Creole Sauvage for Sale

Whilst perusing digitized copies of Saint-Domingue's colonial newspaper, Affiches américaines, we encountered a reference to the sale of what may have been a Native American person from North America. Up for sale by a wood seller, Gaignard, in what is now Cap-Haitien, the unnamed "sauvage" was described as a Creole of New Orleans. Assuming that "sauvage" in 1770s Saint-Domingue was still a reference to Amerindian peoples or indigenous peoples of the Americas, we suspect this enslaved person was of indigenous origin, probably from a group in today's United States, but born in New Orleans. Reference to small numbers of Native American people from Louisiana or the Midwest sold into slavery in the Caribbean can be found in a variety of sources, so it is plausible that someone of Native American origin ended up in Au Cap via New Orleans. 

Marie the Natchez

Although the fate of the Natchez who made it to Saint Domingue after being sold into slavery is not fully known, some of the survivors do appear in local records of the colony. One case, from the inventory of a deceased planter in 1737, Gilles Bourgouin, lists a Marie priced as 900 livres. This find comes from a Haitian genealogy group on social media, which occasionally shares interesting information, documents, and oral traditions. What is interesting about this case from 1737 is the identification of the enslaved Marie as being of the Natchez nation. She was likely part of the 164 Natchez brought to Le Cap in 1731. Was she a domestic on the habitation of Bourgouin? All we can say is that she was living in Saint Louis du Sud and was around 25 years old in 1737.

Original Jelly Roll Blues

Listening to an interpretation of Jelly Roll Morton's composition by a white band from 1923 immediately brought me back to the definitive 1926 recording by Morton and his band. While the Original Memphis Five recording is not bad, it certainly sounds more like the late 1910s/early 1920s white bands rather than the hard-swinging Morton recording from a few years later. Morton's band sounds not only jazzier but employs his characteristic breaks and the irrepressible joy of the New Orleans sound.  

Mood Indigo for Ellis Marsalis

While I am not deeply familiar with Ellis Marsalis or New Orleans jazz after the 1930, his loss was staggering for jazz. I knew his legacy best through his sons, Wynton and Branford. Sure, I disagree with much of Wynton's statements on jazz (the PBS documentary series was, despite some stronger early episodes, a bit of a disaster). However, his father was an early colleague of Ornette Coleman, proof of how open-minded Ellis was about innovators operating outside bop or New Orleans jazz. Indeed, Coleman's association with Ed Blackwell and Ellis Marsalis establishes his ties to the roots of jazz, if you will. 

Hiram Sampy

Hiram Sampy sings a blues in Louisiana Creole. It's always interesting to hear this language performed in a blues styles. 

Blanche Touquatoux

Enjoy a Louisiana Creole folk song from jazz artist Kid Ory.

Clifton Chenier Sings in Creole

Enjoy a song from one of the legends of zydeco music, Clifton Chenier. In this particular song, Chenier draws from R&B and the blues, which is odd to hear when sung in Creole.

Lizzie Miles Sings in Creole: Un Bon Nòmm

I am quite fascinated by music in the various Creole languages, especially those of the French-influenced languages. Lizzie Miles mixes things up by singing in English later in the song, but nonetheless an important and interesting song that shows the retention of Louisiana Creole and its influence in the music of the region.

Mamzelle Zizi

"Mamzelle Zizi" has been on my mind a lot today. The Creole folk songs of Louisiana are quite beautiful and full of so much history. Orchestre Bourbon has recorded a more "authentic" version of the song lacking jazz touches while Paul Cargnello adds rock elements. Just for fun, here's a more formal version of the piece in concert style. Gottschalk's "La Savane" is also based on this tune.

Ludovic Lamothe's Lisette

I have not located a recording of Lamothe himself playing his arrangement of the earliest written Creole poem from Saint Domingue (what is now Haiti), but it's a beautiful melody he chose to adapt this old Creole poem to. It's very distinct from that of Louisiana Creole black slaves (yet both are clearly derived from the same textual source that must have spread to Louisiana through Saint Dominguan immigrants to Louisiana), but a more elegant, stately melody in the form of a Haitian meringue. Here is a jazzy version by Makaya that is quite moving, fusing the lyrics of the poem with Lamothe's arrangement in a jazz vein. Oh, and last but certainly not least, check out a folksy string band rendition of "Lisette." As stated in my previous post on the love poem for a black slave, Lisette, this song epitomizes the cultural (and musical) creolization that led to the flourishing of music in the circum-Caribbean region (which itself has tremendous import for the development of jazz, Haitian mereng, Cuban creolized forms of the contradanza and the son). 

