Excerpts About Kassav Band And Excerpts About Zouk In Africa From The 1990 book "African Rock: The Pop Music Of A Continent

Edited by Azizi Powell

Latest revision: Feb. 12, 2020

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).

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2018/07/excerpts-about-zouk-music-from-1990.html for Part I of this series. 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 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.

Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome.
s

Excerpts About The Roots Of Zouk Music From The 1990 Book "African Rock: The Pop Music Of A Continent", Part I

Edited by Azizi Powell

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.

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2018/07/excerpts-about-kassav-band-and-excerpts.html for Part II of this series. 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 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.

Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome.

Haitian band Nu Look - "Confessions" (information, lyrics, & video)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This post presents information about the Haitian band "Nu Look" and showcases the Nu Look video entitled "Confessions".

The content of this post is presented for cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to Arly Larivierre, soloist for Nu Look, and the entire Nu Look band. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post. In addition, thanks to the producer of this video and its publisher on YouTube.

Special thanks to Alton for transcribing the lyrics to this song on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3VVmPB7xy0

****
EXCERPT OF INTERVIEW WITH ARLY LARIVIERRE
From https://haitianhollywood.com/haitian-celebs/item/arly-larivierre.html Interview with "Arly Larivierre
"Birthplace: Cap-Haitien Haiti
Biography
Arly Larivierre, born in Cap-Haitien Haiti, is a Haitian singer-songwriter, musician, record producer and leader of the konpa band “Nu Look”. Arly Larivierre’s father Daniel Larivierre was the lead singer and composer for the great Haitian band Tropicana D’Haiti. ….

He later migrated to the US, where he resides in Florida and was briefly part of the group D-zine in the late 90′s. In 2000, he joined forces with Gazzman Pierre and formed the band “Nu Look” which became one of the greatest duo in the HMI history books. Nu Look has become a reference in the Haitian music industry. During the last 13 years of Nu Look’s existence, under the leadership of Arly Lariviere as their Maestro and main composer, Nu look has successfully enlisted themselves in the hearts and soul of most konpa lovers, with mega hit songs, such as “Loving You”, “Why Do You Say You Love Me”, and “Notre Histoire” “Wasn’t meant to be” “A qui la faute” among others. Arly Larivierre has grown to be one of the most prolific Haitian composer of this generation.

With the sudden departures of Nu Look’s last two lead vocalists, Gazzman Pierre and Pipo Edersse Stanis, Arly is about to undertake one of the biggest challenge of his musical career; being the sole lead singer since the formation of Nu Look, over 13 years ago. The “iGotThis” album is about to be released in less than 24 hours, Arly Larivierre, sat with HB to discuss his upcoming album “iGotThis” and what it means to him….
AL- First I wanted to clear any confusion about the title of the album “iGot This” because many people see the statement “I am Arly Lariviere” “iGot This” and that wasn’t the idea. Rather it’s a statement showing that I am taking on the responsibility of Nu Look to ensure that the band is here for years to come… I have gotten a lot of advice from fellow lead singers in the industry that I have very good relationships with, and they broke it down for me very simply. They pretty much made me see that if I didn’t take on the role as lead singer, Nu Look would continue to have these problems. They went on to explain, that it’s one thing for there to be a lead singer in front of Nu Look and me on the side playing the keyboard, but it turns into a completely different situation every time I start singing “Oh Papa Bondieu” or “Si Se Yon Mal” and the crowd goes crazy with their arms wide open, while the lead singer of the band, is just left there feeling out of place or neglected. They will always have a problem with that and it’s okay for them to feel that way because at the end of the day, they are human. We all are. This made perfect sense to me and I knew that being the lead singer was the route that I had to take....

HB- How would you describe your personal style?
AL- If we are looking at the music that I have sang in the past you would say love songs. But the music I write in general is made to touch on real-life experiences that people go through every day, whether it be between friends, or lovers, or business. It’s about the world that we live in today.

HB- If your life was comparable to any of your love songs, which song would it be?
AL- All of them!!! ha ha ha ha!!! “...

****
LYRICS: CONFESSIONS
(Arly Larivierre)

Verse I
Se ou sèlman ki konnen sa m sakrifye pou nou.
Tout moun ap kritike m, menm fanmi m yo arive nye m.
Relatyon " à long terme" projè n yo "à court terme".
Sèl sa k'ape kenbe m se konfyans mwen mete nan lanmou.

Chorus I
Gen de jou mwen pè mwen dekouraje,
se komsi m'ape mache tou sèl
nan yon enpas "sans issue".
L'amour ne se paie que par l'amour, se sa yo di.
Se sèl espwa mwen genyen
se la m pwize fòs pou m kontinye.

