Jessie Al Khal

Updated December 27, 2012 11:47 AM

She is a Haitian artist. Jessie Al Khal is the mother to the founding members of T-Vice band group; that is Roberto Martino and Reynaldo Martino. She is the wife of Martino, a Haitian guitarist. She was a not only their mother by virtue of birth but also in music; she encouraged them all through the music. T-vice was a band group that had four members: Reynaldo, Robert, James Cardozo and Gerald Kebreau. James and Gerald were close friends to the two brothers. The two brothers were challenged by the Top Vice band group where their father was the main guitarist. They decided to face the challenge by starting they own band group T-Vice in 1991.

Roberto played the part of lead guitarist and a composer. Reynaldo was a singer, a composer and maestro, while James played the part of a singer and key tar and Gerald was the bass guitarist. Their band played a mixture of reggae, meringue, flamenco and rock. They played it so well that they broke the record using their unique style of mixing. They did not only perform in Haiti but also internationally which led them to have so many fans all over the world .What pleased the fans most is their unique band style.

An example of an album that hit the headlines so much is the Konpa Kontak. It was especially appealing to Konpa fans. The album of Konpa inspired them to come up with another album Kite'm Viv which was launched in October 2006. T-Vice sometimes collaborated with other Haitian bands like Carimi and their competitors Djakout Mizik. They mainly collaborated with other bands so that they can get to learn their weakness and strengths which helped them during competitions. The collaboration is well shown in the single Party By The Sea which was done by T-Vice, Wyclef Jean and Buju Banton, a Jamaican reggae artist.

Jessie and Pierrot Alkhal, the uncles to the two brothers and managers of the band group, were proud of their performance. The father of the two founding member Robert was also not left behind in appreciating their good performance, which did not only stem from their effort but also from the effort of Robert, Pierrot and Jessie who corrected them when they went wrong. In the late 90's T-Vice were badly treated by their fans because of rumor that was circulating involving T-Vice group having a conflict with Djakout Mizik. But this did not stop the two groups from working together .Those that believed in the rumor became so ashamed and decided to bury the hatchet. T-Vice continued to be a successful group in music industry.

This band had broken the monotony of sole band performance which was highly practiced in Haiti. They were known as new Tabou Combo because of touring internationally to perform. Their manager, Jessie, greatly contributed to the touring nature and their success in those tours. She always insisted in good performance that led to good music market. She organized a concert for them in the upcoming U.S President Ball.

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