Lisette quitté la plaine

Lisette quitté la plaine

Moin pèdi bonhè moué;

Zié moin semblé fontaine. 

Dépi moin pas miré toué.

Le jou quand moin coupé canne

Moin chongé zanmou moué;

La nouit quand moin dans cabane,

Dans dromi, moin quimbé toué.

Dépi moin pédi Lisette

Moin pas souchiè calinda;

Moin quitté bram-bram sonnette

Moin pas batt Bamboula.

Quand moin contré lautt négress 

Moin pas gagné zié pou li;

Moin pas souchié travail piess,

 Toutt qui chose moin mourri.

Lisette moin tandé nouvelle

To compté bientôt tourné.

Vini donc toujou fidelle

Miré bon passé tandé,

Na pas tardé davantage,

To fait moin assez chagrin,

Moin tant com’zozo dans cage,

Quand yo fait li mouri faim.

According to Potomitan, this old Creole poem was written in 1757 (later published by Moreau de Saint-Mery in 1797) and composed by a white Saint-Dominguan! It's interesting as an example of what would later be known as Haitian Kreyol, as well as how white composers used the language of creolization in ways that were picked up by people of African descent, such as "Lisette," which became a folk song of people of African descent in Louisiana (presumably sometime after Saint-Dominguan refugees and immigrants settled in the area after the Haitian Revolution). Unfortunately, I cannot locate a verison of the song that is more 'traditional,' but here is one excellent arrangement featuring Mattwilda Dobbs. Lescot, the daughter of a Haitian president, also sang "Lisette." Some scholars link "Lisette" to a cocotte musical tradition and see its influence in the more famous "Choucoune" of Oswald Durand, which was set to music by Monton. 

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Finally saw this movie and I was blown away. I liked the magical realist aesthetic and world where supernatural events and ancient aurochs appear after the storm (allegory for Hurricane Katrina and the destructive impact on the environment of Louisiana?), and the young protagonist is played by an adorable, talented child. It's interesting how it's never revealed what happened to her mother, but the focus on her relationship with her father was, I suppose, another example of the coming of age story, where this child learns to be an adult by dealing with her father's death. Also, I liked how the residents of the small town in the bayou flee from the refugee center, where it seems like they're being forced against their will and treated like caged animals, although they were treating the protagonist's father.

I suppose part of the magic of this film is it does seem to come out of the imagination and perspective of Hushpuppy, who speaks to her dead and gone mother as well as animals, somehow remembers every single time she was lifted by another person (including her infant years, an example of magic realism), and refers to places as "Bathtubs" and otherwise weaves the adult world with her own fantasty and imagination. I suppose the film also had a lot to say about the environment regarding global warming, how we're destroying the planet and ourselves, and the propensity of humanity to oppress humanity (children bossed around and subject to abuse, the people of Hushpuppy's town pushed around by the government).

I particularly enjoyed the odd but touching scene aboard a ship with 'strippers' who act motherly and dance with the children who accompany Hushpuppy, especially the waitress who Hushpuppy asks to be her mother but ends up carrying her on her shoulder and dancing. Quite moving and adorable, though the sequence seems to have no connections to the 'real' world...magical realism! Oh, and they played some nice old-time jazz, "Until the Real Thing Comes Along," which was fun to hear.

What did you think of the film? What about it spoke to you? Surprisingly, race was a seemingly insignificant factor in the Bathtub. Do you think that reflects more of the white crew and writers and directors involved in the project, or something that seems more accurate in the worldview of a young girl? Also, it was difficult not to think of Biblical parallels in the Noah story with the flooded Bathtub, as well as the symbolic importance of water as a life-saving force, and a cause of death and destruction. Isn't the performance of the cast, mostly people with no experience in acting but from the communities portrayed in the film, profoundly real amidst the magical realism of Hushpuppy's world? The film's authenticity and message align well with the coming of age story, facing your fears, and Hushpuppy's (and her community's) connections to the land they call home, regardless of the extreme poverty they experience.

Still, part of me recalls Obama's harsh review of Black Orpheus for romanticizing the poverty of Afro-Brazilians from a favela to paint a magical world of vivid colors, bossa nova, samba, Carnival, and mythology.

Early "Haitian-Americans" in US History

1. Jean-Baptiste Point DuSable, Haitian founder of the city of Chicago. He is venerated by the Haitian and African-American communities of Chicago. Indeed, my favorite Chicago museum is named after him.

2. Pierre Toussaint, currently under consideration for sainthood in the Catholic Church. Born in Saint Domingue, he came to New York with his white French owners. After attaining freedom, he married a woman from Haiti and started one of the first orphanages in NYC, helped with fundraising for the first cathedral, and contributed money for the first Catholic school for blacks on Canal Street.

