on the News | Jean Jean Pierre

on the News

10Oct

Posted by: Jean Jean Pierre | Haiti Culture

‘’Culture et tradition’’ : hommage remarquable au passé

Roland Léonard Ce disque n’est pas seulement conçu dans une optique fonctionnelle : celle de la musique de danse du ballet Bacoulou que l’OTRAH accompagne ordinairement. En effet, il intéresse au premier plan les oreilles musicales-profanes ou savantes, nostalgiques ou curieuses- par la saveur des arrangements et des orchestrations pondérés, bien choisis ; mis judicieusement au service des trésors du patrimoine folklorique et populaire. Airs de notre enfance, transmis de génération en génération. Compositions d’auteurs anonymes, d’Auguste ‘’Candio’’ Despradines, de Michel Desgrottes, de Carlo Cadet, d’Antalcidas Murat, de Jean-Claude Martineau, de Rodolphe Legros, de Jean-Jean Pierre lui-même. Airs traditionnels ou néofolkloriques, traités isolément ou joyeusement enchaînés à d’autres par d’élégantes transitions dans des ‘’medley’’ ou pots-pouris inoubliables, exaltants et savoureux. Rythmes fondamentaux, sacrés et profanes de la tradition haïtienne : ibo, méringue lente, yanvalou, kongo, contredanse, petwo, raboday-rara ; purs ou combinés, alternés. Rythmes parfois rebaptisés par les musiciens eux-mêmes, comme dans le cas de la méringue-contredanse dénommée ‘’Mayoyo’’ dans ‘’Simbi Andezo’’. Joyeuses mélodies aux paroles graves sentimentales, érotiques, satiriques, légères ou équivoques ; les tons majeurs et mineurs se succèdent ou se conjuguent, dominent dans certains cas le morceau. Des harmonies très académiques et modérées, choisies expressément par l’arrangeur dans le but de ne pas déformer la saveur originale et d’époque des compositions ; option et conception personnelles et qui se défendent par leur intention, leur souci d’historicité. Introductions et conclusions, superbes et solennelles, où l’on sent l’influence de la musique classique nettement dans la manière de traiter les cordes et dans leurs propos. Une instrumentation variée mélangeant souvent une section mélodique (trompettes et saxophones) -soutenue par une section rythmique (piano, guitare, basse, batterie, tambours et percussion)- au jeu chatoyant des cordes (violons, violas, violoncelles). De bons ‘’back-ground’’ ou arrière-plans : Soutiens, ‘’fill-ins’’ ou répliques, commentaires, qui ornent et accompagnent la mélodie principale. De bons riffs ; de bons développements en solos ou ensembles arrangés. L’arrangeur Jean-Robert, dit ‘’Jean-Jean Pierre, n’a pas fait qu’un travail de restitution : il y a certainement une entreprise de restauration, mais teintée, à certains égards, de modernité dans les idées. Œuvres de rénovation, voire de recomposition, malgré les choix harmoniques faits de tempérance et même de sagesse ouvertement. Ces mélodies et leurs encadrements servent souvent d’écrins à une brochette de voix célèbres, constantes de l’orchestre ou invitées : Darline Normil, Gyna Sylliona, Fabienne Denis, Boulo Valcourt, Renette Dési, Ali Lemaire, Nicole Saint-Victor, Léon Dimanche, Jean Coulanges. Présentation 16 compositions nécessaires à notre nostalgie : 1) Ibo Lélé. 2) Simbi Andezo/La sirène. 3) Dodo Turgeau. 4) Agoé 5) Kongo Bakoulou #1. 6) Minis Azaka. 7) Lumane Casimir/papa Gede. 8) Bamboche paysanne. 9) Angélique-O. 10) Gede Zarenyen. 11) Le rêve de Suzanne Louveruture. 12) Le coq chante. 13) A drums conversation. 14) Machann Kasav. 15) Yanvalou/ Mayi. 16) Rara Bacoulou #1. Crédits Longue est la liste d’instrumentistes ayant collaboré à ce projet ; on se référera au livret de l’album. ‘’Culture et tradition’’ produit et arrangé par Jean-Jean Pierre est un ‘’must’’. Il honore la discographie haïtienne.

