Konpa Music Video

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.

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Tabou Combo's music expresses itself with a driving, pulsating, and danceable beat. Transcending cultural barriers, they sing in Spanish, English, French, or Créole, their music a heady blend of meringue, rara, and voodoo percussion influences. The band's sound is a joyous mix of polyrhythmic instruments, piano, guitars, and a small horn section.

Tabou Combo does not restrict itself to only producing dance music. Many of the band's songs deal with current issues that concern Haiti citizens, such as corruption, prejudice, poverty, and violence. To bring attention to these issues and the consequent negative effect it produces for Haiti's reputation, the band has formed a foundation, Eat, Read and Hope. Its goal is to raise funds to provide solutions for Haiti's two most pressing social issues, education and food insufficiency.

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Ralph Condé, a Haitian-American musician, was born in New York in 1969. He is a self-taught guitarist, who began playing at seven years of age. He broke into the music scene at age 16, and soon became a success playing and singing in the group Papash, who topped the charts with several smash albums.

As a singer-songwriter- arranger and head of his own record company, Condé has played with many Haitian and Caribbean musicians, with his gypsy lifestyle sending him to perform for audiences, in concert venues, over all Latin America, Africa, and Europe.

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Having rebranded from Shleu- shleu in 1970, the outlook of the band, Skah shah has really changed. So is their music. It was founded in Haiti before its name was changed. As is well known, the Haitian music is Konpa. It carries the cultural origins of the area. It actually represents the culture the Haitian people as well as audience's love for the traditional Konpa music.

After moving to New York City in the mid 1970, the well respect vocalist of the band, Joe Ely, decided to reorganize the group to address the new changes in the band. This also affected their approach to the Konpa music and the Haitian culture. In fact, some reviewers have described their music as having easy rhythms that easily attract the attention and interest of the dancers to dance. This is contributed highly with the seductive playing of the saxophone.

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Ralph Conde is a well known musician, composer and guitar player. His passion for music especially playing guitar was appreciated at the very young age of 7. With persistence and continuing efforts, he expertise his guitar talent and has been working on it from the age of 16. His talent has been world renowned and has participated in many shows across Europe, Africa and South America. His dedication towards music and hard work has gained him a reputation of a vocalist, a composer and a writer. Ralph Conde has been helping youth all across the globe to learn guitar through his own recording studio in Miami, Florida.

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Kompa music to Haitians is like rock music to Americans. Inherent to the culture, a reflection of its spirit, and an embedded part of everyday life, heard everywhere. The Kompa genré began around 60 years ago in Haiti, its slow-paced meringue rhythms distinct from the Dominican Republic's faster-paced merengue. Played mainly in a minor key, Kompa lovers define it as jazz-influenced, pulsating, serpentine, and Créole-flavored.

Nemours Jean-Baptiste , a Haitian sax player, created Kompa, a blend of calypso and meringue influences, and an off-shoot of the Dominican Republic's merengue. Key to understanding Kompa is an awareness of the Haitian people's history of suffering. Haiti has endured 32 coup d'etats, devastating poverty, and frequent natural disasters, 2010's earthquake the most recent national crisis. Music writer, Vanessa Francklin, sums up the character of Kompa, saying, "this is the music of a people that has long suffered and still suffers."

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