3. Saint Dominguan refugees, including whites, people of color (gens de couleur) and enslaved blacks going to New Orleans in the 1790s and in 1809 had a tremendous impact on Lousiana culture. Sanite Dede, a free woman of color from Saint Domingue, was a prominent Vodou priestess. In addition, the calindas and bamboula dances of New Orleans in addition to Vodou are likely due to Saint Dominguan influences.

4. Les Citoyens de Couleur de Philadelphie, a political organization initiated by Saint Dominguans, fought for the advancement of African Americans as part of the Saint Dominguan refugee population in the Northeast.

5. In Louisiana in 1795, Jean Etienne Bore revolutionized the sugar industry by designing new methods for its manufacture. In 1803, he became the first mayor of the city o New Orleans. Did I mention he was a man of color?

6. James Pitot, a former refugee from Saint Domingue, succeeded Bore as the city's second mayor.

7. In Baltimore, four colored Saint Dominguan women, Elizabeth Lange, Marie Magdelene Baas, Marie Rose Boegue, and Marie Therese Duchemin, established the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the world's first Black religious community, and founded the School for Colored Girls. After its founding it 1829, the school became a national institution.

8. John James Audubon, ornithologist, was born in Saint Domingue to a French and Creole woman. He moved to Pennsylvania as a result of the Haitian Revolution and the death of his momther.

9. Homer Plessy, the "octoroon" who sat in a white section of the train, was partially descended from Saint Dominguan refugees in Lousiana.

10. W.E.B. DuBois is a descendant of Haitians through his father, who immigrated in the mid-19th century. One of the leading activists and scholars of African America is a product of the Haitian Revolution. Thank you, Haiti!

Matana Roberts's Coin Coin Chapter One: Gens de Couleur Libres

1. "Rise"   7:28
2. "Pov Piti"   7:41
3. "Song For Eulalie"   8:26
4. "Kersaia"   7:33
5. "Libation For Mr. Brown: Bid 'em In..."   9:48
6. "Lulla/Bye"   5:54
7. "I Am"   10:06
8. "How Much Would You Cost?"   4:19

I highly recommend this free jazz blast of Black history, beginning with Marie-Therese Metoyer, or Coin Coin, an enslaved woman in Louisiana whose progeny would include wealthy gens de coleur libres who owned the Melrose estate. Indeed, famed African-American artist, Clementine Hunter, is a descendant of slaves on the very same plantation the enslaved Coin Coin's descendants would own when her mixed-race children were recognized as free. The album fuses free jazz with traditional music, spoken word, and straight ahead jazz to allow Matana Roberts, alto saxophonist who has Louisiana roots, to tell the story of Coin Coin and slavery. Several of the song titles, lyrics, and music allude to Louisiana folk music, Louisiana Creole, and the horrors of life as a black slave in 18th and 19th century Louisiana. A conceptual suite, the album demands a full listen the entire way through, which may be a bit trying for those not interested in free jazz, Roberts's occasional screams, and spoken poetry. She also has a tendency to shift in tempos and genre within the same track, going between experimental free jazz, folk, and other genres whilst somehow pulling off the seemingly impossible fusion. 

At times Roberts uses Latin rhythms and the songs merge with similar melodies. Thus, "Rise" and "Kersaia" are very similar in melody and identical rhythmically in the first 2 minutes. Around 5 minutes into the latter, she begins to emulate New Orleans trad jazz or Carnival music, showing you the great depths to which Roberts will go to portray African-American history and culture. My favorite track may be "Libation for Mr. Brown..." which is a tribute to Oscar Brown, a lyricist who worked with Max Roach on his black civil rights album, We Insist! Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite. Roberts does a cover of a song by him about a slave being sold at an auction. Here is the original, which, unfortunately, does not break out into a swing jam like Roberts's cover. The final track, "How Much Would You Cost?" makes a reference to the calenda dance, which was also popular in 18th century Haiti. It's more of a folk song with clear vocals by Roberts. She devotes the calenda to her mother, and, by extension, her family's Afro-Caribbean or Afro-Louisianan roots. Overall, an enjoyable, albeit trying, free jazz album. 

Matana Roberts has also performed the album live, which can be listened to here, here, and there. Check out Max Roach's album, too, if you're interested in more political jazz about African American history. Here is a live version of the album from German television.

Marie Laveau

Papa Celestin's "Marie Laveau" is a catchy song about Marie Laveau, "Voodoo Queen" of 19th century New Orleans. Apparently Desiree Rogers is a descendant of her, if you know who that is.