Crowd gets up to dance for Boukman Eksperyans
There were times Thursday night at Martyrs' when it seemed as if there were almost as many people onstage as there were on the dance floor. And nearly everyone was on the dance floor, all dancing, singing and waving a profusion of blue and red Haitian flags.
The enthusiastic crowd of fellow countrymen and world music fans had turned out for 11-member Boukman Eksperyans, Haiti's premier mizik rasin or roots music band.
Boukman's music is centered on the battery of percussionists who pound out intricate, rapid-fire rhythms. They power lilting songs and chants that demand everyone sing and dance along -- as they regularly did, often right on the already crowded stage.
This distinctive combination of song, dance and drums is also at the heart of the trance-inducing vodou ceremonies that inspired Theodore "Lolo" Beaubrun Jr. and his wife, Mimerose "Manze" Beaubrun, to gather friends and family in 1979 to form Boukman (named for the priest who led a slave rebellion paving the way for Haiti to become the first independent black nation in the world).
The deeply spiritual connections they found in vodou, the socially conscious message music of Bob Marley, and the rock guitar of Jimi Hendrix (though rather buried in the mix Thursday night and the source of the eksperyans or "experience" in band's name) put the group in the vanguard of Haiti's roots-music movement. Credited with the first international release and first Grammy nomination for a Haitian band, along with six albums to date (the last in 2000), Boukman also won the attention of world music fans.
Most know Haiti, if at all, as one of the world's poorest countries. But this concert -- as much a collective ceremony and celebration as it was a musical performance (it was also a benefit for the University of Fondwa 2004, Haiti's first rural university, offering programs in agricultural training and sustainable development) -- speaks of a people rich in spirit and joy.
New version coming up
Upcoming Events for the Next 3 Day(s) Private calendar events are seen only by member who owns calendar
07-15-06, 09:18 PM
Crowd in Chicago gets up to dance Haiti premier mizik rasin/rooots Boukman Eksperyans
Linear Mode
