You don’t need to look far on Bélo’s CD to find a reference to the terrible earthquake that shook Haiti in January 2010. Even the title of the album, Haïti debout (Haiti standing) smacks of Haitian tenacity. Paradoxically, the disk’s cover sports a photo of the singer sitting down in the grass with a guitar by his side. His face is closed and hard, and his expression and posture are those of a boxer knocked out and stunned, but determined to get up and carry on the fight.
To follow up on his 2008 album Référence, this time the artist in his thirties looked over to this side of the Atlantic, where he found the support he needed to finish his project. Some brilliant talents from the Afro-Parisian music scene added their touch to his creation: the Cameroonian guitarist Blick Bassy, the Malian percussionist Mamadou “Prince” Koné and his compatriot Harouna Samake, who plays the kamele ngoni, and the Beninese bass player Patrick Ruffino, another finalist in the 2006 RFI Découvertes awards that Bélo went on to win.
The ten songs recorded (as well as four bridges, totalling a little under 40 minutes) focus on the essentials, leaving space for a clear melody with a ring of French chanson, some arrangements that seem to be inspired by experience playing live, and a few succulent pop morsels.
In this punchy, energetic cocktail served up in Creole, and so mixed race by definition, reggae is always one of the main ingredients, like on Ti Jean. The duet, performed with the Martinican Saël, one of the beacons of the West Indian reggae scene, won last year’s Sacem Caribbean Special award.
Bélo Haïti debout (Nati Prod/Harmonia Mundi) 2011
Translation by : Anne-Marie Harper
Delicious
Digg
Facebook
Twitter
Yahoo!
Technorati
