This is Part II of a pancocojams series that provides excerpts about Afro-Zouk music from the 1990 book African Rock: The Pop Music Of A Continent by Chris Stapleton and Chris May (Dutton, New York).
Part II provides excerpts from Africa Rock which provides additional information about Kassav (band) as well as information about Zouk in Africa (up to 1987).
Note that these excerpts are given without the accent marks in the spelling of certain words.
The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, and educational purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to Chris Stapleton and Chris May and all those who are quoted in this post. Thanks also to the early developers of Zouk and Afro-Zouk music.
****
EXCERPTS FROM "AFRICAN ROCK: THE POP MUSIC OF A CONTINENT"
[page 246]
[...]
"KASSAV AND THE MANUFACTURING OF ZOUK
The term zouk is a Creole word, initially a slang term for an action-packed party. The word came into common use when the 'grand balls', live music concerts, died out and were replaced by dance parties, zouks, featuring a sound system, rather like Trinidad fetes. We learn from this to be wary lest we try to pin down zouk too precisely. It is more a mood, an ambience: its magic is ultimately indescribable but can be witnessed on the Parisian or Fort-de-France dance floors. The term first came to refer to a specific non-cadence style when the Kassav mission was well under way. Zouks became events where the people danced to Kassav; thus Kassav's music came to be known as zouk. The Kassav machine was born when ex Vikings arranger Pierre Eduard Decimus met Jacob Desvarieux in Paris around 1977 and Decimus asked Desvarieux if he'd like to help him with a project to make Antillean music which, for the first time, would have the technical standards of American disco. The aim was to make Antillean dance music which could be dance to in Paris discos as well as Antillean zouks. Once the zoukball got rooling in Paris, the busy studios of Henri Debsso in Guadeloupe followed suit and switched from cadence, biguine and mazurka record production to souk.
Desvarieux was Guadeloupian by birth and had spent many years in Senegal. But he was a rock guitarist and heavy-metal producer by trade. This, however, didn't prove disadvantageous. P. E. Decimus' brief- to make a new, mature disco music out of Antillean and African elements-needed an outside perspective. Desvarieux provided that.
[...]
[page 247]
Kassav's massive hit worldwide came in 1983. "Zouk la Se Sel Medikamen Nou Ni' was the first Antillean record to sell in excess if 100,000 copies. It was a massive hit all over Africa as well as Latin America and the Caribbean. (Recent reports from Senegal indicate that Kassav are the most listened-to non-Senegalese band there.) Also the record raised their profile in France enormously, where t hey are now on a par with Toure Kunda. In late 1986 they sold out five successive nights at Paris' Zenith.
The song's title translates as 'Zouk is the only medicine we have'. The record has stimulated immense political debate across the islands, for it has gone some ways towards reconciling the historic antipathy between them, an antipathy caused by French favouritism for Martinique and the development on Martinique of a neo-Franco anti-Afrian Creole bourgeoisie.
The Kassav song, like the use of ka drums, was a symbol of an Antillean identity separate from the French, a unity across the islands and the building of a national consciousness....
[page 248]
[...]
The song, which appeared on the first Decimus/Desvarieux LP Yelele, is one of the most dramatically excellent they have ever written and arranged. A fast acoustic-guitar intro leads into a racy vocal from Patrick Saint Eloi echoed at the close of each line by a languorous refrain. Jean-Claude Naimro's hunting synthesizer chords flesh out the vista, relatively empty by Kassav standards, and the biguine-style bass of George Decimus jumps wildly. The song rises to a climactic finish with swooping, repeated strings melody which owes much to the seminal 'chamber' cadence of Lamavoi.
From 1983 Kassav built on their success. Each new LP is a fresh configuration which includes at least one song which further expands zouk's ambience as well as spotlighting traditional as well as avant-garde instruments. Over the last few years, however, they have shifted the emphasis of their sound. Ka drums have all gone-drum-and bass-machine arrangements increasingly do the business.
[...]
Arguably, Kassav have attained the most developed pastiche in the world of displaced music retentions. And in
the same way that
[page 249]
makossa and soukous are watching and absorbing zouk methods, Kassav too are scrutinizing recent African developments. The African-music swap show has never been healthier, busier or more imaginative, a bitter irony for the half of the continent which is on the verge of starvation.
In an interview with the magazine African and Reggae Beats in summer 1986, Jacob Desvarieux expands on this swap-shop idea
When you listen to our music it is a mixture of African and European musics. There was Spanish here [on Guadeloupe], then English, then French... it's a mixture of all that. In the music of Kassav sometimes the piano player playes in a Cuban style, the bass plays funk and the guitar highlife. So you see you have a llot of things. It's like when you see people on the street to say exactly where they are from...
[...]
[page 250]
...Zouk's mission, to build a radical new music out of Antillean, Caribbean and European elements has come round full circle here. The mission certainly has only just begun".
