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What is Compas
or Compas Direct
Nemours Jean Baptiste
Compas is a musical Haitian rhythm. It was created in the fifties by the saxophonist, writer and band leader, Nemours Jean Baptiste. It is the result of a fusion between fundamental Haitian rhythms and the
Tipico of the Dominican Republic.
Nemours
Jean Baptiste
Musical context
At the moment of its creation, Dominican music was very popular in Haiti.
Sunday dances, celebration of marriage, feast for all occasions in Port-au-Prince were done to the tunes of the "`Tipico de Cibajino" and the "El Negrito del Batey" etc. __Haitians danced the "EL negrito del Batey" without knowing that may be it was referring to other Haitians working in the sugar cane field of the Domimican Republic__ Those musics were dominated by the saxophone and the drum. In this context we saw the appearance in Haiti of the Orchestre Atomic which featured music that were mainly based on Cuban and Dominican rhythms
Although folkloric Haitian music was the main repertoire of the very popular Jazz des Jeunes, it had lost its momentum with the fall of President Dumarsais Estimé in 1950 and his replacement by General Paul E. Magloire. The Celebration of the Bicentennial of Port-au-Prince, during the Estimé era, in the forties, was a huge opportunity for Haitian folkloric music which featured some superb musical talents like the singer Lumane Casimir and the drummer Ti Roro. Those artists were still performing in the beginning of Magloire's six years term but they no longer enjoyed the huge celebrity status bestowed upon them during Estime`s time in power.
So, when Nemours Jean Baptiste started his "Ensemble Aux Calebasses" which played at a night Club of the same name in the region of Carrefour (suburb of Port-au-Prince) , Haitian music was in a stage of virtual drouth. The sound of the Dominican Republic and of Cuba filled the air. Celia Cruz and the Sonora Matencera provided the Bolero and the Guaracha. Peres Prado supplied the mambo.
Other Artists like Rodolphe Legros and Guy Durosier had some popular appeal at the time of the emergence of Compas but their music, although deeply rooted in the national music of Haiti, failed to reach the level of popular attraction that will be attained by Compas.
Aside of the creation of Compas Direct, Nemours Jean Baptiste introduced electric musical instrument in Haiti . Although he was criticized at that time by the
purists who said that his musical ensemble was an electric power plant every Haitian musical group, including the very conservative Jazz des Jeunes, followed his example.
The defenders of the attachment of Haiti to its African roots accused Nemours Jean Baptiste
of betraying the ethnic fundation of Haitian music. It appeared, at that time, that he was loosing ground, but history will prove that he was the man of the futur. Compas Direct endured and became the musical medium of the younger generation of the sixties.
After all, compas did not betray the roots of African music. Its base in Haitian music and Afrolatin rythms lead back to Africa. Compas is like Creole, the national language of Haiti. It is capable of incorporating any foreign expression and transform it into a piece of the Haitian experience. Compas is syntactically Haitian.
According to some source unverified by the author of this text Nemour Jean Baptiste himself believed that compas behaves like a top. You can throw it anyway you want but ultimately it will turn on its head. The turning of compas on its head means that the music returns where it begins to the main rythm, the main musical sentence: "The manman compas". As a matter of fact compas makes an extensive uses of musical quotes. Pieces of classical music, jazz and latin music can take the listener by surprise and makes him/her wonder when the artist is going to comeback to the original music. Those quotes are used as an introduction or a pleseantly surprizing piece of musical color in main portion of a composition. This is the unpredictable portion of composition. However the syntaxic constraints of compas make the music return to its rythmic foundation. It is the personal belief of this writer that this practice became current in compas composition through the creation of carnival musics which featured some very powerful musical quotes as their introduction. Nemour Jean Baptiste used them. However, Weber Sicot who was a trained musician had a higher level of mastery of the technic and of the smooth musical transition that is necessary to connect the pieces.
The next generation
Because of the appearance of electric instruments and the simplicity of Compas Direct, a plethora of young musical groups
appeared in Hati. Every major section of Port-au-Prince had a musical group. Young people danced the Compas music of Les Schleu Schleu, Les Fantasistes de Carrefour, Les Ambassadeurs, Les Gypsies de PetionVille, Les :Loups noirs and the world famous Tabou Combo de PetionVille to name a few.
Gradually, the groups formed by the younger generation replaced the old timer like Nemours Jean Baptiste and his rival the talented saxophonist Weber Sicot. During the era
of Jean Claude Duvalier, the Compas sound of some very powerful bands like DPexpress and the Gemini of Ti Manno filled the airways in Haiti. TiManno in particular became very popular not only in Haiti but in the French Antilles.
The popularity of those performers prepared the public for the next level in Compas which is dominated now by the, self proclaimed, President of Compas, the electrifying Sweet Mickey.
Compas at kwabs.com
In this first edition of Compas at kwabs.com, we are presenting a sample of the music of the seventies with musical selection from Les Gypsies de Petionville.
For the music of today, kwabs.com present the Twoubadou C.D. which includes Pa manyen fanm nan of Sweet MIckey. The second selection in today's music is the new sound of
Eddy Brisseau.
Some selections of the original Compas of Nemours Jean Baptiste will be presented in the future. Presently Kwabs.com is offering a 24/7 compas radio station on the net. We are making the necessary arrangment to present older generation of compas in a music playlist.
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