Music - Haiti Observer Blog

Raymond Ballergeau is a famous Haitian artist. Her alias name is Ti Roro, which she has earned in the world of music. Little is known of her background and earlier days. All the same her music is well known and that is what defines the lady. In her music she pays tribute to the Haitian culture and resurrects the memory of other Haitian talents.

In her music, she fuses different instruments' to bring out a harmonious alto-tune. In a band she joined she was drumming and made the band's music more marketable. In the band Raymond Ballergeau was being helped by a friend called Jean Marcel alias Ti. Issa El Saieh was the band which she mainly worked for though she did miss out on some of their work. The band had famous figures like Joseph Trouillot and others who assisted the lead singers.

Read more →  

She is a well to do musician who has been able to gain a lot from her career. Regine Chassagne was born in born 18 August 1977 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada where by Canadian-Haitian parents who had immigrated to Canada during the reign of president Duvalier who was a renowned dictator in the country facilitating the death of so many of the country's citizens and the fleeing of a larger group of people.

Regine Chassagne was thus raised in Canada where she also noticed her interests and talent in the music industry and was involved with a couple of bands where they did a couple of great hits. She then met Win Butler with whom they co-founded the band group arcade fire which was a huge success for them.

Read more →  

Claude "Tico" Pasquet was a drummer and percussionist in Konpa music. He was born in Haitian family of music, where people like Dodof, Archibald, Alexandre, Jean and Andre came from. He developed drumming skills from his uncles Alexandre and Richard. He compared a drum to life in music because the drum made music sweet. He played in a group known as La Belle Etoile for two years and in 1967 his family migrated to New York.

His passion for music would not allow him to stay without singing so he joined another group known as Les Freres Sicot. This group made him to grow very fast in music and with time he started focusing on techniques of international drummers like Steve Gadd. In 1969 Claude "Tico" Pasquet joined a group of his own generation known as Babby Jazz and later Les Difficiles de New York. He was a skilled drummer whom everyone admired. He went back to Haiti in 1972 to play with Robert Martino in Les Gypsies but his unique drumming nature was noticed by all the fans.

Read more →  

All that is known about him is that Claude G Cajuste is a lead guitarist from a Haitian band. The band he is part of is famous, though it has seen its better and worst days. He is an artist and a musician who utilizes her God given talent to the fullest without being ashamed of showcasing his talent.

The band's popularity grew 10 fold when star singer Ti Manno joined the band at the end of the 1970's. By the early 1980's Ti Manno came out with his own band, Gemini All Stars, with some young blood like Mario Germain on Bass, Ansyto Mercier on Keyboard, Patrick Casseus on Drums,Imgart Manigat vocal and Ti Claude Geffrard Cajuste on lead Guitar. After the album 'Expoitation" ironically the young blood left the band for unfair treatment by the manager who happened to be Ti Manno's wife herself.

Read more →  

Daniel Bernard Roumain is one of the Haitian-American artists that have rocked the world for their talents and capabilities. He is an all-time recording artist, composer, performer and band leader. He is known for his abilities to easily blend different types of music and comes up with unique and very attractive forms of music.
Among his famous collections and makings is the blend of funk, rock, classical and hip hop music to generate a really interesting and attractive form of music that is very sweet to all those who listen to it. Roumain is able to do all these simply because despite having the talent he also went to school where he perfected and mastered the various ways of doing what he does best.
Daniel Bernard Roumain attended Dillard Center for the Arts in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and attained his first degree in Vanderbilt University's Blair School of Music and furthered for a doctorate which he got at the University of Michigan. He is thus a very educated musician who knows what is best for what he does. There are many who admire his music which as he claims is an afro fusion type of music specially meant for those who love all the types of music like he does.
It is for this reason that he did come up with his types of music and why he opts at all times to come up with unique stuff that will keep his audience interested and thrilled all the way to the last tune. Daniel Bernard Roumain has many diff ranging from being a composer where he has collaborated with various famous names such as Paul D. Miller also best known as DJ Spooky. He is thus a very prominent figure to watch out for as very soon he could be the next big thing in the world of music.

