In the USA

In the USA

You couldn't wish for a better musical guide to strife-torn tropical places than Andy Kershaw, and his new compilation The Rough Guide to the Music of Haiti hits the bull's-eye. Indeed, one of the nicest tracks comes not from some other album, but from the recording Kershaw made with his BBC producer Roger Short--a sweetly down-home number recorded at the house of pintsized twoubadou singer Ti Coca. There might not be authentic voodoo music on this disc--for that you need a copy of Angels in the Mirror--and the late, great Haitian diva Toto Bissainthe is sadly absent, but what you do find here is marvelous. Compas is the name of Haiti's most characteristic sound, and it's represented on this album by a variety of different combos, including the shadowy DP Express. Also featured is the convivial warmth of Coupé Cloué, the high-pressure rap of Masters of Haiti, and the Cuban-influenced Haitiando and Orchestre Tropicana. Most interesting are the plunges into the past with Nemours Jean-Baptiste and Lebanese bandleader Issa el Saieh. The whole point about this politically blighted but musically blessed island is that its music comes at you from many angles, not only from Cuba but from the Congo, Dominica, Brooklyn, and punk U.K., and that it all gets whipped up into the most exhilarating brew. --Michael Church

In the USA

This compilation plays like a breathless epic through the sounds of the English, French, and Spanish-speaking Caribbean, pointing out along the way the vivid signs of a much larger, more complex series of musical dynamics than colorfully garbed natives warbling a Harry Belafonte ditty to the twinkling melodies of a steel drum. In its sweep, this set takes in the Dominican Republic's tonados, salves, and work songs still heard in factories today; Haiti's vodu and merengue; and, in Jamaica, the tambu drumming heard only in Trelawny parish, call-and-response digging songs, and mento, the Jamaican form of Calypso that eventually evolved into reggae. Rich and immensely varied, Caribbean music is always rooted in African polyrhythms and call-and-response singing. Yet, as this collection suggests, from work songs all the way up to the most polished modern studio productions, its greatest pleasures are found in its many and varied conflations of Europe and Africa, the African roots that sprout exotic mutants of ancient European ballads, lullabies, and quadrilles. --Elena Oumano

In the USA

In the USA

In the USA

When someone is struck with a truly great notion, like this record's concept, you feel grateful, and at the same time you wonder why no one thought of it before. This disc is clearly made from a near-sacred mission to redeem Haiti and its vodou culture. During slavery days, Jacob Boukman, who was shipped from Jamaica to Haiti, created vodou out of the elements common to the slaves' various tribal origins. Vodou's potpourri of spirit, rhythm, and melody is, indeed, every bit as rapturous as its ideal of human community. Lolo Beabrun, lead singer of Boukman Eksperyans (who turn in two tracks here) has said that so many vodou rhythms are played in tiny villages secreted in Haiti's mountainous interior that they are unknown to outsiders, and they are indistinguishable from their African origins. Rapture covers this infinite world of Haitian-African rhythm, ranging from the determinedly rootsy to those who take vodou drumming as a base and cut loose, making free with elements of jazz, rock, reggae, and Latin music. Fans will recognize names like Boukman and Rara Machine, but they are by no means the only standouts. "Simbi Dlo," by Frisner Augustin and La Troupe, is just one of many luminous tracks by lesser-known artists in a collection that is clearly guided by spirit. An added reason to buy this CD: a portion of the profits goes to Haitian grassroots community projects. --Elena Oumano

In the USA