Les shleu shleu - Haiti Music Video

The Mini-Jazz movement, which originated in the Port-au-Prince neighborhoods of Haiti, like Petionville, was a natural outgrowth of Haiti's pop dance music, Konpa. Or Compas, Compa, Kompa, depending on which spelling you prefer. The Mini-Jazz movement took off during the mid- to late sixties. Neighborhood Mini-Jazz bands sprouted like mushrooms, and a nexus of them both collaborated and competed with one another. Among the up-and-coming Mini-Jazz groups was Les Fantaisistes de Carrefour. Translated it means The Fantastics of Carrefour.

Les Fantaisistes de Carrefour produced a classic style of Mini-Jazz-influenced Konpa music. But they distinguished themselves through their unique style of drumming. Drummers of bands like Les Ambassadeurs or Les Shleu Shleu developed their own kind of patterning, and Les Fantaisistes de Carrefour's drummer was no exception. The manner in which Les Fantaisistes de Carrefour's drummer laid down the beat grounded the musicians, making them a musically tighter unit. In turn, Les Fantaisistes de Carrefour's tight playing allowed the sax player to weave sinewy melodic lines without losing the beat.

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Mid-1960 known as the turning point of Haitian music, this was the time of popular middle class music movement. One of small music bands of that time, mini-djaz introduced kompa, (a well known music form of Haiti) in a more modern way. They transformed this traditional music form completely by pairing it with electric bass, electric guitar and other more trendy instruments. There was a lot of drumming in their music and they also not hesitated including saxophone and other uncommon Haitian instruments.

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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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