Episode 90: French West Indies Fun

Today we are back in the French West Indies, namely Haiti along with the French islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique. These places are right in our backyard… virtually as close as Jamaica or Puerto Rico… and yet gringos rarely travel to any of these destinations, and the music from the French West Indies has never broken through to broad popularity in the United States. The musical culture in the French West Indies is noticeably different from other parts of the Caribbean...while they do occasionally cover the guaguanco of Cuba, or even a touch of Cumbia, these places are mostly involved with musical styles exclusive to the French speaking Caribbean: biguine, compas, cadence, twoubadou, tumbele, zouk, and of course African drumming traditions such as Gwo-ka and voodoo religious music. The one musical style famously shared between the French and Spanish speaking Caribbean is merengue… but even a casual listener can distinguish between the merengue tradition of Haiti and the merengue of the Dominican Republic; that Spanish language version has since spread to Puerto Rico and throughout latin america, and is a recognizable sound in the US today.   I will be playing a wide range of sounds from these French West Indies in this episode.