****
ZOUK AND AFRICA
[page 251]
..."By 1987, the marriage of African and Antillean music has reached unforeseen levels of fruitfulness as musicians from Francophone west and central Africa, most notable Zaire and Cameroon, embraced the new zouk sound, and Antillean artist looked to Africa fir further inspiration.
The new sound. as notable as much for its high technology, bristling percussion and foot-time 'tropical' feel, through the spotlight on a number of musicians who has adapted, with more or less ease, to the new imperatives....But the music made its biggest impact on artists from the Cameroon: people like Sm Fan Thomas, Moni Bile, Alexandre Douala, Georges Dickson, Toto Guillaume and Akadji Toure. For them souk offered more than rich percussion and new technology: the fusions went beyond outside trappings to create a sound that drew equaly on the African and the Antillean heritage.
One of the key figures in the great coming together of African and Antillean artists is Jean-Claude Naimro, a member of Kassav, who has played keyboards and produced arrangements from many of the African artists based in Paris. One of his early influences was a Zairean band, Rico
[page 252]
Jazz, who settled in Martinique in 1967. 'It was the first time I had heard African music,', he said early in 1987. 'Yet it seemed familiar to me. It wasn't so different to our own music; and this made it easier, later on, to play keyboards with African musicians....Naimro first worked with African artist in 1980, spending two years with Nanu Dibango's back-up band and joining Miriam Makeba on tour before becoming massively in demand as a sessions player.
Kassav's founder, Jacob Desvarieux, shared Naimro's early experience of Africa, living in Senegal as a child. These influencess, augmented by frequent and ecstatically received tours of west and central Africa, have had a shaping effect on the Kassav sound. 'At the start', says Naimro, 'we'd just put in African rhythms to break the zouk a bit. We did it later on the Goree album. But they weren't particular rhythms. We didn't say, 'Let's take something from Zaire or Cameroon." We just composed a song and said, "Let's put it in an African Way.' It wasn't something that was prepared in advance.
A 1981 album, To Guy, with Cameroonian guitarist and singer Toto Guillaume, and a range of albums, including the 1980 Roots Relations, in which Naimro joined together with Cameroonians Jules Kamga, Vicky Edimo and Claude Vamur from Gabon, signaled the starte of Naimro's sessions adventures with top African artists. The most notable, for him, have been Guillaume, and Aladji Toure, a fellow-Cameroonian bass player and producer. Out of these collusions have developed a strong new sound in which Cameroon bass and vocal styles are as prominent as the Antillean rhythm flavours and hi-tech zouk arrangements. 'For us, the bass is the motor of the song,' says Naimro. 'When you have a bass line is typically African- when we use such patterns, they come from Cameroon. It's easy to pick up ideas from there. The music is commercial, and you have many many Cameroonians working in Paris.
A strong percussion sound provides a further link between the Kassav sound and Cameroonian makossa. As Naimro explains, the heart of zouk is the ti-bois, a bamboo slit-drum, which is laid sideways and beaten with sticks. Live, Kassav still play the drum. In the studio, the ti-bois sound is re-created on a drum machine. Similar log drums are played in many parts of Africa, traditionally to tap out short messages and warnings. In
[page 253]
Cameroon, the log drum features prominently in the work of Sam Fan Thomas and other new-look makossa artists."...
****
This concludes Part II of this pancocojams series.
This is Part I of a pancocojams series that provides excerpts about Afro-Zouk music from the 1990 book African Rock: The Pop Music Of A Continent by Chris Stapleton and Chris May (Dutton, New York).
Part I provides excerpts from Africa Rock which provide information about the roots of Zouk music.
Note that these excerpts are given without the accent marks in the spelling of certain words.
The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, and educational purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to Chris Stapleton and Chris May and all those who are quoted in this post. Thanks also to the early developers of Zouk and Afro-Zouk music.
****
EXCERPTS FROM AFRICAN ROCK: THE POP MUSIC OF A CONTINENT
[page 240]
..."In Paris of recent years a musical revolution has been under way. The pop music of Gudelupe and Martinique-casence-has been transformed through the state-of-the art recording technology into a new and highly eclectic style:zouk. Le zouk has in turn heavily influenced the new way of Cameroonian and Cote d'Ivoire makossa artistsl even Zairean zoukous has not escaped. It has also made inroads closer ti its home in the salsa of Puerto Rico and the compas in Venezuela.
Though the cosmopolitan, Paris-based Kassav stand heas and shoulders in importance above anyone else in bringing about this revolution, the roots of zouk lie deep in t he hills of Guadeloupe and Martinique and in the festivals and carnivals on other islands. Zouk, arguably, would still have come about even if its progenitors, Pierre Eduard, George Decimus and Jacob Desvarieux hadn't met in Paris, formed Kassav and set the 'zoukship' on course.
