The launch concert of the new album tradition by singer-songwriter Wesli, at 10 p.m. Sunday, poses a structural issue in the sense understood by building engineers: how many musicians can he put on the stage of the Petit parterre before it crumbles under their weight? Security has decided, it will be seven, plus Wesli. He could have invited twice as many, just to pay tribute as faithfully as possible to the multitude of genres, rhythms and musical influences that make up the Creole “tradisyon”.
What a huge offering this sixth album in Wesley Louissaint’s career is! Nineteen songs, original compositions or drawn from the vast repertoire of troubadou and racin music from Haiti, almost 90 minutes of splendid grooves raising the musician to the rank of the most important singers in the musical history of the Pearl of the Antilles, with Lakou Mizik and Boukman Eksperyans. Nothing less.
traditionexplains Wesli, “is a continuation of Rapadou Kreyol [album paru en 2018], but in more detail. On rapadou, I put more emphasis on the lost rhythms, the disappearing aspects of Haitian culture. I continue in this approach on the new album, but also offering my vision, my opinion, on the future of our tradition. Take note of the past to propose the musical culture of Haiti in 2022 and where it is heading”.
A two-step vision
In truth, Wesli will reveal to us on Sunday, at the Montreal International Jazz Festival, only the first half of his vision of Haitian musical culture today, since tradition has been designed as a diptych, the second part of which will appear in the fall — we can already taste a preview with the astonishing excerpt Bontan Iyalele, a collaboration with Montrealer of Chadian origin Caleb Rimtobaye, alias AfrotroniX, who shines on the African continent with his Afrofuturist interpretation of traditional rhythms. “I allude a little to rap and Afro-trap, but it will remain quite traditional; a few electronic instruments, always in my proposal to protect the tradition. »
In the meantime, let’s dive into this new album. “The idea, continues Wesli, is to explore Haitian culture and tradition in depth: Voodoo culture, Yoruba culture, Troubadou culture, which are heard on another form of frequency than current music such as the kompa. The musician then gets carried away in a long ethnomusicological explanation about his version ofAzounke at the very end of the album, a song in the tradition of the court (” lakou », in Creole) Daomé, near Gonaïves, but which he interprets on the rhythmic yanvalou emblematic of voodoo culture. “The rhythm is still running, but we dance it relaxed! There are many contrasts on this album, to express all the depth of the music of Haiti. I think I’ll need more than two albums tradition to go around it. »
References
For insiders, the album tradition will have an almost encyclopedic value, with its string of rhythms (banda, rara, petro, ganga, nago, congo, etc.) and its references to the smugglers of musical tradition. Konté m rakonté m pays homage to Éric Charles, one of the magnificent voices of the troubadou tradition. Samba and Wawa se rel O are dedicated to two monuments of Racin music, respectively Azor Rasin Mapou and Wawa rasin Kanga. Between hat tricks slip in some guests of our time, Paul Cargnello on the reggae song The sun goes down and Kizaba on Peze Cafehot on this almost funk and acoustic moment.
However, the new converts to Creole music will make happy connections between the grooves disseminated by Wesli and the more familiar Afro-Cuban music. “That’s exactly what we call the troubadou!” » enthuses the learned musician. “The Haitian troubadou is very Latin, thanks to our sugar cane cutters who had gone to the cane fields in Cuba and the Dominican Republic with their instruments: tres, ukulele, and who made this music evolve through contact with the sound elsewhere. Back home, they brought this tradition, giving our songs another form, another color. »
Finally, tradition also conceals a totally unexpected musical reference. Pay attention to the introduction of the tribute to Eric Charles, the song Konté m rakonté m : the orchestrations of violins, the acoustic guitar, about twenty seconds before the rhythm takes off. But yeah, it’s in A musician among many others of Harmonium! “Indeed, I used this scale, this succession of chords! Many people have heard it too! It sounds like Harmonium in the intro, and a bit later in the song. You see, my integration here, in Quebec, is social and musical. I hope to bring something to the musical culture here, but I also like to take some, to be able to integrate my music into society, in the same way as Quebecers have integrated me. »