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10Oct

Posted by: Jean Jean Pierre | Haiti Culture

A Christmas Hope for a Troubled Country

A Christmas Hope for a Troubled Country By CHRIS HEDGES Published: December 23, 2004 ON Christmas Eve in Lincoln Center, Papa Noel will pay a visit to the stage. The play, “How Papa Noel Forgot Haiti,” written by Jean Jean-Pierre and Paul Uhry Newman, is a cautionary tale about the danger of expecting help from the outside rather than from within. And in the end Papa Noel, the Haitian version of Santa Claus, decides to wait for another year, a year when Haiti is not in turmoil and plagued by unrest. The performance, which will star Danny Glover as Papa Noel, is set on the day before Christmas in Haiti. Using Haitian music and dance, the story centers on a Haitian girl’s faith that Papa Noel will visit Haiti, even though he has never been there before. Magali, the girl, finds a broken fanal, a Christmas lantern made from colored paper in the shape of a house. The traditional fanal becomes a metaphor for the hopes and dreams of the impoverished residents on the island. “It is a story about self-reliance,” said Mr. Jean-Pierre. “Papa Noel has not visited Haiti since the birth of our nation, although people want Haitians to believe the opposite. The play is a metaphor. It says do not wait for outsiders to come and do it for you. Do it yourself.” The play, which will be performed only on Christmas Eve, is another in a line of events and productions orchestrated by Mr. Jean-Pierre, whose work as a journalist, musician, composer and playwright has made him a leading Haitian activist. The play is the product of dark humor. “It is a running joke in Haiti that Papa Noel never comes because it is too dark,” Mr. Jean-Pierre says. “He can’t see us. We have too many blackouts.” It is a statement about a country and a people he worries most of the world has forgotten. Mr. Jean-Pierre has spent much of the past year raising money to replant trees in Haiti, where during the past year roughly 4,000 people were killed in mudslides caused by deforestation. “We subsidize a small company that builds cooking stoves that do not heat with charcoal,” he said, adding that he was working with two nonprofit groups trying to plant one million trees over the next two years. “The deforestation and erosion is a disaster for the country.” Mr. Jean-Pierre, 50, who has a disarming smile, was born in Port-au-Prince. His father, who worked in the state-owned seaport, also had children with other women. His mother raised him and set high academic standards. But it was music that captured him. “I was exposed to all kinds of music in Haiti,” he said, seated in a restaurant in Greenwich Village. “I would get up in the morning and hear Polish music. I would switch to the Beatles, then the Rolling Stones and the Mamas and the Papas. I loved Haitian music, especially the big bands. I would beat out the rhythms with spoons and knives, many of which I broke on the table top.” He became a drummer for a band in high school after he agreed to keep up his grades at the private Roman Catholic school he attended. His talents as a drummer led to performances with popular recording artists like the Haitian star Ansy Derose, the Brazilian vocalist Nelson Ned and the Puerto Rican singer Daniel Santos. But the political climate in Haiti was stifling. “It was the time of Papa Doc Duvalier, who declared himself president for life,” Mr. Jean-Pierre said. “There was a tremendous brain drain. The majority of the nurses and doctors left for the United States, Canada and Africa. This was encouraged by the regime that did not want an opposition led by those who were capable and educated.” He arrived in New York in 1974 speaking little English and not sure how he was going to make a living. He got a job in a factory and at night attended Rockland Community College and later Pace University. He started playing in a funk band that performed in clubs like the old Limelight in Manhattan. Mr. Jean-Pierre, who is divorced and has a son, settled in Spring Valley, N.Y., where he still lives. He was able to earn a living, but the disasters engulfing his homeland haunted him and the pull of the island grew as time passed. “All Haitians are political,” he said. “Unfortunately, we are also bad at it.” HE began to write about Haiti for The Rockland Journal-News, which led to articles for The Village Voice and reports for United Nations radio. He returned to Haiti in 1995 not as a reporter, but as an investigator for the Center for Constitutional Rights, a nonprofit legal and educational group focusing on human rights. He gathered evidence surrounding the murders of leading Haitian figures including Guy Mallory, the minister of justice, and Antoine Izméry, a businessman and supporter of the former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. He also uncovered the story of Alerte Belance, a Haitian woman whose arm was hacked off and who was left for dead by thugs associated with a right-wing paramilitary group, the Haitian Front for Advancement and Progress, or Fraph. Her story became a rallying cry for anti-Fraph demonstrators, and she is a plaintiff in a human rights suit filed in New York. Mr. Jean-Pierre also believes that the United States has not been a very good ally to Haiti. “Washington has never been interested in developing Haiti,” he said. “It is a pool of cheap labor and a market for subsidized crops and goods from the United States.”

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