The 51st Anniversary Of Haitian Music: Konpa Direk
By Rene Devis, Heritagkeonpa Magazine
The current state of Haitian music
Haitian music, particularly Konpa, has come a long way, growing from completely a grass-roots movement to a national phenomenon. However five decades later, Haitian music still has no structure or adequate professionals to run the industry. Of course there are exceptions. Producers like Fred Paul, and Marc Duverger, who recently died of a heart attack, worked tremendously hard to preserve the heritage of Haitian music. The task of promoting Haitian music cannot be fulfilled by any single entity.
The recent advances in technology have now made it possible to broadcast text, music, video, and pictures around the world via the Internet. The emergence of Internet sites like, heritagekonpa.com, sakapfet.com, kompamazine.com, kompamania.com, Opamizik.com, fouye.com, everythinghaitian.com, among others have helped to promote and steer Haitian music into a new direction, but much more work needs to be done.
Just like most Haitian institutions, the music industry is plagued by corruption and lack of organization.
|
Today one can argue that the Haitian music industry is much healthier now that it was in 1955, but more than three-quarters of the musicians are still not able to make a living by just playing music. Nemours Jean Baptiste, Weber Sicot, Antoine Rosiny Jean Baptiste (Ti Manno), Louimane Casimir, Roge Cola, Garcia Jena Phillipe ( Tikit), and a large number of Haitian musicians died in deteriorating condition and poverty. Meanwhile, Haitian producers and label owners have made hundreds of thousands dollars off those artists' lasting work.
The Haitian music industry is in deplorable conditions. There is no recording academy to preserve Haitian's rich cultural music heritage. We have yet to have a serioc record label ( not a Boutique), a publishing and distribution company. As a result it, Konpa music remains unknown to most other markets outside the French Caribbean.
Fifty years after the invention of kompa music, there is no official establishment of a national music archive, nor a musician association, and an academy of music to protect musicians' rights. Producers and label owners still remain at large to reprint or reproduce an artist's work without proper consultation and economic compensation.
Today, Haitian musicians and artists are still overlooked by the public. You can walk down a local street in New York( or Florida) and come across some of the most famous Haitian musicians (e.g. Alan Cave, Isnard Douby, Jean Elie Telfort (Cubano), Roger (Shoubou), M. Eugene) with hardly any attention being paid to them. There is a lack of public awareness to buy Haitian music as well. Even though Haitian promoters, producers, and label owners have done a poor job of promoting and marketing Haitian music, consumers too share a major portion of the burden by their unwiliness to buy the music.
A big part of the problem is a lack of education and discipline of industry personnel, an absence of genuine love for the music, as well as respect for the creator of Kompa. Haitians tend to concentrate so much on the individual benefits, while neglecting the music and loosing sight of what is important in the industry - the collective advancement of Haitian music.
Today, a number of Haitians have mini production companies and record stores wherever you find large concentrations of Haitians across the world from New York, Florida, Canada, Paris and Haiti. More often than not, these companies are poorly funded, inadequate, and do not represent the quality necessary to promote Haitian music. Why must we have 20 functionally compromised mini music stores in New York or Florida that sell everything from soap to compact Discs? Why do certain Haitian music stores not carry compact discs produced by another Haitian label? Are we still living in antiquity?
One has to wonder about the intelligence of these industry personnel and wonder if they ever thought of investing money into a more professional music store, a giant distribution company, and a more professional promotion company to market the music. Through my experience in the Haitian music industry, I realize that Haitian musicians, producers, promoters, and label owners do not trust each other to partake in such an endeavor. It seems that this is an inherent part of our culture, not to trust one another, dating back to 1807 when the leader of the Haitian Revolution, Jean Jacque Dessalines and Charlemagne Perale, a Haitian military officer, opposed the American occupation of Haiti in 1915 and vowed to fight until death. Both were betrayed by their own people. It is time that we overlook our differences, and start putting more emphasis on what is important to all of us for the benefit of our nation and the betterment of the Haitian music industry.
Musicians, producers, promoters, label owners, and educated music fans must come together to layout the foundation for constant improvement of the music industry and establish standards to help the industry and realize its' full potential. This is not an impossible task. Every other nation has a musical structure in place, why not us, Haitians!
Heritagekonpa Magazine would like to take this opportunity to invite all those who love and respect Konpa music to honor the spirit of Nemours Jean Baptiste, the creator of Konpa Direct , as Konpa celebrates its' 50th anniversary. Haitian music needs your support more than ever. Let's promote positive understanding and harmonization between Haitians.
Heritagekonpa would like to honor the founding fathers of Konpa music, Nemours Jean Baptist by erecting a gold or bronze status in Haiti within the next decade. We realize that is an ambitious project and that we cannot do it on our own. We welcome the cooperation of all Haitian businesses, media, musicians, promoters, producers, label owners, and music fans. If you would like more information on the project, please contact us via email heritagekonpa@yahoo.com.
We welcome your suggestions, correction, comments, and criticism.
Reproduction or redistribution of the above text, in whole, part or in any form, requires the prior consent from Heriagekonpa Magazine.
