carimi - Carlo Vieux, Richard Cave and Mickael Guirand who along with their versatile band have been releasing big kompa hits since forming about a decade ago.
There were only a handful of people at the Creole restaurant when we arrived an hour before midnight. Four hours later, the place was packed and Carimi must have "shut down the Brasserie" around sunrise. The next day, I invited a friend of Cape Verdean descent, who is also familiar with creole music, but of the Portuguese variety, to SOB's (Home of Universal Music) in Manhattan, for a Haitian Dance Party.
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