Ti-Carole

The original recording with old-school instrumentation is best for this classic. Nemours Jean-Baptiste really did have a great band in those days. Richard Duroseau on accordion is always a plus. 

Kompa Direk

One of my favorites from Nemours. 

Les Vikings

I am quite fond of this group. I must say, I am beginning to favor Dominican, Guadeloupean, and Martinican bands playing Haitian kompa and kadans some days...Check out the same band's great cover of Nemours. They're jazzier and willing to go places where Nemours never went with his saxophone solos.

Nemours Jean-Baptiste in 1957

Source 

Great photo of Nemours Jean-Baptiste's band back in 1957. Our friend Richard Duroseau on accordion is also here. I intend to develop a full "Best of Nemours" playlist where the greatest accordion solos of Duroseau play a role. 

Russian Influence On a Kompa Classic

While reading a review of the Haiti Direct music compilation, I couldn't help but notice the author's comment on how Richard Duroseau's accordion solo in "Ti Carole," a kompa hit written for a prominent makout, Antoine Khoury, is based on "Ochi Cherne," or "Dark Eyes," a 19th century Russian or Ukrainian poem set to music. Now, if the poem was set to a French composer's music, it would make more sense that the melody, which is widely known all over the world, would reach Haitian musicians (especially the Duroseau clan, known for being a musical family) and appear in this song. Either way, by the 1960s, the melody had already reached jazz artists, such as Louis Armstrong, whose own version of the song is quite beautiful.

According to an older Haitian musician and scholar of Haitian music, "Dark Eyes" has also surfaced in Cuban music and elsewhere in the Caribbean. Perhaps it reflects a "Gypsy" influence in European music that also influenced Spanish (and thus, Latin American) styles that shaped Caribbean genres. This link gives one the impression that the exact origins of the melody for "Dark Eyes" is unknown. Regardless, "Ti-Carole" is the result of centuries of creolization and cross-cultural exchange, from eastern Europe and France to the Caribbean. Enjoy this soul-stirring version of "Dark Eyes" here.

Nemours Jean-Baptiste's "Immortel Compas"

I am currently loving "Immortel Compas," which demonstrates how central Duroseau's accordion was to the sound of early kompa. Everything just comes together quite well on this recording, especially Duroseau's solo.

More Nemours Jean-Baptiste

Nemours Jean-Baptiste, saxophonist, bandleader, and originator of the compas direct. We see his band in this picture, including the teenager, Richard Duroseau, on the far left. Enjoy some more classic kompa music!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaapAylSoeU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhA-IYwTQSM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5flejvTWZm8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JB4OEYkpkcM

Les Trois Dangers

Les Trois Dangers, consisting of Richard Duroseau, Nemours Jean-Baptiste, and Raymond Gaspard, members of the original Ensembles aux Calebasses and innovators of the konpa direk. Duroseau's accordian was central to the sound of konpa direk, and Gaspard, guitarist, coined the term for the music, which was derived from earlier Haitian music, a boost of merengue from the Cibao (via the New York-based Angel Viloria Y Su Conjunto Tipico), jazz, and Cuban music. Although I usually hate the accordion, in Latin American and Caribbean music, it's more than bearable! 

Check out these links for more great music featuring these guys. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPqB8Blu-_8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxlZHEEqa8Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHjV3dbNTx0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGG-KBZl80k
http://grooveshark.com/s/Carole/4t011W?src=5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgMnUsCaY1g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPME_cIiG-E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOhKd0KNjkA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVVScp31W5U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiprgXixuLo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bK31NPBqZ1w

Nemours Jean-Baptiste's Rhythme Commercial

I love old Caribbean music, especially the sounds of large orchestras before music was cheapened by heartless electric guitars (just playing). I just prefer an older aesthetic in a lot of Caribbean and African music, especially if it's very jazz. For an example of the influential Nemours Jean-Baptiste, who was influenced by Dominican merengue, Cuban music, US jazz, and other styles of music, check out "Rhythme Commercial," which follows the 'compas direct' rhythm innovated by Jean-Baptiste in 1950s Port-au-Prince. Despite all these non-Haitian influences, compas still flows from Haitian folk music, mereng, and even older dance music of Haiti, such as contredanse.  

For any bored readers, check out a song by Juan Luis Guerra based on "Rhythme Commercial," his own "Mal de Amor." I never liked Juan Luis Guerra ("Ojala que llueva cafe" was the song I first heard by him back in my high school days, and I never cared for his voice). Interesting song though!