Kassav'
Encyclopedia
Kassav' is a Francophone
zouk
band
formed in Paris
in 1979. The core members of the band are Jocelyne Béroard, Jacob Desvarieux, Jean-Philippe Marthély, Patrick St. Eloi, Jean-Claude Naimro, Claude Vamur and Georges Décimus (who left to form Volte Face and returned). Kassav' have issued over 20 albums, with a further 12 solo albums by band members.
studio musician Jacob F. Desvarieux. Together and under the influence of well-known Guadeloupean combo Experience 7
, Grammacks
and Exile One
, they decided to make Guadeloupean carnival music
and record it in a more fully orchestrated yet modern and polished style. In the 1980s they took Caribbean music to another level by recording in the new digital format.
Kassav' was the leading band to emerge from the formative years of zouk
; most authors credit Décimus, his brother Georges, the band's bassist and Desvarieux as its inventors. Their first album, Love and Ka Dance (1980), established the new sound of zouk, a Parisian concoction unlike anything else, island-based or otherwise to come onto the global scene. The band gained popularity in their much-heralded live performances in Paris's Club Zenith and toured widely. For a band ostensibly operating in a "narrowly focused" Caribbean dance-based 'recently arrived' new genre, their success and influence on other artists was remarkable, although they were most influenced by a veritable 'cornucopia' of other styles as noted above.
Kassav' continued to gain popularity both as a group and by several members' solo recordings, eventually peaking in 1985 with Yélélé
, which featured the international hit "Zouk la sé sèl médikaman nou ni" (meaning "Zouk is the only medicine we have" in French Antillean Creole). With this hit song, zouk rapidly became a widespread dance craze in Latin America
and the Caribbean
, and was popular in Europe
, Africa
, and Asia
. Zouk performers became known for wildly theatrical concerts featuring special effects, stage spectacles and colorful costumes. One important contribution of Kassav' in concert was the appearance of featured dancers on stage with the band; these dancers were in many ways as much a part of the band as any musician. Kassav' has been noted by its acolytes and aficionados as a dance band par excellence.
Among Kassav' strengths that helped lead to its success were and are its members' superior musicianship, songwriting and production skills, and worldwide audiences eager for lively dance music more sophisticated than the sort of disco/techno-based styles that otherwise dominated dance music charts in that era. The especially gravelly singing voice of Desvarieux, Décimus's driving bass, Naimro's and Joseph's inventive keyboards and superior drum-machine-based and Vamur's solid jazz-inflected live percussion, along with dance party-inspiring simple French-creole lyrics are among unique Kassav' 'trademarks'. During his tenure with Kassav', St. Eloi's soaring vocals were another unique ingredient, and the romantic vocals of Marthely and Naimro's as well as Béroard's very strong vocals, a plethora of fun songs, and significant guest appearances including Stevie Wonder
and others are important parts of the Kassav' mix.
They have appeared with Admiral T
, a famous reggae dance hall singer, and many other popular artists. Singer-songwriter/keyboardist Jean-Claude Naimro also appeared with world beat artist Peter Gabriel
. Lead vocalist Jocelyne Béroard has also had a number of successes both solo and as a guest with other artists, being the first woman artist in the Caribbean to win certain music awards; she continues to perform with Kassav' and as a solo artist.
Jocelyne Béroard's stunning 'amateur' photography of natural scenes and people seen from her unique traveling-artist perspective's island-paradise visuals could be cited among their songs' inspirations. The band's songs with a "political" edge or insinuation are typically double-entendre in the Afro-American and Calypsonian traditions well-known in Caribbean dance music like that from which the music of Kassav' evolved.
Kassav' released another CD in 2007: All U Need is Zouk to substantial acclaim with another successful world tour, so in addition to being the recognized progenitors of zouk (which has become a world-wide dance music phenomenon, notably in Latin America - especially Brazil), nearly 30 years later the same musicians are still arguably its leading exponents.