Nine years after Kassav's inception in 1978, they are zouk's flagship, exporting the style's multi=faceted rhythms across the globe. But there is a new-wave, post- Kassav zouk-variants on the original theme-even more in demand in the style's three homes: the discos of Paris and the zouks in Basse-Terre and Fort-de France, the capitals of Guadeloupe and Martinique.
[...]
[page 241]
[...]
What... has made zouk the way it is?"
John Armstrong points to the importance of Haitian band Tabou Combo, most notably their horn arranger Adolpho. During the sixties and early seventies Antilleans listened to very little of their own music; instead they danced to the full brassy swing of Haitian bands like Tabou.
It was the particular way the horns would break up passages, take the lead and pick up melodies, Armstrong explains, which was utilized in the cadence of, say, the Vikings or George Plonquitte. This style of horn arrangement is an integral part of zouk. though in the hands of Kassav it has been stylized and abbreviated. This Haitian pop was coined 'cadence-lyso', though it came before Antillean cadence and hadn't
[page 242]
depended significantly on calypso for inspiration and patterning. In fact, the calpsonian from Montserrat, Arrow. who was credited himself with the making of the modern calypso-soca-sound, has acknowledged the roles Haitian cadence-lypso and Martiniquan biguine played in the building of soca.
Also, Armstrong points out, the highly developed, idiosyncratic guitar styles of Haitian band, Coupe Cloue have been translated into cadence and zouk. However, soukous guitaring, largely because of a visdit to the Antilles by the Zairean band Orchestre Rico Jazz in the early seventies and the subsequent mixing of ex-colonized Franco-Africans in Paris, is ever-present, bubbling beneath the surface on much cadence and souk. Additionally, the lead singer of the Haitian guitar band, Coupe Cloue himself; has strongly influenced Sartana by way of his propensity to rap. Similar to the 'slack' calysonian, Coupe and Sartana's lyrics are often lewd or melodramatically romantic.
Jumbo Vanrenen is quick to emphasize the Latin stresses in zouk. The chant style of vocal delivery and characteristic tempo breaks have their parallels in Dominican Republic merengue, Puerto Rican salsa and the compas on the mainland. But Vanrenen hears, before all these specific elements, a Latin American/Caribbean swing in zouk, a fusing together of a variety of rhythms from that broad belt of Amerindian, west African and European-descended peoples. Zouk's core, its hidden blue note, he feels sure is Yoruban drum and vocal accenting. This age-old heartbeat is made anew in zouk's chant vocals, call-and- response refrains and gwo ka drum patterns.
Another perspective is offered by Dave Hucker. Hecites the 1987 soca hits, like Stalin's 'Burn Dem' as the most significant inroad zouk has yet made into the cross-Caribbean companion genre, soca. The crisp, staccato Linn drum programming, the rhythmic anchor of stat-of-the -art zouk, has a more palpable presence in this year's crop of soca than ever before. it provides a radical departure from soca's customary lush, percussive devices.
[...]
Rene Williams, an Ivorian and an authority on eighties Franco-
[page 243]
African/Antillean music, points to zouk's more specific antecedents. 'The Dominican band Exile One strongly influenced the Antillean music, the early cadence, in the mid-seventies, through the strongest single influence was the Haitian cadence-lypso, which dominated the airwaves and dance floors at the time.
Exile One fused all sorts of style inventively, if rather clumsily. They picked up on funk, mixed it with island rhythms in a way that set a precedent Kassav later exploited. The conditions were there for a new indigenous music to develop. The process Exile One started was continued by the Guadeloupian band the Vikings.
The Vikings included Exile One singer Gordon Henderson and the multi-instrumentalist and Kassav founder Pieere Eduard Decimus. A succession of ground-breaking records in the mid-seventies put cadence on course. And, with their original balance of funk, Haitian and reinterpreted colonial styles such as biguine (adapted from the slow French beguine) and quadrilles, plus a dash of Neo-African, Rico Jazz input, the zouk potpourri was in its early mixing stages.
Rene Williams is also quick to emphasize the importance of Paris in the growth of zouk. It was where Kassav, after a meeting between the ex-Viking P.E. Decimus and Guadeloupian rock guitarist Jacob Desvarieux, was born.
[...]
More and more bridges between styles are being built in the music mecca Paris....San Fan Thomas's "African Typic Collection" was a massive hit in the Antilles in 1985, as it was, of course, all over Africa. Clearly since then zouk musicians have experimented more with makossa ideas-most noticeably the forceful bass lines and rhythm guitar picking.
THE ROOTS OF ZOUK
It is clear, then, that zouk is a Caribbean melange filtered through Parisian culture. But its roots lie deep beneath this hi-tech mirage: they are from the same source, west African polyrhythms and harmony, as are salsa, calypso, reggae and blues. But in zouk's case the African retentions are twice removed- first to the Caribbean, then to Paris. And zouk's basket of Caribbean influences show a fascinating marriage of colonially imported styles, like European beguines,
[page 244]
quadrille and mazurkas and African drum-ensemble practices.
