In our modern times of instant Shazam and Wikipedia it may be hard to imagine what it was like to discover some music that you instantly liked, but then had no idea how to find more of it. For me this has been the case with Zouk, a type of Caribbean music particularly from the French Antilles, which had been among my favorites for many years, even though I didn't even know the name of the genre until recently.
My First Impression in Analogue Times
I have always been a keen explorer of musical tastes, and whenever I heard something new, I liked to give it a chance to grow on me, in case the first impression did not convince me immediately. But with Zouk that didn't even have to be the case, as I remember it was an instant favorite from the first moment I heard it. It was the perfect combination of a vibrant rhythm that would not let me keep my feet still, while at the same time creating this deep sense of peaceful chill-out.
At that time I was in college, just before the turn of the millennium, and it was my housemate who put it on as background music for cleaning the house. I asked her why I never heard her play it, say at a party, where I was certain it would become a great favorite. But she just scoffed at my suggestion, saying that maybe for party she'd throw for her parents she'd consider it.
Just like the music, my housemate was from the Caribbean island of Santa Lucia, and the band was apparently from "waaaay" back in the 80's. Her parents had it on tape when they moved to New York when she was little, and she didn't even know the artist(s). Never mind, I said, and I immediately made a copy for myself. Since then that same copy (of a copy) had been digitalized into mp3 format, and become part of my music collection. Still, I have no idea about the name of the groups or the song titles. Somehow even Shazam could not identify any of them!
Hunting for those Tunes
Okay, so how would I go about describing this particular type of music? According to my housemate people simply called it Cadas, but she said the spelling varied, so I guess it could be Cadaz. In the end I found a Caribbean musical genre that's called Cadence - or possibly Kadence, or even Kadans. Great! Listening to it, however, wasn't precisely what I was looking for.
The wonderful style I got to love so much sure has its similarities to Calypso and Reggae, but it is a lot faster, reminding me of Merengue. As for the instruments, I had no idea what I was hearing. Steel drums? and electric guitar used almost like a percussion instrument? possibly some type of early electronic music? I really had no idea. But in my search I came across Zouk, which was pretty close to hitting the nail on its head.
Could it Possibly be Kassav'?
After realizing that it was indeed Zouk I was after, or possibly Zouk Béton, it was just a matter of finding the best interpreters of this style. This is the fun part that can go on possibly forever, since many different artists take the music into all kinds of directions, where it can evolve into all sorts of other things. However, it is the feel of those tunes I got to hear on that old cassette tape from the 1980's that I wanted to recreate for you guys today. The three songs I picked out are from three different musicians, but by now I am almost sure that it was the group Kassav' that my housemate introduced me to. Maybe with time I can even find those exact same recordings, in pristinely digitalized condition. So the search keeps going on...
If you liked this post, I encourage you to take a look at the weekly #ThreeTuneTuesday challenge, and if you have something good to share, participate. There are some cool prizes to be won, check out this week's prompt page. If you want to see my other music related posts, feel free to visit my Monday Music collection.