Close to 300 Pictures of The Haitian Compas Festival

The echoes of sounds from main acts like Kreyol La, T-Vice, Djakout Mizik, CaRiMi, Barikad Crew, Nu Look, Jahnesta, Azor, Zenglen, Black Dada[bb] and Harmonik[bb] make the twelfth edition of the Haitian Compas Festival[bb] not only a custom, but a lasting ritual for the Haitian kompa. The the 12th Annual Haitian Compas Festival in Miami was fantastic.

Haitian Compas, sometimes written Compas Direct, konpa dirèk, konpa, kompa or compa, is derived from African and European roots. It has been adopted and recognized as the national music of Haiti, and it is often featured at Haitian festivals and events; worldwide, among which is this annual Haitian Compas Festival.

Haitian Compas was developed by Nemours Jean Baptiste, a Haitian jazz artist who was witness and actor of a musical and cultural trade between Haiti and Cuba. Although Jean-Baptiste was given credit for inventing Compas, it was said to be his conga player Quedzere (or Pouedzer) Durozo during practice who actually struck the conga in a manner which would later be known as compas direk. That name reportedly came from an army officer who was awakened by what he had heard and said in creole (a la yon kompa direk papa) loosely translated "what a direct beat". Compas' popularity took off likely due to the genre's ability to improvise and hold the rhythm section steady. Jean-Baptiste incorporated a lot of brass and easily recognized rhythms. Compás music is typically accompanied with singing in Haitian Creole. In 1954, Nemours works together with the sax player Webert Sicot in the International Orchestra, where a new sound of haitian music is born.

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