Compas On Broadway First Annual Haitian Music Awards at Lincoln Center

Images of First Annual Haitian Music Awards at Lincoln Center, Easter Sunday

Tequila Minky and Rene Devis, Heritagekonpa Magazine

The first Annual Haitian Music Awards Ceremony entitled "Compas on Broadway" took place at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, April 12th, 2009. The evening affair, hosted by Guy Evans Paul, was filled with New York style glitz--red carpet, cameras flashing, and all.

The awards recognized the most popular Haitian music genre and artists from the past three years and included a few other genres, jazz and racine. Compas on Broadway organizers' intent, to showcase and promote the works of musical artists from the entire spectrum of Haitian music, was dedicated to Nemours Jean-Baptiste, founder of Compas Direct. ” A posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award was accepted by family members.

Haitian-American comedian Will Sylvince from New Jersey had the audience rolling in the aisles with his opening acts. This was especially true when he addressed the issue of “Haitian time” as latecomers climbed over seated audience members in the fourth row from the stage. “You invite someone for Saturday, they might arrive on Sunday,” evoked belly laughter.

By the end of the evening the ground floor of Avery Fisher was 85% full. The comedian’s depiction of the child growing up in the Haitian (American) home was very very funny.

Four bands from Haiti were on the program to attend the awards ceremony. The evening featured performances by Emerline Michel, who captivated the audience and took the Best Female Artist and Best Female Vocalist of the Year. The new generation band Nu Look swept the awards taking six awards: Best Male Artist, Album, Band of the Year (large format), Song, Music Producer and Band Leader. The crowd demanded an encore when they performed.

Kreyol La also performed, as did beloved racine-roots band Boukman Ekspryans singing well-known standards and a song from their latest CD. “Funky Compas” band Zekle wrapped up the evening with their highly personalized version of compas, which incorporates many other music genres including R&B.

Other winners were Carimi for Best Band (mini format); Tropicana for Best Traditional Group and Alan Cave won Best Male Vocalist. Best New Group was Harmonik and Best Racine Group was RAM. Barikad Crew won Best Hip Hop/Kreyol Rap and Mushy Widmaier (who played with Zekle) won Best Haitian Jazz.

Representatives from Delta airline, announcing their launching of flights to Haiti from JFK starting June 20, brought wildly enthusiastic applause.

The MC of the evening, Guy Evans Ford did an excellent job, especially improvising with much grace through the numerous technical/ logistics/production difficulties. There were many of these glitches, unfortunate unprofessional aspects of the gala. It was a very forgiving audience, being family and friends--the community. In the end, presenters had to run at a speed demon pace through the remaining announcements of some of the other awards.

Haiti’s Prime Minister Michele Pierre-Louis (on her way to Washington), a fervent supporter of the arts, greeted a very receptive crowd in a surprise appearance during the Award Ceremony. In addition to praising the import and vast talent in Haitian music, she presented the Living Legend Award to Ulrick Pierre-Louis, the maestro and founder of Septentrional, Haiti's and said-to-be the Western World’s oldest big band.

"Compas On Broadway" was a great first attempt and could be a giant step for the advancement of Haitian music. However, murmurs abound in its lack of backstage organization as the show proceeded. Among those in the Haitian music world, it was felt that the awards were awarded somewhat on favoritism and/or personal relation with artists, label owners, and promoters. Some felt that a Haitian music award ceremony must to a larger extent reflect diversity across the whole spectrum of Haitian music and transparency in the selection process.

Some Haitian music supporters boycotted the ceremony because of shortcoming in the nomination process. A number of prominent Haitian artist were overlooked, including Belo, winner of RFI Discovered Music of the World 2006, who is highly visible in the Haitian music scene. One insider said that Racine musician Manze Dayilo, whose album was voted recently as one of the best female artist on the world music scene, hadn’t released her CD by the deadline. It was noted that there is a time delay in the output of albums by Haitian musicians.

The Award ceremony was definitely a source of excitement for many who attended the show. Heritagekonpa sends congrads to the organizers and this year’s winners.

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Album of the year

ABO Nu Look

Song of the Year

Illusion NU Look

Band of the Year

Full Band Format

NU Look

Band of the Year

Mini Band Format

Carimi

Male Artist of the Year