Trio Select in Action (Haiti, 1971)

(Marc Records MDVG-219).

Haitian music can be very good setting fire to the dancefloor, but can also be very fresh and sweet to your ears. Here's a beautiful example with a song from Trio Select vol. 2, led by guitarist and popular singer Henry Gesner (1925-1998), very famous under his surname "Coupé Cloué".

A blindtest may let you think at first that the origin of the song is West Africa. As explained in above article, acoustic guitar and rhythmic patterns make Gesner very close to some african music (palmwine highlife or afrolatin), although he did not know about african music at the time. 

The trio (2 guitars, 1 maracas) plays a kompa influenced by jazz and haitian folklore, with some cuban elements (clave rhythm). As Cuba was a major influence Haiti in the 50s (when Trio Select was founded) and in West Africa in the 60s, that's probably why it sounds close to an african musician playing latin music.

This african connection was reinforced along his career as Coupe Cloué, while travelling to many african countries, adding more musicians to the band and integrating influence from soukous. 

Anyway, "Ensemble Select in action" is the kind of track unuseful to label with any context, just pure music for your soul. Enjoy.

Trio Select - Ensemble Select en Action :

Article extract "Legends of Haiti Music", from Reggae and African Beat magazine (1988) :

Credits :

Gesner Henry, Luc B. Raphael, Prospère St Louis, Andre Serant, Bellerive Decelian, Justin Blanc, Andre Chasagne, Louis Solon.

Haitian music lovers can enjoy the great selection "Haiti Direct" (Big Band, Mini Jazz and Twoubadou sounds 1960-1978) compiled by Hugo Mendez.

Other Muzzicaltrips in Haiti : HERE