Of the African styles which survived the diaspora and lived on in Guadeloupe and Martinique to resurface in zouk, one, the Saint Jean rhythm, a fast samba-ish carnival beat from Guadeloupe, has its origins in Bantu religious ceremonies. Guadeloupe, due to the historic neglect of the French, has been able to hold on to African percussive skills and religion-focused music more easily than Martinique, which has been historically, more favored by the French, as the Parisian bourgeoisie's Caribbean playground. The Saint Jean rhythm was popularized by Kassav when using the pseudonym Soukou Ko Ou on their monster 1984 disc "Vacances". The exhilarating, circular dance beat is ingeniously modernized by P. E. Decimus and the band; it even includes Shadows-sounding guitar.
More important African retention in zouk are, however, the tambour drum triumvirate-the two gwo ka and the one ti bwa drums. Here is the African strand in Antillean Creole life standing proudest and loudest: ka drums are the most African of all things Antillean.
Tambour music, called waka waka, has been recorded only since the mid-seventies, when the cadence of the Vikings triggered the unearthing of indigenous styles previously heard only at carnivals and festival time, when across Guadeloupe's hills, from village to village, the messages and anecdotes-a direct line from early days- of the ka drums would ring out. Since the mid-seventies, however, record stores stock tambour music and the records are played on some of the islands' fifteen radio stations.
[...]
Gwo ka was brought in by P.E. Decimus to the Vikings and from then on was the rhythmic centre of cadence and its cosmopolitan child zouk. Top zouk singers Sartana and Pier Rosier never perform or record without the requisite ka section and the hottest new wave zouk of '87, for example Sevais Liso and Ramon Pyrme's Zouk Time, display a new, more minimal use of ka within an uncluttered synthesizer-sculpted framework. But it was P.E. Decimus who first took the ka unit to Paris and Kassav who first set such a pure African retention alongside elements which could not be further removed from African tribal origins.
The first Kassav LP Love and La Dance (a play on words which also goes some way towards indicating the origins of the term cadence) was a veiled
[page 245)
tribute to the Antillean people's African history. This LP made Decimus and Desvarieux, who had met in Paris, musicians and arrangers for African musicians to hunt out once there. It also set into motion an Antillean pride: a recognition of their African roots, which had almost been squashed by European domination. To emphasize the significance of ka, Kassav even dedicated the title tract to the uncontested master, and one-time sole practitioner of gwo ka, the late Velo.
There is much more in zouk, however, besides African drumming patterns. Inter-island communication enabled the merengue and compas beats, as well as the aforementioned Haitian rhythms, to b soaked up by Antilleans. Also the way the Martiniquans adapted the slow, decorative and rather stodgy beguine into a vibrant mid-tempo dance, was highly significant first for cadence, then for zouk. For it was the jumpy, tight tensions of beguine's bass lines which gave the pop styles their peculiar rhythmic anchor. Strait-laced European dances, such as the quadrille and the bolero, can be detected in zouk (Kassav's song 'Bolero', like the aforementioned "Vacances', uses traditional moods and structures as a springboard for a fresh, radical, rereading)."...
-end of excerpt-
****
PANCOCCOJAMS EDITOR'S UPDATE Feb. 12, 2020
Hat tip to commenter Esi we uibo for sending in a correction for the quoted book's use of the term "Haitian cadence-lypso" in the sentence "Arrow, who was credited himself with the making of the modern calypso-soca-sound, has acknowledged the roles Haitian cadence-lypso and Martiniquan biguine played in the building of soca" and elsewhere in this book.r
I can't change that information in that excerpt since this is a quote from a book. But I can add this this information confirming that correction:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadence-lypso:
"Cadence-lypso is a fusion of cadence rampa from Haiti and calypso from Trinidad & Tobago that has also spread to other English speaking countries of the Caribbean. Originated in the 1970s by the Dominican band Exile One on the island of Guadeloupe, it spread and became popular in the dance clubs around the Creole world and Africa as well as the French Antilles.[1][2][3]
Gordon Henderson is the leader and founder of Exile One, and the one who coined the term cadence-lypso.[2][4]".
Thanks again, Esi we uibo!
****
This concludes Part I of this two part series.
This pancocojams post provides information about Zouk music and showcases five YouTube examples of Zouk music.
Selected comments from some of these examples are included in this post.
The content of this post is presented for cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to the founders of Zouk music and thanks to all those who have contributed to that music form. Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publishers of these examples on YouTube.
-snip-
This post replaces a March 2012 pancocojams post on Zouk music and Kassav (band).
By showcasing examples of these types of Zouk music, I don't mean to imply that these are the only types of zouk music.
