Compas / kompa Compas, short for
compas direct, is the modern
méringue (
mereng in
creole) that was popularized in the mid-1950s by the sax and guitar player
Nemours Jean-Baptiste. His méringue soon became popular throughout the
Antilles, especially in
Martinique and
Guadeloupe.
Webert Sicot and
Nemours Jean-Baptiste became the two leaders in the group. Sicot then left and formed a new group and an intense rivalry developed, though they remained good friends. To differentiate himself from Nemours, Sicot called his modern méringue,
Cadence rampa. In
Creole, it is spelled as
konpa dirèk or simply
konpa. It is commonly spelled as it is pronounced as
kompa.
Méringue Evolving in Haiti during the mid-1800s, the Haitian méringue (known as the
mereng in
creole) is regarded as the oldest surviving form of its kind performed today and is its national symbol. According to Jean Fouchard, mereng evolved from the fusion of slave music genres (such as the
chica and
calenda) with ballroom forms related to the French-Haitian contredanse (
kontradans in
creole). Mereng's name, he says, derives from the
mouringue music of the Bara, a tribe of Madagascar. That few Malagasies came to the Americas casts doubt on this etymology, but it is significant because it emphasizes what Fouchard (and most Haitians) consider the African-derived nature of their music and national identity. Méringue has lost popularity to
konpa.
Mizik rasin Mizik rasin is a musical movement that began in
Haïti in
1987 when musicians began combining elements of traditional Haitian
Vodou ceremonial and folkloric music with
rock and roll. This style of modern music reaching back to the roots of
Vodou tradition came to be called
mizik rasin ("roots music") in
Haitian Creole or
musique racine in
French. In context, the movement is often referred to simply as
rasin or
racine. Starting in the late 1970s (with discontent surrounding the increasing opulence of the
Duvalier dictatorship), youth from
Port-au-Prince (and to a lesser extent
Cap-Haïtien and other urban areas) began experimenting with new types of life.
François Duvalier's appropriation of Vodou images as a terror technique, the increase in U.S. assembly and large-scale export agriculture, the popularity of
disco, and
Jean-Claude Duvalier's appreciation of
konpa and chanson française disillusioned many youth and love. To question the dictatorship's notion of "the Haitian nation" (and thus the dictatorship itself), several men began trying a new way of living, embodied in the Sanba Movement. They drew upon global trends in black power,
Bob Marley, "Hippie"-dom, as well as prominently from rural life in Haiti. They dressed in the traditional blue denim (karoko) of
peasants, eschewed the commercialized and processed life offered by global capitalism, and celebrated the values of communal living. Later, they adopted matted hair which resembled dreadlocks, but identified the style as something which existed in Haiti with the term cheve simbi, referring to water spirits. In the 1990s, commercial success came to the musical genre that came to be known as
mizik rasin, or "roots music". Musicians like
Boukman Eksperyans, and
Boukan Ginen, and to a lesser extent
RAM, incorporated
reggae,
rock and
funk rhythms into traditional forms and instrumentation, including
rara, music from
kanaval, or traditional spiritual music from the rural hamlets called lakous, like Lakou Souvnans, Lakou Badjo, Lakou Soukri, or Lakou Dereyal.
Twoubadou Twoubadou is another form of folk music played by peripatetic troubadours playing some combination of
acoustic,
guitar,
beat box and
accordion instruments singing
ballads of Haitian,
French or
Caribbean origin. It is in some ways similar to
Son Cubano from
Cuba as a result of Haitian migrant laborers who went to work on Cuban
sugar plantations at the turn of the century. Musicians perform at the
Port-au-Prince International Airport and also at bars and restaurants in
Pétion-Ville.
Other •
Kompa •
Cadence rampa (
kadans) •
Coumbite (
kombite) •
Haitian Gospel •
Haitian hip hop (
rap kreyòl) •
Haitian rock (
rock kreyòl) •
Kontradans •
Mini-jazz •
Rabòday •
Rara music •
Rara tech •
Vodou drumming •
Zouk == Honduras ==