Originally formed solely of Guadeloupean artists (Decimus; Desvarieux; St-Eloi), within a few years Kassav' also embraced band members of Martinican ancestry (Béroard; Naimro; Marthely); their music is an original danceable Caribbean French Creole mix that delved deep into synthesized sounds after exploring many acoustic timbres, with rhythms based fundamentally in a gwo ka
(French Caribbean folkloric drumming/chanting) context, especially in earlier recordings. It has been suggested that their success was largely outside of the large U.S. music market due to a nearly total absence of English lyrics; instead, they use a very localized version of Créole Français unique to Guadeloupe and Martinique, very distinct from European French or even Haitian French Kreyòl. Their choice of language however did not limit their artistic vision, and it remains carnival-like and eminently danceable; the success of Kassav' is ongoing in the 2010s.
Francophone
The adjective francophone means French-speaking, typically as primary language, whether referring to individuals, groups, or places. Often, the word is used as a noun to describe a natively French-speaking person....
zouk
Zouk
Zouk is a style of rhythmic music originating from the Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe & Martinique. Zouk means "party" or "festival" in the local Antillean Creole of French, although the word originally referred to, and is still used to refer to, a popular dance, based on the Polish dance, the...
band
Band (music)
In music, a musical ensemble or band is a group of musicians that works together to perform music. The following articles concern types of musical bands:* All-female band* Big band* Boy band* Christian band* Church band* Concert band* Cover band...
formed in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1979. The core members of the band are Jocelyne Béroard, Jacob Desvarieux, Jean-Philippe Marthély, Patrick St. Eloi, Jean-Claude Naimro, Claude Vamur and Georges Décimus (who left to form Volte Face and returned). Kassav' have issued over 20 albums, with a further 12 solo albums by band members.
History
Kassav' was formed in 1979 by Pierre-Edouard Décimus (former musicians from the Les Vikings de Guadeloupe) and ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
studio musician Jacob F. Desvarieux. Together and under the influence of well-known Guadeloupean combo Experience 7
Experience 7
Experience 7 was a Guadeloupean cadence band formed in the mid 1970s, led by Guy Houllier and Yves Honore. It was also one of the very first band to emphasized future Zouk pioneer band such as Kassav'...
, Grammacks
Grammacks
Grammacks was a 1970s musical group from Dominica.-Biography:The band was started in a village on the west coast called St. Joseph. The band was formed by Anthony "Curvin" Serrant, guitar Anthony "Tepam" George, bass Elon "Bollo" Rodniy drums and keyboard player McDonald "Mckie" Prosper. Jeff...
and Exile One
Exile One
Exile One is a legendary musical group of the 1970s from Dominica based in Guadeloupe. Gordon Henderson is the leader and founder of the famous musical group "Exile One" and the one who coined the name "Cadence-lypso" for a genre of music that revolutionized modern creole music worldwide....
, they decided to make Guadeloupean carnival music
Music of Guadeloupe
The music of Guadeloupe encompasses a large popular music industry, which gained in international renown after the success of zouk music in the later 20th century. Zouk's popularity was particularly intense in France, where the genre became an important symbol of identity for Guadeloupe and...
and record it in a more fully orchestrated yet modern and polished style. In the 1980s they took Caribbean music to another level by recording in the new digital format.
Kassav' was the leading band to emerge from the formative years of zouk
Zouk
Zouk is a style of rhythmic music originating from the Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe & Martinique. Zouk means "party" or "festival" in the local Antillean Creole of French, although the word originally referred to, and is still used to refer to, a popular dance, based on the Polish dance, the...
; most authors credit Décimus, his brother Georges, the band's bassist and Desvarieux as its inventors. Their first album, Love and Ka Dance (1980), established the new sound of zouk, a Parisian concoction unlike anything else, island-based or otherwise to come onto the global scene. The band gained popularity in their much-heralded live performances in Paris's Club Zenith and toured widely. For a band ostensibly operating in a "narrowly focused" Caribbean dance-based 'recently arrived' new genre, their success and influence on other artists was remarkable, although they were most influenced by a veritable 'cornucopia' of other styles as noted above.
Kassav' continued to gain popularity both as a group and by several members' solo recordings, eventually peaking in 1985 with Yélélé
Yélélé
Yélélé is a 1984 zouk album of Kassav'.This album marks the onset of the growth of the international recognition of zouk. Its international hit "Zouk la sé sèl médikaman nou ni" started the zouk dance craze in Latin America and the Caribbean, with interest expanding into other parts of the...
