Music of Martinique

It beggars belief that Martinique, A Caribbean isle covering barely the area of the Sydney metropolitan area should have such a broad range of music, from the modern sounds of zouk, the 70s and 80s cadance style, the jazzy biguine whose development parallels New Orleans jazz (possibly even preceding it) to percussion/vocal/dance troupes who maintain an unshakable bond with Africa. If you listen to these troupes you can hear in the vocal tones and embellishments, the choral call and response and the distinctive bubbling rhythms the sound of the island that indelibly marks all of the abovementioned genres to some degree. Wapa Sakitanou is a ten-piece group of singers, dancers and percussionists who formed in 1990 to carry on the tradition. Percussion consists of the ti bwa which is a piece of bamboo beaten with two sticks and the tambour bele, an oak barrel with sheep membrane.

On The Music Of Martinique (Arc Music) the listener is given a sterling example of how this music works. The two ti bwa players keep the basic pulse, the chorus grounds each song with repeated responses while the director of the ensemble, Christian Vallejo creates complex rhythmic patterns on the tambour bele. The lead singer Felix Cebarec piles on a stream of chanted melodies that respond to and spontaneously extend the patterns of the percussion and chorus. He provides melodic archetypes that draw from the African well while at the same time linking them to the folk and popular song of Martinique with a declamatory wit. Even without the visual impact of the colourful dancers who grace the cover booklet this is a fulfilling listening experience with the dynamic improvisations of the singer and shifting pulse of the percussion adding a richness that belies the simple repetitive motifs that set the whole thing in motion. You don't have to be an ethnomusicologist to enjoy this. RJ July 2003