****
INFORMATION ABOUT ZOUK
From https://www.britannica.com/art/zouk
Zouk MUSIC
WRITTEN BY: Shannon Dudley
"Zouk, popular dance music associated mainly with the Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique, as well as Saint Lucia and Dominica, all in the French Antilles (French West Indies). The music blends a variety of Caribbean, African, and North American music styles. It is characterized by frequent use of French Antillean Creole language, the prominence of electronically synthesized sounds, and sophisticated recording technology.
The French Antillean Creole term zouk was first used on the islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique to refer to nightlong dance parties. The collective label for the various types of Caribbean music played at such parties was mizik zouk. Included in the mizik zouk rubric were the Haitian popular music styles known as compas and cadence, beguine from Martinique and Guadeloupe, and cadence-lypso, a hybrid of Haitian cadence and Trinidadian calypso popularized in Dominica in the 1970s.
In 1979 Guadeloupean sound technician and bass player Pierre-Edouard Décimus and guitarist Jacob Desvarieux formed Kassav’, the group that integrated the diverse styles of mizik zouk, injected the mixture with a contemporary urban, studio-produced sound, and marketed the new music as zouk. With the overwhelming commercial success in 1984 of the group’s song “Zouk-la sé sèl médikaman nou ni” (“Zouk Is the Only Medicine We Have”), zouk was firmly established as a new and viable Caribbean dance music genre.
Kassav’ found its principal audience among the French Antillean Creole-speaking population of Guadeloupe, Martinique, Dominica, and Saint Lucia. Within this community zouk emerged as an emblem of cultural pride, owing first and foremost to the music’s use of Creole lyrics. By projecting the unofficial common tongue of the region in a modern and cosmopolitan musical setting, zouk appealed to the ideology of créolité (“creole-ness”), a concurrent literary and cultural movement that strove to recognize the language and culture of the French Antilles as legitimate hybrids, both related to and distinct from their predominantly African and European (particularly French) parent cultures.
Aside from its use of the French Antillean Creole language, early zouk was distinguished from its Antillean relatives by its studio sound, including the extensive use of synthesizers, as well as by its female lead and backup singers, a precedent for which existed in calypso music. Moreover, zouk used instruments and rhythms that drew from local traditions, further elevating the status of French Antillean cultural practices. For example, Kassav’ used the distinctively Guadeloupean gwoka (or gwo ka) drums and drum patterns on its early recordings. This helped to bring attention and respect to an Afro-Caribbean drum dance tradition that had previously been disparaged as crude and uncultured. The more broadly Caribbean heritage of zouk was evident in the music’s guiding rhythm, a repeated pattern of two long beats followed by a short beat (a 3-3-2 rhythm, written, for example, as two dotted eighth notes followed by an eighth note in Western music notation). The rhythm was also heard in most of the musics that were played in the mizik zouk context. In zouk music the rhythm was usually carried by the hi-hat cymbals.
For French Antilleans zouk spoke back not only to cultural and political domination by France but also to musical domination by genres from other regions of the Caribbean. Although zouk possessed an undeniably local French Antillean character, it also had an international orientation that enabled it to compete commercially with foreign genres such as reggae, soca, and especially salsa, which enjoyed a strong appeal in the French Antilles in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Indeed, the founding musicians of Kassav’, although from Guadeloupe, were well connected internationally. Décimus had toured extensively in France and in the Caribbean beyond Guadeloupe, while Desvarieux had lived and performed in France and Senegal. The band’s later membership even more clearly reflected its international orientation. Martinican singer Jocelyne Béroard, for example, had previously performed with Cameroonian bandleader Manu Dibango. Martinican keyboardist Jean-Claude Naimro had performed with both Dibango and South African singer Miriam Makeba. The group’s horn section (including saxophones, trumpets, and trombones), moreover, consisted of Paris-based musicians with international recording and performing credentials. Such connections to African musicians and styles has remained an especially rich resource for zouk and for French Antillean music in general.
The success of Kassav’ opened a space in the international music market for zouk artists of diverse origins. Typically marketed as individual singers rather than as bands, these artists included Soumia, from France; Kairos, from the French overseas department of Réunion, off the east coast of Madagascar; as well as French Antillean singers Medhy Custos, Orlane, and Jean-Marie Ragald, among others. Along with this diversity of participation, substyles of zouk developed, including zouk love, with romantic themes and slow tempi, and the faster-paced zouk béton (hard, or “concrete,” zouk)."...
****
Excerpt #2
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zouk for the Wikipedia article on Zouk.
"Zouk is a fast jump-up carnival beat originating from the Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique, popularized by the French Antillean band Kassav' in the 1980s.[1] Very rapid in tempo, the style lost ground in the 1980s due to the strong presence of Compas / kompa and kadans, the main music of the French Antilles. Today, zouk is the French Antilles compas (Kompa),[2] also called zouk-love.
