Kassav Music Group

[Gracia Bradshaw]

Kassavalso alternatively spelled Kassav, is a French Caribbean band that originated from Guadeloupe in 1979.[1][2][3][4] The band's musical style is rooted in the Guadeloupean gwoka rhythm, as well as the Martinican tibwa and Mend rhythms.[5][6][7] Regarded as one of the most influential bands in 20th-century French West Indies music,[8][9][10] Kassav is often credited with pioneering the zouk musical genre.[11][12][13][14] Their musical evolution is a synthesis of cadence-lypso and compas traditions.[15]

Despite initial resistance from French record labels, which disparaged their early works as excessively "too ethnic," Kassav' tenaciously persevered, collaborating with various West Indian music producers and distributing their music through Sonodisc.[16] The term "kassav" in creole denotes a type of cassava pancake.[17][18][19] The band's inception can be traced to Pierre-Edouard Dcimus and Frddy Marshall, members of the Guadeloupean ensemble Les Vikings, who aspired to innovate the island's traditional music by amalgamating it with contemporary influences.[5][20]

The integration of Georges Dcimus, brother of Pierre-Edouard Dcimus, and Jacob Desvarieux, a guitarist and arranger, significantly contributed to the band's gradual formation, with additional musicians subsequently joining Kassav'.[5][20] Their debut studio album, Love and Kadance, released in 1979, heralded the advent of zouk and served as the archetypical exemplar for the genre.[21]

With a discography of over 50 albums, encompassing both band and solo projects from its members,[22] Kassav' has achieved significant international recognition. They were the first black group to perform in the Soviet Union.[23]

Kassav' was formed in 1979 by Pierre-Edouard Dcimus (former musicians from the Les Vikings de Guadeloupe) and Paris studio musician Jacob Desvarieux. Together and under the influence of well-known Dominican, Haitian and Guadeloupean kadans or compas bands like Experience 7, Grammacks, Exile One, Les Aiglons, Tabou Combo, Les Freres Dejean, etc., they decided to make Guadeloupean carnival music recording it in a more fully orchestrated yet modern and polished style.[24] The name of the band is Antillean Creole for a local dish made from cassava root.[24]

Kassav' is the creator of the fast carnival zouk Beton style.[25][26] The French Antilles' Kassav' was the first to apply the MIDI technology to cadence and fused the genre with funk, and Makossa.[24]

Most authors credit Dcimus, his brother Georges, the band's bassist and Desvarieux as its inventors.[27][28][29] Their first album was Love and Ka Dance (1980).[30][31] The band gained popularity in their much-heralded live performances in the Parisian arena Znith and toured widely.[32] For a band ostensibly operating in a "narrowly focused" Caribbean dance-based new genre, their success and influence on other artists was remarkable, although they were most influenced by a veritable cornucopia of other styles as noted above.

Kassav' continued to gain popularity both as a group and by several members' solo recordings and eventually peaked in 1985 with Yll, which featured the international hit Zouk "la s sl mdikaman nou ni" (meaning "Zouk is the only medicine we have" in French Antillean Creole). With this hit song, zouk rapidly became a widespread dance craze in Latin America and the Caribbean, and was popular in Europe, Africa, and Asia. Zouk performers became known for wildly theatrical concerts featuring special effects, stage spectacles and colorful costumes. One important contribution of Kassav' in concert was the appearance of featured dancers on stage with the band; these dancers were in many ways as much a part of the band as any musician. Kassav' has been noted by its acolytes and aficionados as a dance band par excellence.

Among the strengths of Kassav' that helped lead to the group's success were and are its members' superior musicianship, songwriting and production skills, and worldwide audiences eager for lively dance music more sophisticated than the disco/techno-based styles that otherwise dominated dance music charts in that era. The especially gravelly singing voice of Desvarieux, Dcimus's driving bass, Naimro's and Joseph's inventive keyboards and superior drum-machine-based and Vamur's solid jazz-inflected live percussion, along with dance party-inspiring simple French-creole lyrics are among unique Kassav' "trademarks". During his tenure with Kassav', St. Eloi's soaring vocals were another unique ingredient, and the romantic vocals of Marthely and Naimro's as well as Broard's very strong vocals, a plethora of fun songs, and significant guest appearances including by Stevie Wonder and others are important parts of the Kassav' mix.

