Tabou Combo Mixes Dance Grooves and Social Commentary in One Package

Updated December 27, 2012 11:24 AM

Tabou Combo has been the leading Konpa band in Haiti for over three decades. They began as Los Incognitos of Pétionville in 1968, rapidly achieving their first taste of success, Haiti Radio's "Best Musical Group of the Year" award. At the end of 1970, they relocated to New York, as Tabou Combo, and with a new band head, Jean-Claude Jean. It was there their career took off, resulting in fans on all major continents of the globe.

The band's mega-hit, "New York City" sold a million copies in 1974, and their 1989 album, The Antilles, charted at number one in Europe and the Caribbean, winning them "Best Album for Haitian Dance Music" in 1991.

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.

Reply to this article