Culture of Martinique
Based in French, Martinique's Creole also incorporates elements of English, Spanish, Portuguese, and African languages.
Another favorite musical genre, bèlè is an early form of biguine which incorporates group dance and song accompanied by drumming, often led in a call and response style.
During Carnival in Martinique, many men parade in drag queen costume, sometimes with very elaborate and provocative outfits, with no obvious hint at alternative sexuality.
The high presence of men in drag is a reference to the central role of women in Martinique's society and family structure.
In odd-numbered years in early December, the island hosts its prestigious Jazz à la Martinique.
A dash of Chien sauce (made from onions, shallots, peppers, oil, and vinegar) adds a spicy touch to meals.
His nephew, Jacques Dyel du Parquet, inherited d'Esnambuc's authority over the French settlements in the Caribbean.
In 1638, Jacques Dyel du Parquet (1606-1658), nephew of Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc and first governor of Martinique, decided to have Fort Saint Louis built to protect the city against enemy attacks.
Christopher Columbus named the island after the day of the week on which he spotted it, a Sunday (domingo in Latin), 3 November 1493.
France had a colony for several years, they imported slaves from West Africa, Martinique and Guadeloupe to work on its plantations.
They too added to the ancestry of Trinidadians, creating the creole identity; Spanish, French, and Patois were the languages spoken.
The Spanish also gave many incentives to lure settlers to the island, including exemption from taxes for ten years and land grants in accordance to the terms set out in the Cedula.
Calypso's early rise was closely connected with the adoption of Carnival by Trinidadian slaves, including canboulay drumming and the music masquerade processions.
In Dominica, the chanté mas and lapo kabwit tradition started to become dominated by imported calypso and steel pan music in the early 1960s.
Webert Sicot, the originator of cadence recorded three LPs albums with French Antilles producers: two with "Celini disques" in Guadeloupe and one with "Balthazar" in Martinique.
Consequently, the leading "Les Guais troubadours", with influential singer "Louis Lahens" along other bands, played a very important role in the schooling of Antilleans to the méringue compas or kadans music style.
In 1969, Gordon Henderson of Dominica decided that the French Overseas Department of Guadeloupe had everything he needed to begin a career in Creole music.
From there, lead singer Gordon Henderson went on to found a kadans fusion band, the Vikings of Guadeloupe – of which Kassav' co-founder Pierre-Eduard Decimus was a member.
At some point he felt that he should start his own group and asked a former school friend Fitzroy Williams to recruit a few Dominicans to complete those he had already selected.
In 1973, Exile One (based on the island of Guadeloupe) initiated a fusion of cadence and calypso "Cadence-lypso" that would later influence the creation of soca music.
A year later Maestro died in an accident in Dominica and his loss was palpably felt by Shorty, who penned "Higher World" as a tribute.
Soca's development includes its fusion of calypso, cadence, and Indian musical instruments—particularly the dholak, tabla and dhantal—as demonstrated in Shorty's classic compositions "Ïndrani" and "Shanti Om".
Leading vocalists of the period include Gordon Henderson, Jeff Joseph, Marcel "Chubby" Marc, Anthony Gussie, Mike Moreau, Tony Valmond, Linford John, Bill Thomas, SinkyRabess and Janet Azouz among others.
Gordon Henderson's Exile One turned the mini-jazz combos into guitar-dominated big bands with a full-horn section and the newly arrived synthesizers, paving the way for the success of large groups like Grammacks, Experience 7, among others.
Kassav' created its own style "zouk" by introducing an eleven-piece gwo ka unit and two lead singers, tambour bélé, ti bwa, biguine, cadence-lypso: calypso and mostly Cadence rampa or compas with full use of the MIDI technology.
The style lost ground in the late 1980s due to the strong presence of cadence or compas, the main music of the French Antilles.
In the late 80's, the WCK or Windward Caribbean Kulture, was formed by a group of highly creative young Dominican musicians.
They began experimenting with a fusion of cadence-lypso, the native lapo kabwit drum rhythms and elements of the music of jing ping bands.
The band played a blend of the local Cadence-lypso and traditional Jing ping, chanté mas and lapo kabwit rhythms, which would later be labelled "bouyon", a genre which they are credited with creating.
Bouyon as popularized largely by the WCK band blends in jing ping, cadence-lypso, and traditional dances namely bèlè, quadrille, chanté mas and lapo kabwit, mazurka, zouk and other styles of Caribbean music.