, which featured the international hit "Zouk la sé sèl médikaman nou ni" (meaning "Zouk is the only medicine we have" in French Antillean Creole). With this hit song, zouk rapidly became a widespread dance craze in Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
and the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
, and was popular in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, and Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
. Zouk performers became known for wildly theatrical concerts featuring special effects, stage spectacles and colorful costumes. One important contribution of Kassav' in concert was the appearance of featured dancers on stage with the band; these dancers were in many ways as much a part of the band as any musician. Kassav' has been noted by its acolytes and aficionados as a dance band par excellence.
Among Kassav' strengths that helped lead to its success were and are its members' superior musicianship, songwriting and production skills, and worldwide audiences eager for lively dance music more sophisticated than the sort of disco/techno-based styles that otherwise dominated dance music charts in that era. The especially gravelly singing voice of Desvarieux, Décimus's driving bass, Naimro's and Joseph's inventive keyboards and superior drum-machine-based and Vamur's solid jazz-inflected live percussion, along with dance party-inspiring simple French-creole lyrics are among unique Kassav' 'trademarks'. During his tenure with Kassav', St. Eloi's soaring vocals were another unique ingredient, and the romantic vocals of Marthely and Naimro's as well as Béroard's very strong vocals, a plethora of fun songs, and significant guest appearances including Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...
and others are important parts of the Kassav' mix.
They have appeared with Admiral T
Admiral T
Admiral T, whose real name is Christy Campbell, is a French singer of reggae-dancehall music. Besides Francky Vincent, he is one of most popular and successful Guadeloupean singers.He is also a designer and the creator of WOK LINE.-Biography:...
, a famous reggae dance hall singer, and many other popular artists. Singer-songwriter/keyboardist Jean-Claude Naimro also appeared with world beat artist Peter Gabriel
Peter Gabriel
Peter Brian Gabriel is an English singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career...
. Lead vocalist Jocelyne Béroard has also had a number of successes both solo and as a guest with other artists, being the first woman artist in the Caribbean to win certain music awards; she continues to perform with Kassav' and as a solo artist.
Jocelyne Béroard's stunning 'amateur' photography of natural scenes and people seen from her unique traveling-artist perspective's island-paradise visuals could be cited among their songs' inspirations. The band's songs with a "political" edge or insinuation are typically double-entendre in the Afro-American and Calypsonian traditions well-known in Caribbean dance music like that from which the music of Kassav' evolved.
Kassav' released another CD in 2007: All U Need is Zouk to substantial acclaim with another successful world tour, so in addition to being the recognized progenitors of zouk (which has become a world-wide dance music phenomenon, notably in Latin America - especially Brazil), nearly 30 years later the same musicians are still arguably its leading exponents.
Originally formed solely of Guadeloupean artists (Decimus; Desvarieux; St-Eloi), within a few years Kassav' also embraced band members of Martinican ancestry (Béroard; Naimro; Marthely); their music is an original danceable Caribbean French Creole mix that delved deep into synthesized sounds after exploring many acoustic timbres, with rhythms based fundamentally in a gwo ka
Gwo ka
Gwo ka is both a family of hand drums and the music created with them, which is a major part of Guadeloupean folk music. There are seven rhythms in gwo ka, which are embellished by the drummers...
(French Caribbean folkloric drumming/chanting) context, especially in earlier recordings. It has been suggested that their success was largely outside of the large U.S. music market due to a nearly total absence of English lyrics; instead, they use a very localized version of Créole Français unique to Guadeloupe and Martinique, very distinct from European French or even Haitian French Kreyòl. Their choice of language however did not limit their artistic vision, and it remains carnival-like and eminently danceable; the success of Kassav' is ongoing in the 2010s.
Current
- Keyboards: Philippe Joseph (1994–present)
- Drums: Hervé Laval (2009–present)
- Saxophones: Claude Pironneau (1999–present)
- Trumpets:
- Freddy Hovsepian (1982–present)
- Fabrice Adam (1994–present)
- Trombone: Hamid Belhocine (1982–present)
- Backing vocals: Marie-Céline Chroné et Marie-Josée Gibon
Past
- Drums: Claude Vamur (Temporarily replaced by Hervé Laval, although Vamur did not leave the group)
- Percussion: César Durcin
- Saxophones: Claude Thirifays
- Trumpets: Jean-Pierre Ramirez
- Trombone: Claude Romano
- Backing vocals: Catherine Laupa
- Keyboards: Douglas M Bida
- Bass: Frédéric Caracas, Guy n Sangué et Stéphane Castry
- Vocals: Patrick Saint Eloi 1982 - 2002 (died 18 September 2010)
Guests
- Vocals: Zouk Machine, Jean Luc Guanel, Princess Lover, Tanya Saint Val, Shoubou, Philippe Lavil, Daly, Passi, Tony Chasseur, Jocelyne Labylle, Tribal Jam, Ralph Thamar.
- Backing Vocals: Claudine Pennont, Suzy Trébeau, Sylvie Aïoun, Jean-Jacques Seba
- Drums: Jean-Philippe Fanfant, José Zébina, Jérome Castry
- Percussion: Dédé Saint Prix, Albert Vigne
- Keyboards: Ronald Tulle, Thierry Vaton, Didier Davidas
- Guitars: Thierry Delannay, Rico Loza, Jean Christophe Maillard
- Saxophones: Allen Hoist, Alain Hatot, Bruno Ribeira
Albums
- 1979 Love and kadance
- 1980 Lagué mwen
- 1981 Kassav n°3
- 1983 Kassav
- 1983 Kassav n°5
- 1983 Passeport
- 1984 Ayé
- 1984 YéléléYéléléYélélé is a 1984 zouk album of Kassav'.This album marks the onset of the growth of the international recognition of zouk. Its international hit "Zouk la sé sèl médikaman nou ni" started the zouk dance craze in Latin America and the Caribbean, with interest expanding into other parts of the...
- 1985 An ba chenn la (2x Gold)
- 1987 Vini pou (Gold) & (Platinum)
- 1989 Majestik ZoukMajestik ZoukMajestik Zouk is an album from the French Caribbean music group, Kassav'. It was released in 1989 by Columbia Records in the United States, and internationally by CBS Records.-Track listing:#"'Se Dam' Bonjou "...
(2x Gold) - 1992 Tékit izi (2x Gold)
- 1995 Difé
- 2000 Nou la
- 2004 Ktoz
- 2007 All U need is zouk
Live albums
- 1987 Kassav au Zenith
- 1990 Le Grand Méchant Zouk
- 1993 Live au Zénith
- 1996 Kassav cho
- 2005 Carnaval Tour 2005
- 2006 Le Grand Méchant Zouk
Compilations
- 1987 Les Grand Succès de Kassav vol.1
- 1987 Les Grand Succès de Kassav vol.2
- 1998 Kassav Gold
- 1998 Un toque latino
- 1999 Le Meilleur de Kassav : Best of 20e anniversaire
- 2002 Les Indispensables de Kassav
- 2003 Légendes Kassav
- 2006 Best of
- 2006 Kassav: Les années sonodisc
- 2009 Saga 3 CD with 53 remastered numbers and 4 unedited
DVD
- 1999 Les 20 ans de KASSAV à Bercy
- 2005 Carnaval tour
- 2006 Le grand méchant zouk
- 2008 All u need is zouk tour
- 2009 Nuit créole les 30 ans de KASSAV au Stade de France
Solo albums
- 1991 Milans by Jocelyne Béroard
- 1992 Be zouk by Patrick Saint Eloi
- 1994 Zoukamine by Patrick Saint Eloi
- 1996 Marthéloi by Jean Philippe Marthély & Patrick Saint Eloi
- 1997 Digital dreads by Jean-Claude Naimro
- 1998 Lovtans by Patrick Saint Eloi
- 1998 O péyi by Jean Philippe Marthély
- 1999 Euphrasine Blues by Jacob Desvarieux
- 1999 A l'Olympia by Patrick Saint-Eloi
- 1999 Délikatès by Jean-Claude Naimro
- 2002 Live en Martinique by Jean Philippe Marthély
- 2003 Madousinay by Jocelyne Béroard
- 2006 Koulè lanmou by Jean Philippe Marthély
- 2008 Kolo ka by Claude Vamur
Collaborations
- 2006 Partie pour zouker (Lorie & Jacob Desvarieux)
- 2007 Fòs a péyi la (Admiral TAdmiral TAdmiral T, whose real name is Christy Campbell, is a French singer of reggae-dancehall music. Besides Francky Vincent, he is one of most popular and successful Guadeloupean singers.He is also a designer and the creator of WOK LINE.-Biography:...
, Jacob Desvarieux & Jocelyne Beroard)