Etymology
The Creole word zouke, sekwe, or zouke, etc. from the French verb secouer meaning "shake intensely and repeatedly" was used by Haitian artists who toured the French Antilles during the late 1970s and 1980s. It is pronounced to rhyme with "juke", an American style of music which is similar.[1][3]
The word zouk has, over time, come to mean "party" or "festival" in the local Antillean Creole of French.
Zouk today
Zouk was an attempt to develop a proper local music that would lessen or even eradicate the meringue-kadans 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 and people got used to it. Because it was a jump up beat the fast zouk béton faded away In the same 1980s 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, Brazil, 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."
****
Excerpt #3:
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Zouk
"Zouk versions
Are there different versions of Zouk? I know there are numerous styles, but is there a Caribbean version versus say, a Euro version? I'm only familiar with the Zouk that I've heard from Africans. And, when you write "Afro-Zouk", what do you mean? Does that limit it to francophone countries (like Burkina Faso)? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rajpaj (talk • contribs) 17:11, 21 May 2011 (UTC)"
**
"No. The first paragraph does not even mention that it's a kind of music. It says that Zouk is a "jump-up carnival beat". Is that like a heartbeat? Would cardiologists read this article? Or is it violence; are cops beating up black kids again? Carnival - you mean like Cirq du Soleil? 'Jump Up'- there's a lot of reasons for people jumping up - especially in Cirq du Soleil.
I know that you mean it's a style of music - it's just that you didn't say that, and that's the most important thing about what 'zouk' is.
What's a better word for what you mean - is it 'musical cadence'? A kind of rhythm? Whatever phrasing you use, make sure the word 'music' is in there. Imagine the person reading it, doesn't know english very well, and they pick out words that they recognize, and try to figure out the meaning. They get lost really easily if you leave out the obvious.
You mention a couple of other styles of music, I never heard of any of them. Nor that band you mention. Nor, Zouk itself. I'm just into other kinds of music, a lot of hard rock, philip glass, NIN, Björk. I actually flunked music in junior highschool. Never took it again.
OsamaBinLogin (talk) 03:14, 3 July 2016 (UTC)"
**
"Zouk vs Africa
Please do not write aberrations. Was African styles that influenced the creation of Zouk, and not vice versa. Besides all the styles shown, as supposedly having origin or influenced by Zouk (which I obviously deleted), are styles that have existed long before the Americas had been discovered.
And please don't confuse Zouk with Kizomba, the styles are similar but they are not the same.
And the rare bird who wrote that Kuduro was influenced by Zouk-love has never heard kuduro in his life. lol Zorglub-PRV (talk) 18:25, 22 June 2012 (UTC)"
****
Excerpt #4
From http://www.tropicalbass.com/2013/03/15-retro-zouk-tunes-you-should-know/ "15 (retro) Zouk tunes you should know
Posted on 30 March 2013 by Marflix
"As the new music hype “Zouk Bass” is flooding the music blogosphere, the origins of “Zouk” might be unclear to many. So let’s open the book and digg some history knowledge. For a start we go back to the motherland of Zouk – the Caribbean island Guadeloupe.
Although all french creole speaking islands – Haiti, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique and St. Lucia – are part of the story, it was mainly Guadeloupe where Compas (Haiti), Cadence / Cadence-lypso (Dominica) and local traditions (Gwo-ka, Beguine,..) merged into a new sound.
The Cadence band “Vikings de la Guadeloupe” of the 70s is the precursor of the band Kassav (Pierre Edouard Decimus founded Kassav later in Paris together with Jacob Desvarieux), which is said to be the inventor of Zouk. The word “Zouk” though is derived from a dance which came from Poland – mazurka/mazouk.
The classic Zouk sound (nowadays called “Zouk retro”) had it’s peak in the late 80s and early 90s, so no suprise most of the featured songs here are from that period."....
-snip-
Thus far, this is the only article on Zouk music which indicates that the word "zouk" comes from "a dance which came from Poland – mazurka/mazouk." I consider this etymology to be questionable.
Jimmy B, Published on Dec 18, 2007
Genre : Zouk
Label : CBS
-snip-
Selected comments from this video's discussion thread (with Google translate to English is given below some comments and numbers added for referencing purposes only)
1. landryrita, 2010
"damn! non seulement j'avais jamais vu ce clip, mais je savais pas qu'ils l'avaient tourné à kinshasa!!! trop fracassant le clip!! la joie du peuple c incomparable Afrique-Antilles: memes racines, meme soul, meme feelings"
-snip-
"Damn! not only had I never seen this clip, but I did not know they had shot it at kinshasa !!! too smashing the clip !! the joy of the people c incomparable Africa-West Indies: same roots, same soul, same feelings"
**
2. Traoré Mamady, 2014
"Super, ça rappel du bon vieux temps de la jeunesse,ils sont et restent les meilleurs car toutes les générations y trouvent son compte."