Verse II
Mwen refize dakò ak opinyon piblik,
ki di ke de "nos jours " konpromi ranplase lanmou.
Kotidyen m pa fasil, " aimer c'est prendre un risque ".
Ou vle di twòp pou mwen, sèl chwa m se ale jiskobou.

[Chorus I] X

Bridge
Se plis jou ap pase, plis anksyete m ape grandi,
se plis ou enpòtan pou mwen, plis mwen gen " à perdu".
Mwen p'ap "baisser les bras" m deside ale jiskobou
pou si nou pa ta reyisi pou mwen pa di "what if".

Se ou sèl ki konnen reyalite lavi n
Se ou sèl ki konnen sa kotidyen n ye
X 2

[Bridge] X

Chorus II - 1
Jan mwen ògèye mwen p'at panse se te posib,
Ou fè mwen aksèpte "le peu" de sa ou ka ban mwen.
Yo rele m egare, o m merite pi plis ke sa.
Mwen pa di "le contraire" men se sa ki fè m kontan.

Chorus II - 2
Nou mèt pase lontan "ap pale",
nou mèt pase "des heures" eksplike n,
nou p'ap ka konprann mwen
paske sikonstans an nou pa menm.
Nou mèt pase ane, nou mèt pase "des ans" eksplike n,
nou p'ap ka konprann mwen
paske sikonstans an nou pa menm.

Chorus II - 1(a)
Jan mwen ògèye mwen p'at panse se te posib,
ou fè mwen aksèpte "le peu" de sa ou ka ban mwen.
Yo rele m egare, o m merite pi plis ke sa.
Mwen pa di "le contraire" men respekte desizyon m.
-snip-
*This transcription is from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3VVmPB7xy0 NU LOOK "Confessions" (PAWOL)
Anton channel, Published on Aug 23, 2014

****
ENGLISH TRANSLATION* - CONFESSIONS
(Arly Larivierre)

Verse I
Only you know what I sacrificed for us.
Everyone will criticize me, even my family arrivals disown me.
Relatyon "long terme" we project "A court terme".
Only this k'ape keep me my confidence placed in love.

Chorus I
Some days I'm afraid I discouraged
In effect m'ape walk single
at an impasse "sense Issue".
Love is repaid by love payroll, so they say

It is the only hope I have
there I tap the strength to continue.

Verse II
I refuse to agree with public opinion,
saying that two "these days" compromises replace love.
Daily I not easy, " love is to take a risk. "
You mean too much to me, my only choice is to go jiskobou.

[Chorus I] X

Bridge
It is more the days go more my anxiety yells grow,
is much important for me, plus I have "versus wasted."
I will "give up" I decided to go jiskobou
for if we did not succeed to me by saying "What If".

Only you know reality Lives
Only you know that everyday we are
X 2

[Bridge] X

Chorus II - 1
How proud I p'at I think it was possible,
Or do I accept "the little" of what you can give me.
They called me foolish, oh I deserve more than that.
I say "as contrary" but what makes me happy

Chorus II - 2
We can spend long "talking"
ye than "some hours" we explained,
we will be able to understand me
circumstances because we do not even.
We can spend years, we may pass "some years" we explained,
we will be able to understand me
circumstances because we do not even.

Chorus II - 1(a)
How proud I p'at I think it was possible,
you accept "the little" of what you can give me.
They called me foolish, oh I deserve more than that.
I say "as contrary" but I respect the decision.

-snip-
*This is Google Translate's translation of Haitian Creole & French words to English. Most of the lyrics for this song are Haitian Creole (Kreyol) and a few of the lyrics are in French. Google translate didn't give translations for a few other words and phrases. Additions and corrections are welcome.

For example. Google translate indicated that the word "jiskabou" was Haitian Creole, but didn't give any English translation for that. I did a Google search for that word but that search resulted in websites about the color "red". I also found a video of the group Barikad Crew performing a song entitled "Jiskobou".

Does "jiskobou" mean something like a red rage (stark raging mad/crazy?)

****
SHOWCASE VIDEO
Nu Look - Confessions - Official Video



Your Zouk TV, Published on Aug 29, 2014
-snip-
This record was released in 2013.

****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome.

Angolan Singer Pérola - "Fala Do Quiseres" (with Portuguese lyrics & English translation)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This post showcases a video of Angolan vocalist Pérola performing the song "Fala Do Quiseres" ("Tell Me What You Want"). Portuguese lyrics and an English translation of this song are also included in this post.