Read more →  

Dawn Angeliqué Richard, birthdate August 5, 1983, is an American singer and composer, and ex-member of group Danity Kane. Richard, of African-American and Haitian ethnicity, lived in New Orleans while growing up, before Hurricane Katrina force her to move to Baltimore, Maryland. Both Richard's parents are also entertainers, her father a member of Funk-Soul band, Chocolate Milk, her mother a dance instructor and vocal coach.

Beginning in her teens, Dawn Angeliqué Richard's first musical gig was with Realiti, a New Orleans group. A few years later she signed with Yeah! Brother Records, where she made her debut album, Been a While with the song "So What", produced by NeYo. Sean "Diddy" Combs, head of Bad Boy Records, planned to release the album, but it was postponed.

Read more →  

Edy Brisseaux was an outstanding Haitian musician who engaged with music as early as at the age of nine. Guitar was the first musical instrument to be learnt by him with his father who was also an amateur musician. Afterwards, he started playing trumpet during his high school life where he studied with another prominent musician Michel Desgrottes. When he was 17 he started to engage himself with top bands of Haiti such as: Dixie Band, Skah Shah, Caribbean Sextet, Zekle, Freres Dejan etc.

Brisseaux had a long passion to form a new band to bring new sound in Haitian music and subsequently formed his own band Bazilik in 1987. The first album of the band was released after five years of the formation in 1992. Interestingly, the first album of Bazilik was shaken the music industry of the country and was recognized as an advanced project in Haitian music. In addition, he was graded as a true avant gardist.

Read more →  

Frantz Casseus was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He was a guitarist and a composer of classical and folk music which was more of traditional music. He discovered his passion of playing the guitar while he was young; he became the first guitarist in the island who would sing as a soloist and the same time play guitar.

Frantz Casseus created a niche of himself in music. At the age of 23 years he would perform classical music in concerts. He was no doubt a talented artist who would transform folk music of his country into expressions with meaning of his traditions. Singing folk songs of his own country limited him from getting good singers to back him up as he played the guitar, but this did not prevent him from prospering. His dream came to pass when he met Lolita Cuevas, the Puerto Rican-born who were vocalists from Haiti. He began collaboration with them as interpreters.

Read more →  

Gerald Maxwell Rivera, born in Brooklyn, birthdate of May 23, 1973, is a Haitian-Puerto Rican neo-soul singer. Rivera, who goes by the stage name Maxwell, recorded his first album, Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite, with song composer Leon Ware and well-known guitarist Wah Wah Watson. The studio tracks were laid down in the early 1990s, but the album was not released until 1996, due to Columbia Records skittishness about its worth.

Columbia's reservations about Urban Hang Suite appeared correct, because audiences did not respond well, until the second single, "Ascension (Don't Ever Wonder)", caught fire and sold over 2,000,000 copies, achieving double-platinum success. Subsequently, the album became nominated for a Grammy Award. In June of 1997, Gerald Maxwell Rivera appeared on MTV Unplugged, performing his album material, along with Kate Bush's "This Woman's Work" and Nine Inch Nails' "Closer". Again, the artist and Columbia Records tangled over issuing an album of his MTV Unplugged concert, and ended up only issuing an EP.

Read more →  

Imposs is a well known Canadian rapper from Haitian origin. He was born and brought up in Quebec. The artist has given some awesome rap songs to the world and was a part of the Muzion music group. He had a total change of life when he started with his solo singing career, which gave him his unique identity. He has also worked in collaboration with Wyclef Jean. K.Pone.Inc music label is associated with this rapper for his music productions. He is world renowned for "Real City" phrase dubbing for Montreal. His real name is S. Rimsky Salgado.

Read more →