-snip-
"Super, it's a reminder of the good old days of youth, they are and remain the best because all generations find it."
**
3. Shaddy Raddy922, 2016
"Video filmed in Kinshasa, D.R.C, pretty cool. During this period, due to regional concerts from Kassav in various countries, including the Lusophere (Cape Verde, Angola), new sub-genres emerged such as Cabo-Zouk (Cape Verde), Kizomba (Cape-Verde, Angola, Sao Tome), and Afro-Zouk (Francophone). There has been a paradigm shift focusing more on the sensual and romantic Zouk-Love (95 and 110 BPM), but zouk-beton is still there.
**
REPLY
4. Traore Mamady, 2014
"Well, it reminds me of a lot of things, remember it remains an excellent band and even artists pray individually. Very very great"
**
5. Mario Boston, 2016
"The music went back home"
**
6. laer, 2016
"somebody help me. Wich one is the original version? This one of kassav? or the Chayane version "este ritmo se baila así"...Regards from México!!!!"
****
Example #2: La Medicina - Zouk La Se Sel Medikaman Nou Ni
sonnowak, Published on Nov 19, 2009
By Kassav.
--- Lyrics:
Kijan zot fé
M'pa ka konpran'n
Zot ka viv' kon si
Pa ni pwoblém'
Poutan zot sav'
Lavi la réd
Kijan zot fé
Pou pé sa kenbé
Zouk la sé sel médikaman nou ni ( sa kon sa )
Zouk la sé sel médikaman nou ni ( sa kon sa )
M'pa té konnet
Sécré lasa
Ban mwen plan la
P'mwen pé sa konpran'n
Ban mwen plan la
M'poko sézi'i
Si janmé on jou
Mwen tonbé malad
Zouk la sé sel médikaman nou ni ( sa kon sa )
Zouk la sé sel médikaman nou ni ( sa kon sa )
Zouk la sé sel médikaman nou ni ( sa kon sa )
Zouk la sé sel médikaman nou ni ( sa kon sa )
Si sé sa mwen an nou zouké
Mi'i kon sa ... Mi'i kon sa ...
Zouk la sé sel médikaman nou ni ( sa kon sa )
Zouk la sé sel médikaman nou ni ( sa kon sa )
Zouk la sé sel médikaman nou ni ( sa kon sa )
Zouk la sé sel médikaman nou ni ( sa kon sa )
An malad An malad An malad
An malad An malad An malad
sonnowak, Published on Nov 19, 2009
-snip-
Selected comments from this video's discussion thread (with numbers added for referencing purposes only):
1. AC Downloads101, 2015
"This song is from Guadeloupe, but the kompa mixes in it or from haiti. But legit everyone in the Caribbean loves this song. It should be the national anthem of every island in the Caribbean lol. I loved this song growing up and I still do. They're speaking in patois, but its very similar to Creole."
**
2. Paradise Slaay, 2016
"all the Haitians know this"
**
REPLY
3. ThePrincessLabelle, 2017
"I from the french caribbean and Kassav is a guadeloupean group not haitian, they are singing in guadeloupe creole not haitian creole"
**
REPLY
3. Stanley Dougé, 2017
"The languages differ but minor differences unless you speak both and French then you can tell me how Haïtians don't understand Guadeloupean créole because I understand it completely fine and I'm not even from Guadeloupe"
**
REPLY
4. shaniel fo real, 2017
"Paradise Slaay in Surinam we play this also on parties"
**
5. Cocoa Puff, 2017
"All West Indians tbhh, this gets played at everyyyy family function !"
-snip-
tbhh= My guess is this means "to be honest here"
**
6. M'caiah Jewels, 2017
"the group is st lucian"
**
REPLY
7. Topaz Citrine, 2017
"No, they are from Guadeloupe. Though as a Lucian myself, I heard it so much as a little girl that I thought they were Lucian too lol"
**
REPLY
8. Trey Johnson, 2017
"Forget all that y'all talking about... EVERY CARIBBEAN PERSON KNOWS THIS SONG!!! I'm bahamian and vibe to this just fine! Granted, my husband is haitian, but I've been listening to this looooooong before I met him.
#CaribbeansStandUp"
**
9. A Google User, 2018
"Dogegista Dog be quiet this isn't Haitian. Some members of Kassav are Guadeloupeen and others are Martiniquais. I have family from Haiti, Martinique, and St Martin (Gwada)..I know because I'm all of them and can tell the difference in the pronunciation of each Creole. Jacob the singer of this song is singing in Guadeloupeen Creole"
**
REPLY
10. OG509, 2018
"I'm haitian and i know that Kassav are not haitians but they performed a lot in haiti and even lived there at some point"
****
Example #3: Kassav' - Oh Madiana
hermespty, Published on Feb 7, 2011
-snip-
Selected comments from this video's discussion thread (with Google translate to English is given below some comments and numbers added for referencing purposes only)
1. Rabina Blackshear, 2014
"Love this music"
**
REPLY
2. Carlos Vieira, 2015
"IN ANGOLA, WE LOVES THIS SONG SINCE 19WÁWÉ! AH AH AH"
**
3. Vladimir Alviz Velez, 2014
"Mucho sabor ese tema!"