The content of this post is presented for cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyright remains with their owners.

Thanks to the composer of this song and thanks to Pérola for her performance of this song. Thanks also to the transcriber of this song and thanks to the producer and publisher of this video on YouTube.

****
SHOWCASE VIDEO: PEROLA (Fala Do Quiseres) - ANGOLA - KIZOMBA - ZOUK - PORTUGUESE MUSIC - African Music tv (AMtv)



Africanmusictv [ AMTV ] http://africanmusictv.weebly.com/

African Music tv crowned Perola as one of the best Afro portuguese artist from Angola. Perola have a smooth sensation flow in her beautiful voice.
-snip-
Selected comments from this video's discussion thread:
Jason Rodriguez, 2015
"I give it up to this Angola queen beautiful voice and it's a plus she sings in Portuguese"

Reply
Thiana Berrick, 2015
"Why is it a plus? That's the official language in Angola"

****
PORTUGUESE LYRICS: FALA DO QUE QUISERES
(as sung by Pérola)

Hoje eu sei
E decidi,
Que não devo acreditar
Mais em ti
O que dizes não se escreve ,
Não querido
Já não esta' a fazer sentido
Não, não

Tu vais e vens sempre
Que queres,
Tu preferes,
Não me dares opção ,
Eu espero
Desespero
Brincas com o coração
Nem sabes que estas nele , ainda juras me amor

(fala do que quiseres, eh eh)
Mas te peço não me fales de amor,
(faz tudo o que quiseres eh eh)
Mas te peço não me mostres amor
(faz o que quiseres eh eh)
Mas não me fales de amor, tu não és serio isso me causa dor

Amanha
Não sei dizer,
O que vai acontecer
Se vou enfraquecer , se dar-te outra chance
Vou atrever, mas duvido tanto
Porque muita coisa se foi

Tu vais e vens sempre que queres
Tu preferes
E não me das opção
Eu espero
Desespero
Brincas com o coração
Nem sabes que estas nele,
Ainda juras-me amor

(fala do que quiseres eh eh)
Mas te peço não me fales de amor,
(faz tudo o que quiseres eh eh)
Mas te peço não me mostres amor
(faz o que quiseres eh eh)
Mas não me fales de amor,
Tu não serio , isso me causa dor

Tanta coisa entre nos aconteceu,
Triste e' dizer mas o que foi bom morreu
Insistir seria continuar a magoar me
A frustrar-me ,
A tornar-me nesta pessoa amarga ,
(fala o que quiseres)
Nesta pessoa que não sou
(faz tudo o que quiseres)
Yeah eih
Eih
Na na na na na

Fala-me do que quiseres
Mas não me fales de amor
(faz tudo o quiseres)
Mas não me mostres amor,
(faz tudo o que quiseres)
Não me fales de amor
Isso me causa dor, tu não és serio, e hoje eu sei


Source- http://letras.com/perola/fala-do-que-quiseres/, Añadido por Nizzy

****
ENGLISH TRANSLATION: TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT (Speak Of What You Want)
(performed by Pearl)

Today I know
And I decided,
Should I not believe
More about you
What you say is not written,
No dear
No longer do this' to make sense
No no

You will always come and
What do you want,
You prefer,
Not giving me option
I hope
Despair
Fool around with the heart
You do not know what these it still swear me love

(Speaking of what you want, eh eh)
But I beg you do not speak of love,
(Do whatever you want eh eh)
But I ask you not show me love
(Do what you eh eh)
But I do not speak of love, you are not serious it causes me pain

The Morning
I can not say,
What will happen
I will weaken, you give yourself another chance
I will dare, but I doubt much
Because so much is gone

You go and come whenever you want
You prefer
And do not the option
I hope
Despair
Fool around with the heart
You do not know these in it,
Still swear Me Love

(Speaking of what you want eh eh)
But I beg you do not speak of love,
(Do whatever you want eh eh)
But I ask you not show me love
(Do what you eh eh)
But do not talk to me of love,
It does not seriously, it causes me pain

So much happened between us,
Sad, 'say but what was good has died
Insist would continue to hurt me
A[nd] frustrate me,
The become this bitter person,
(Speak whatever you want)
This person I am not
(Do whatever you want)
Yeah eih
Eih
Na na na na na

Tell me what you want
But do not talk to me of love
(Does whatever you want)
But do not show me love,
(Do whatever you want)
Do not talk to me of love
This causes me pain, you are not serious, and I know today

Source: http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=pt&u=http://letras.com/perola/fala-do-que-quiseres/&prev=search
Added by Nizzy

****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome.