Michel Bocande Credit photo
1989 - 10 years of Kassav in Guadeloupe - the central core of Kassav George Decimus - Jacob Desvarieux Patrice St Eloi - Jocelyne Beroard- Jean Philippe Martely - Jean Claude Naimro .
mportant to be able to interpret the song ( s ). I then use the training of actress to find the state and to transmit the sensitivity of the text and the melody .
When you think of the 80s and today , in your opinion , was it because the environment was suitable for the creation of a music group like Kassav ’? I mean what was special about the 80s that allowed Kassav to emerge ? Was it because of the period which was favorable because in those years peoples were interested in Afro-Caribbean sounds , moreover world music also experienced its boom in that period , was it the socialist government of the epoch or simply a combination of favorable circumstances ?
Kassav ' o ered something new . What the record companies called World music at the time , Jacob said that they took music from here and there , from Africa and elsewhere and fused it with an R & B Rydim ( rhythm )… it was his definition of World Music . Many artists from all over Africa emerged during this time .
Kassav ' was put in the big basket of world music that worked in Paris . But Kassav ' really had a di erent development . At first , in France nobody wanted to sign us , they didn ' t understand our music . Caribbean music had never interested French show business . We Kassav ’, weren ’ t really part of the world music that worked in Paris . Kassav ' really had a di erent development . That is to say in France they didn ' t want to sign Kassav ', they didn ' t understand our music . Caribbean music had never really interested French show business . They caulked it with a folkloric idea like the song “ Maladie d ’ amour ” ( love sickness ) and others ... and then there was la Compagnie Creole which arrived with tropicalized music which perhaps led people to hear vaguely , rhythmic music ... In fact , when Kassav ' started having success , we weren ' t in the French market . We weren ' t on TV in France . Not at all , we took a parallel route , France didn ' t want us , we went elsewhere . In December 1984 when Zouk Là Sé Sèl Médikaman Nou Ni , was released , Africa began to call us , we were in Ivory Coast before doing our first Zenith .
34 Flashmag ! Issue 129 May 2022