Guitarist Ralph Conde pays homage to Haitian music icons

Updated December 27, 2012 10:59 AM

Ralph Conde is a Haitian guitarist. He was born and raised up in Haiti. His mother bought him a guitar at the age of six years as a gift. This made him to aspire to be a guitarist. He was greatly inspired by other artists within and out of Haiti. Bearing in mind that Haiti was full of artists, Ralph was able to meet various local sounds such as kompa, troudour, rara and meringue. His role models artists were Robert Martino and Dadou Pasquet.

Ralph had one unique character; he was very friendly to everyone and it was through this he was able to meet other Haitian artists. He met various artists like Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Georges Benson, Earl Klug and Steve Via. He used his friendly nature as an added advantage to be able to travel to various parts of the world. Travelling all over the world gave him exposure as an artist because he was able to know the preferences of different fans.

Though Ralph had a guitar he never attended any school to study how to play it but he taught himself. He would keenly observe how other artists were playing and later try it on his own. He would tune in to various favorite music and then practice with them. After a long time of practice he was able to come up with his own sounds and styles. Due to the earlier exposure to different fans he was able to match his performance with the expectations of the fans. He played the guitar so well that many artists and band groups admired him. He always ensured that his audiences enjoyed and loved the music.

Ralph joined Papash a Haitian band group in the late 80's when it was formed. Papash was an extraordinary group in Haiti because it performances were always exceptional. They greatly succeeded in the music industry because of their good performances. He produced three albums with Papash. One of these albums is the feeling Papash. This song made people aware of the Papash group and it became an instant hit in Haiti radio station. He later moved to New York City. Due to the distance he was unable to continue working with Papash therefore he withdrew from the group. While in New York he formed his own group known as Vag. He launched another album with this group and was really appreciated by his fans.

This album made many Kompa musicians admire his music and started to befriend him. After a long courtship Ralph thought of joining Tabou Combo which made him to visit many countries in the world. Ralph played three roles in this group that is producing, recording and songwriting. He had five albums with them.He valued Haitian culture so much in his music and would play not only jazz and blues but also Haitian music. He has a new album by the name Respe which gave a foreign show of Caribbean sounds and respect Haitian music. The album also has Latin and European styles.

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