Atal Music is very proud to present legendary French Antilles group Kassav'.
Kassav' was formed in 1979 by Pierre-Edouard Decimus and Jacob F. Desvarieux. Together and under the influence of well-known Dominican and Guadeloupean kadans or compas bands like Experience 7, Grammacks and Exile One, they decided to make Guadeloupean carnival music recording it in a more fully orchestrated yet modern and polished style.
Kassav' created its own style "zouk" by experimenting an eleven-piece gwo ka unit and two lead singers, tambour bele, ti bwa, biguine, African styles and mostly cadence or compas with full use of the MIDI technology.
Kassav' was the leading band to emerge from the formative years of zouk; most authors credit Decimus, his brother Georges, the band's bassist and Desvarieux as its inventors.
Their first album, Love and Ka Dance (1980), established the new sound of zouk, a Parisian concoction unlike anything else, island-based or otherwise to come onto the global scene. The band gained popularity in their much-heralded live performances in Paris's Club Zenith and toured widely. 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, eventually peaking in 1985 with Yelele, which featured the international hit "Zouk la se sel medikaman 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.
Kassav' has been noted by its aficionados as a dance band par excellence.
Kassav' are very popular in Africa, and it was only natural that one day, African artists get the chance to remix Kassav'. We asked Effort Gashu & Kead Wikead (from Zimbabwe), Deep Suite (South Africa), Michael Ashe (South Africa), and C-Major (SA) (South Africa), to try their magic on Kassav's 1985 classic "Zouk la ce sel medikaman nou ni" and they all came up with very different versions but equally excellent re-interpretations of this classic.
Kassav' was formed in 1979 by Pierre-Edouard Decimus and Jacob F. Desvarieux. Together and under the influence of well-known Dominican and Guadeloupean kadans or compas bands like Experience 7, Grammacks and Exile One, they decided to make Guadeloupean carnival music recording it in a more fully orchestrated yet modern and polished style.
Kassav' created its own style "zouk" by experimenting an eleven-piece gwo ka unit and two lead singers, tambour bele, ti bwa, biguine, African styles and mostly cadence or compas with full use of the MIDI technology.
Kassav' was the leading band to emerge from the formative years of zouk; most authors credit Decimus, his brother Georges, the band's bassist and Desvarieux as its inventors.
Their first album, Love and Ka Dance (1980), established the new sound of zouk, a Parisian concoction unlike anything else, island-based or otherwise to come onto the global scene. The band gained popularity in their much-heralded live performances in Paris's Club Zenith and toured widely. 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, eventually peaking in 1985 with Yelele, which featured the international hit "Zouk la se sel medikaman 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.
Kassav' has been noted by its aficionados as a dance band par excellence.
Kassav' are very popular in Africa, and it was only natural that one day, African artists get the chance to remix Kassav'. We asked Effort Gashu & Kead Wikead (from Zimbabwe), Deep Suite (South Africa), Michael Ashe (South Africa), and C-Major (SA) (South Africa), to try their magic on Kassav's 1985 classic "Zouk la ce sel medikaman nou ni" and they all came up with very different versions but equally excellent re-interpretations of this classic.
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