Carnet de Voyage: A Tribute to Caribbean Music

Music From Caribbean!

As you can see I favor Music a lot! Music is my main hobby if I can say it this way. I Cannot stay a day without listening to music. I think music is a good therapy especially when you are stressed. I even watched some TV documentaries and read some testimonies where people actually explain the benefits of music and how listening to music improved medical conditions. In fact, I like to discover music from other countries. Usually artists use music as a mean of communication or to express their feelings or to show their cultures. Sometimes I found myself listen to songs in other languages and I do not even understand the lyrics but the fact that music is connected to soul makes me want to listen to them more and more. I feel like being cradled in another world with the waves of the sounds. Just by looking pictures of these islands, ones will think they are in paradise. (The pictures are not mine)

I put some links of where I picked these pictures below

I was thinking about writing a post about music of French Caribbean many times ago but I thought will also include the Portuguese creole 'songs as well. Because I grew up with this type of music since my early age till now, I felt like I should share and say something about it. Just picture a nice afternoon in a nice island, you are sitting on the beach and enjoy the smell of the ocean or you can simply be in your bathtub full of foam and bubbles. You have some scented candles around, you feel relaxed and comfortable. Then, you listen to songs in French or Portuguese creole. I am so proud and happy to be open to other cultures and that is what my "Carnet de Voyage" is all about. My Carnet de Voyage takes you to another world and another place where you simply enjoy life.

La Compagnie Creole "Vive le Douanier Rousseau"

Music from Caribbean is really special but first I have to explain that the lyrics are mainly talking about Love in general. It can be a broken heart or a hope of love or a love that is unbreakable. (however it can be lyrics about happiness and delightful life like the songs that of this group "La Compagnie Creole" that I post) La Compagnie Creole was a famous group when I grew up. Their style was really (beguine) biguine! Zouk music is usually for people who know what it is to be in love and ..."romantic!" If you are not romantic, well, it will be difficult for you to enjoy this music but still I believe that It does not hurt to try to listen to it sometimes.

Guadeloupe Island

additional music

The French Caribbean for instance are composed of islands like Martinique, Guadeloupe, Marie Galante, Guyana, Reunion, St Pierre et Miquelon, La Desirade, Les Iles St Martin and many others. Usually the music from some of the places there is called "Zouk" the dance is called "La Biguine". They speak Antillean Creole or if you want it is simply a French creole. (If I am wrong for some of the information please feel free to drop a comment below in the box and I will see how to update it. I will really appreciate it but I know most of it is right!

Two young ladies in traditional clothes (Martinique) I love this picture!

La Compagnie Creole "Ba Moin en ti Bo"

O! By the way. Just a sweet memory about that song "Ba Moin En Ti Bo" that I want to share with you. It reminds me of the times at the primary school we would have that song playing and most of the Compagnie Creole's songs during the school's fairs and carnivals. The kids would be really dressed up (or some costumes) from home and the nice tropical sun, the birds singing in the blue sky, the palm and coconut trees...The ocean coast was not that far so the atmosphere was really good! It felt so good to live! Everybody was happy so kids would be running everywhere and we would have some cakes, candies I mean everything!!! Teachers were really nice to us when such events took place. Usually we had different games around but once the party was finished my nice dress was completely stained because of all the goodies !!!

"Awww !! Thank you La Compagnie Creole for these good times under the tropics! You were one of the best group ever!"

Nice dance!

Most of African people like music from the Caribbean because there is a strong African rhythm influence and connection. We all know the dark part of the human History when many young African people were forcibly deported (slavery) from the continent to go to America. There, another culture was created and it is this originality in the sounds of that music which make us like it. Here in my post I will also share some Kizomba songs. Ok! people tend to confuse Kizomba and Zouk. I can say it is not really different in terms of lyrics which quite often is a tribute to Love and relationships however, the rhythm is different. Kizomba is a mixture of Angolese traditional music and Portuguese music (Remember that Angola, Green Cap, Sao Tome, Mozambique are countries and Islands in Africa which were colonized by Portugal). You can feel the mixture of the cultures in it. This music is a type of Zouk I will simply say.

La Compagnie Creole "Bon Baiser de Fort de France" (Kiss from Fort de France)

I remember that this song"Kiss from Fort of France" we used to sing it in class at school and at home during Xmas times. This song reminds me of so much good memories. Maybe some of you would think that this culture or songs are a little bit strange etc. Which I perfectly understand but they meant the world to us and we loved everything about it! Many times since my young age, I dreamt about going there and spend good vacations.

That song has completely changed my understanding of celebrating Xmas forever. When I was young it was difficult to think Xmas without snow, chimneys everything like in the western culture because that was what we saw in books at school and on TV. It was frustrating because I could not see the snow falling in my country because no snow can fall in tropical countries. I could not see Santa like in the books. But after listening to that beautiful song "Bon Baiser de Fort de France" (Kiss From Fort of France) I realized that Xmas can also be fun under the tropics with the sun and our trees. We could decorate our native trees and that was original too ! Santa could just walk home to home and that was ok! I realized that it was ok to have doors opened everyday. It's even more fun because we could go playing out as much as we wanted without having to worry to catch cold. No need to be covered too much!

Thank you La Compagnie Creole!

The artists that I chose are mainly from Guadeloupe islands, Martinique islands, Haiti, Reunion islands, Green Cap (cabo verde) and Angola (in Africa)...I picked and mixed some of the retro zouk (some old ones) with some recent ones. You will notice some little differences in the vibrations and rhythms. When listening to Caribbean music I feel myself carried away in the tropical delights and I want you to experience the same thing. Take a time to listen to the videos below that I picked from www.youtube.com, the songs are my selection of the singers or songs that I like to listen especially when I need to relax. They are well known songs. Unfortunately I won't be able to translate the lyrics but enjoy the music! If you have some comments thank you to post them below I will gladly read them and reply.
Now Enjoy the tropical delights!!

Guilou Lafage: "Libreville" this song is a tribute to Libreville capital city of Gabon