kompa - Haiti Music Video

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.

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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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