“Gwadloup Festival” on stage for six days from November 21-29 2009 (updated with le bananier bleu’s photos)

Guadeloupe

original post by Bananier bleu

makeover 3 for WEC by Israel, November 26  2009

The 2nd edition of Gwadloup Festival is being staged on the French Caribbean island from 21 – 29 November 2009.  Organized by le Conseil Régional de la Guadeloupe et le Comité du Tourisme des îles de Guadeloupe (CTIG), the artistic and cultural event is the brainchild of long-time musicologist, Pierre-Edouard Decimus.

The Gwadloup Festival is, however, not restricted to the French Department. And so the producers have this year invited Jose “El Canario” Alberto, Josean Jacobo y Tumbao Joseíto and Mateo of the Dominican Republic to the festival.

Gwadloup Festival celebrates 75 years of popular music from Guadeloupe through such creations as “Voyage au Pays des Biguines,” an exposition of traditional music, the Legends concert featuring the band Kassav, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, and Le Grand Bal with L’Orchestre Jeunesse.

The Gwadloup Festival is also adopting a new format of dispersing the individual events to  several communities around Guadeloupe.  These include Basse-Terre, Petit-Bourg, Gosier, Abymes, Pointe-à-Pitre and Moule.

In order to make the festival accessible to as diverse an audience as possible, the producers have come up with the concept of “scenes” that they believe should enable every style of music to find its audience.

There was the Caribbean Folk-Jazz acoustic scene, Café Créole Blues, on Sunday, November 22, which showcased the talents of the new generation through artists like Erik, Jean-Michel Rotin and the Fabso Concept.  This show began with the Willy Salzedo Trio.

Salzedo is quite a successful composer who has written most famously for Tanya St-Val.  Also, he co-founded Moun Karayib with the Jean-Alphonse brothers, Castry and Olivier.  And fresh from Festival des percussions de Longueil et Nuits d’Afrique in Canada, K’Koustik represented the traditional drum culture of the Antilles. Among the ranks of this group is percussionist Joby Julienne of Iguane Xtet.

On Tuesday 24, La scène Jazz Caraïbe hosted the Martiniquan pianist Michel Sardaby Trio and St. Lucian saxophonist Barbara Cadet, during the course of an evening punctuated by a “Carte Blanche” granted Guadeloupean percussionist Charly Chomereau-Lamotte.  Sardaby’s long list of credits in his fifty-year career includes a 1984 recording with Monty Alexander.

Chomereau-Lamotte came out swinging with an outfit reminiscent of the Caribbean Workshop spearheaded by St. Lucian saxophonist Luther François.  He amassed a band of Caribbean Jazz kingpins for Gwadloup Festival namely François himself, Guadeloupean bassist, Raymond d’Huy, and Trinidadian drum impresario, Sean Thomas. Chomereau-Lamotte continues to collaborate handsomely as he has always done, his most prominent outings having been with the Jocelyn Menard “Gwanada” Big Band project, the d’Huy Brothers and Antiguan born, Guadeloupe based trumpeter, Happy Lewis.

Caraïb to Jazz is four young Guadeloupean Jazz musicians who are positioning themselves as heirs to the rich French Caribbean Jazz heritage.  Likened to Sakésho of Mario Canonge and Andy Narell, with Jonathan Jurion on piano and Laurent Lalsingué on pans, this band turns out the Calypso-Jazz too (follow the link and check out “Medites”), something that has impressed no other than Jacques Schwarz-Bart who predicts that “…these musicians from Guadeloupe (and Martinique) will give us many reasons to delight us for many years!”

Barbara Cadet of St. Lucia (second from left above) has had a unique experience of her own.  She was key to the creation of a steelpan orchestra, “Allegro Pan Grove” and vocal group, “Sisterhood”, all the while establishing herself as a solo artist, armed with her reeds and voice.

Jean-Claude Montredon

Most notably, Biguine-Jazz will be presented by pianist Jean-Max Mirval who, one year ago, had the opportunity to present this music alongside Mario Canonge at Centre des Arts.  One of the names Mirval will have on his team on this occasion is drummer Jean-Claude Montredon.

Then there was La Scène Musiques Actuelles that brought together Soca superstar Alison Hinds, Buju Banton and G’Ny on Friday, November 27, 2009.

With such a diverse programming, the Gwadloup Festival is a rewarding link between generations.  The artists are from different backgrounds (zouk, salsa, beguine, Jazz, reggae, urban, gwo ka, dance, merengue…) as a common platform with the popular music played in the Caribbean.

Guadeloupe Festival is for everyone, for all ages, all over Guadeloupe.

Enjoy!

Le programme est le suivant :

Samedi 21 – Conseil Régional (Basse-Terre) 18 h – Soirée d’ouverture

Dimanche 22 – Pays de la canne à Beauport 12 h – Scène acoustique café créole blues
Jean-Michel Rotin, Willy Salzedo trio (feat: Leedyah Barlagne, Victor Ô, Patrice Hulman, Erik, Olivier Jean-Alphonse, Jean-Luc Divialle), K’koustik, Fabso Concept (Sonny Troupé et Fabrice Troupé), Jean-Max Mirval, Artefact, Kareen Guiock

Mardi 24 – Artchipel scène nationale (Basse-Terre) 19 h – Scène jazz
Michel Sardaby, Caraïb to Jazz, Barbara Cadet, Charly Chomereau-Lamotte, Josean Jacobo y Tumbao

Mercredi 25 – centre culturel Sonis (Abymes) 18 h – Scène excellence
Festival des écoles de musique (invité : Sonny Troupé)

Jeudi 26 – place de la liberté (Moule) 19 h – Scène tradisyon voyage au pays des biguines
Big band biguine, comédie musicale de Arthur Apatout « Manuela »

Vendredi 27 – plage de Viard (petit-bourg) 19 h – Scène musiques actuelles
Alison Hinds, G’ny, Saël, Ti Wony, Buju Banton

Source: le Bananier bleu (this link is your starting point; make sure to follow the related links back and forth for all the sub-sources)