-snip-
Spanish to English: "I really like that theme".
**
4. Saxemard Dyandrah, 2014
"Ce n'ai pas de ma génération mais j'ai toujours aimé Kassav .."
-snip-
"This is not my generation but I always liked Kassav .."
**
5.gabriel vandune, 2014
" Tempo bom e boas muicas"
-snip-
Portuguese- "Good time and good music"
**
REPLY
6. acedivaful, 2015
"muy buena musica"
-snip-
Spanish to English "very good music"
**
7. Shanyce Cetoute, 2017
"hummmm cela me rappelle quand j'étais toute petite et que je regardais ma mère se déhancher sur ce son là. ah lala bon souvenir. Merci pour tout ce bonheur KASSAV😍."
-snip-
"hummmm it reminds me when I was very small and I watched my mother wiggle on this sound there. ah lala good memory. Thank you for all the happiness KASSAV😍."
**
8. avaholic67, 2017
"ça me rappelle mon premier voyage en afrique..bon temps!!!"
-snip-
"it reminds me of my first trip to Africa..good time !!!"
****
SHOWCASE EXAMPLES OF ZOUK LOVE
HARRY DIBOULA (Tu me manques)
974MARIE13, Published on May 24, 2011
ZOUK LOVE (Harry Diboula)
-snip-
Selected comments from this video's discussion thread (with Google translate to English is given below some comments and numbers added for referencing purposes only)
1. Ahoutou, 2017
"SOUVENIR SOUVENIR ANNEE 1994 QUI DIT MIEUX?C'ETAIT LE ZOUK LOVE LE PLUS DANSE ET IL EST RESTE INTACT."
-snip-
"SOUVENIR SOUVENIR YEAR 1994 WHO SAID BETTER: IT WAS THE ZOUK LOVE THE MOST DANCED AND IT REMAINS INTACT."
**
2. Ninis Bens, 2017
"Les anciens son sont les meilleur ❤️❤️❤️"
-snip-
"The old ones are the best ❤️❤️❤️"
****
Tu es mon soleil
Ginno Regales, Published on Oct 14, 2008
Princess Lover Parole
Tu es mon soleil, éclaires mes jours, mes nuits
Tu es mon soleil, tu es lhomme de ma vie
Tu es mon soleil, illumines mes jours, mes nuits
Tu mémerveilles, tu nourris mes envies
C nest plus pareil, depuis que tes parti
Toute seule jessaye, mais seul ne me poursuit
Je donnerais ma vie tu sais, pour te suivre
Je ferais changer le passé, je veux vivre
Auprès de toi je resterai, je mennivre
De toi et des tous les secrets, qui nous lient a jamais
Tu es mon soleil, la lumière qui me guide
Dans mon sommeil, tu dessines mes rêves aussi
Tu es larc-en-ciel, qui a coloré ma vie
Tu es mon soleil, tu es mon meilleur ami
Je voudrais plus quune amitié, je suis ivre
Pour toi je peux me contenter, dêtre libre
Pouvoir seulement te parler, je veux vivre
De toi, être à tes côtés, et poursuivre
Seront réalité
Etre a tes côtés.
Tu es ma destinée, ma destinée
Tu es ma destinée
Si tu veux de moi (x6) Emmènes moi
Si tu veux de moi, si tu veux de moi
Si tu veux de moi, emmènes moi
Emmènes moi où tu veux, emmènes moi si tu veux
Si tu veux de moi (x4)
Je e laisserais jamais briser, briser ce qui va suivre
Si tu veux de moi, si tu veux de moi
Si tu veux de moi , emmènes moi
Si tu veux de moi(x6)
Emmènes moi où tu veux, emmènes moi si tu veu
-snip-
Here's a comment from this video's discussion thread:
gary durand, 2015
"Faut pas chipoter longtemps pour entendre que Princess Lover à crée le morceau de zouk love complètement ultime. C'est le plus beau zouk love en français à jamais, enfin mais c'est quoi ces paroles et ce dub de ouf?! Le pire c'est quand on le danse avec une inconnue... Frisson an tchou' aw!!!"
-Do not quibble long to hear that Princess Lover to create the piece of zouk love completely ultimate. This is the most beautiful zouk love in French forever, but what are these words and this dub of phew ?! The worst thing is when you dance with an unknown ... Frisson an chou 'aw !!!"