They have appeared with Admiral T, a famous reggae dancehall singer, and many other popular artists. Singer-songwriter/keyboardist Jean-Claude Naimro also appeared with world beat artist Peter Gabriel. Lead vocalist Jocelyne Broard has also had a number of successes both solo and as a guest with other artists, being the first woman artist in the Caribbean to win certain music awards; she continues to perform with Kassav' and as a solo artist.

Jocelyne Broard's stunning "amateur" photography of natural scenes and people seen from her unique traveling-artist perspective's island-paradise visuals[33] could be cited among their songs' inspirations. The band's songs with a "political" edge or insinuation are typically double-entendre in the African-American and calypsonian traditions well known in Caribbean dance music from which the music of Kassav' evolved.

Kassav' released another CD in 2007, All U Need Is Zouk, to substantial acclaim with another successful world tour. Nearly 30 years later the same musicians are still arguably great performers .

Originally formed solely of Guadeloupean artists (Decimus, Desvarieux, St-Eloi), within a few years Kassav' also embraced band members of Martinican ancestry (Broard, Naimro, Marthely); their music is mostly compas that delved deep into synthesized sounds after exploring many acoustic timbres, with rhythms based fundamentally in a gwo ka (French Caribbean folkloric drumming/chanting) context, especially in earlier recordings. It has been suggested that their success was largely outside of the large U.S. music market due to a nearly total absence of English lyrics; instead, they use a very localized version of Crole Franais unique to Guadeloupe and Martinique, very distinct from European French or even Haitian French Kreyl. Their choice of language however did not limit their artistic vision, and it remains carnival-like and eminently danceable; the success of Kassav' was ongoing in the 2010s.

On 30 July 2021, Jacob Desvarieux, 65, died at the University Hospital of Abymes in Guadeloupe. He had been medically induced into a coma for almost a month. His death was attributed to COVID-19 by media reports.[34][35][36]

Kassav' (Haitian and Antillean Creole for a local dish made from cassava) is a Francophone zouk band which was formed in 1979. The core members of the band are Jocelyne Beroard, Jacob Desvarieux, Jean-Philippe Marthely, Patrick St. Eloi, Jean-Claude Naimro, Claude Vamur and Georges Decimus (who left the band to create another band, Volte Face, before returning to Kassav' later) along with several other, more minor members. The total number of albums by the band and its members is approximately 30.

Kassav' was formed in 1979 by Pierre-Edouard Dcimus, a long-time professional musician who worked with Freddy Marshall. Together, the two of them decided to take carnival music and make it a more modern and polished style. It was the leading band to emerge from the formative years of Zouk. They gave the style a pan-Caribbean sound by taking elements from kompa, salsa, and calypso, and became world famous. Their first album, Love and Ka Dance (1980), established the sound of zouk.

Kassav' continued to grow more popular, both as a group and with several members' solo careers, finally peaking in 1985 with Yll, which featured the international hit "Zouk la s sl mdikaman nou ni" (meaning "Zouk is our only drug" in French Antillean Creole) With this hit, zouk rapidly became a widespread dance craze in Latin America and the Caribbean, and was popular in Europe, Africa, and Asia. Zouk performers became known for wildly theatrical concerts featuring special effects spectacles and colorful costumes.

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Leaving Guadeloupe for Paris when he was 17, he took singing lessons there and worked in clubs until he met Georges Dcimus and the founding of the group Venus One, of which Saint-Eloi became the leader. Saint-Eloi joined Kassav in 1982, first as part of the chorus and then as one of the major singers of zouk. He left the group in 2002 to embark on a solo career.

Very sad news for Guadeloupe and the rest of the Caribbean. Unfortunately PSE and Kassav are not as known as they should have been. Their music is very rich but given the relative isolation of the french speaking Caribbean from the rest of the Caribbean, it is not widely known. Thanks for posting this news and creating this blog as Caribbean people in general know very few about their other Caribbean fellows music, culture, food, art, film etc.

I only learned of the demise of this giant of zouk music in the Caribbean from my wife who is also a lover of his music. I too believe that the man will be missed immensely. I can only hope that both Patrick and Arrow will be singing for the Gods. May they rest peacefully.

Zouke music moves me so emotionally, that i choked up when i heard of Patrick Saint Eloi passing. Rain washedout jazz a couple of years ago in st.lucia but last year with heavier down pours we suited up and made our way to the pigeon island venue to groove to kassav. La sa se le zouke

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