Josephine Baker figures prominently in the current exposition at the Musée du Montparnasse. The show features the works of Jean-Gabriel Domergue, the self-proclaimed inventor of the "pin-up girl," in honor of the 50th anniversary of his death.
Domergue's claim to fame was his artistic portrayal of many of the famous, if not notorious, women of his age. Liane de Pougy, Gina Lollobrigida, Brigitte Bardot, and Josephine Baker are among those whose image he idealized on canvas.
Two works featuring Josephine in the same pose - an oil and an aquarelle - are located on the main floor.
In the exhibition room upstairs, all paintings depict women in fancy dress. Some women are presented alone, some with lanky canines, and some in social scenes. Domergue often exaggerates the length of his subjects' necks, giving them a slight, graceful curve that helps draw attention to their faces.
Josephine is represented in one of these paintings, which is called Le Peintre et ses Modèles (The Artist and his Models). She is one of three women posing under a parasol on a beach. The artist is in the foreground of the painting. A sighthound is also a part of the entourage.
Last week, I presented Part 1 of a blog posting on the Caribbean band, Caribop, written by Paris blogger Ilan Moss for his blog called Gangs of Paris. Ilan is a freelance journalist and amateur ethnomusicologist who has worked for non-profits in Paris and spent lots of time exploring (and playing for) the "ethnic underbelly" of the city. Read Part 2 of his article below.
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A Night of Creole Square Dancing with Caribop
(Original publication date: May 18, 2010)
Caribop’s Music
For years now, Caribop has been holding Bals Creoles in Paris and its suburbs, bringing Kwadril and other styles to a new audience. Like square dancing further north, French Caribbean traditional dances require a caller to guide the dancers. To make the dances more palatable, Marc spent time hanging out at French traditional regional dances throughout Paris and has integrated some of their moves. Might not be “traditional,” but it allows your average French folk dancer to pick up the dances without hard-core schooling in booty shacking (his words, not mine). After all, cultural fusion is at the essence of Kwadril and mixing some steps from Breton and Auvergne dances just adds to the historical funkiness of West Indian music.
Marc has decided to do his calling in French and not in Creole – to the chagrin of some of his band mates. “Imagine if you had to translate James Brown songs into French,” percussionist Gilbert told me. Yet Gilbert obliges... And has a chance to belt out some Creole song when the occasion calls for it:
Caribop’s music is also a fusion of different Caribbean styles. In Guadeloupe, Kwadril in the 19th century was accompanied by fiddle and percussion. Since then, accordion has taken over from the fiddle. The last Guadeloupe fiddler died a few years ago, a certain Elie Cologer (his wonderful music can be heard onthis CD, highly recommended for fiddling nuts). Marc will play button accordion on a few tunes, but Caribop mostly incorporates a bit of Kwardril music with a strong brassy Biguine style.
After all, Caribop is not the first time Caribbean music has come to Paris. Biguine is another funky West Indian mixture (between slave bèlè chants and the polka) and was brought by the first wave of Caribbean immigrants in the 1930s. Biguine orchestras were all the rage in Bohemian Paris in the 1930s. The Bals Creoles were legendary in Paris counterculture until WWII and definitely merit further research for this blog…
Caribop is pretty much the only band in Paris playing old-style Caribbean music. Might be some other stuff lurking around and I’ll have to gather up some fellow weird music buddies to go check it out. (Paris music blogger extraordinaire cocoringo has also blogged about Kwadril and we will be hitting the scene soon). More to come, check out some Creole accordion à la Caribop:
I recently learned of an excellent Paris blog called Gangs of Paris, written by Ilan Moss. Ilan is a freelance journalist and amateur ethnomusicologist who has worked for non-profits in Paris and spent lots of time exploring (and playing for) the "ethnic underbelly" of the city. I am pleased to present his story about Caribop, a Caribbean band that is devoted to spreading the culture of traditional Antillean dance, on the Entrée to Black Paris blog. Read Part 1 below. Part 2 will follow next week.
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A Night of Creole Square Dancing with Caribop
(Original publication date: May 18, 2010)
A square dance rages deep in the suburbs of Paris and a mixed crowd of French and West Indian locals shake their booties and toss partners to the sounds of funky mazurkas, quadrilles and waltzes.
Caribop Square Dancing
Photo courtesy of Ilan Moss
“Dos-à-dos, promenade votre partenaire…” The dance calls and partner swinging might be familiar to your average American folk dancer, but this is no Appalachian square dance. We are at a “Creole Ball” and both the music and dance – a heady mix of African rhythms and 19th century European dances known as Kwadril – come from the French West Indies.
On stage, the house band Caribop maintains a pulsating tropical dance groove with saxophone, accordion, tuba, tambour (long drum), triangle and other assorted percussion. At the same time, bandleader Marc alternates between explaining the dances, calling out the steps (assuming the role of a “caller” or commandeur) and playing saxophone and diatonic button accordion.
Caribop does the whole song and dance (literally) and it is testament to their dedication to playing and teaching the disappearing musical traditions of the overseas French “territories” of Guadeloupe and Martinique. Marc, like most of his band mates, was born in France but is of Afro-Caribbean origin. He is an ardent traditionalist, but with the younger generation of Guadeloupians and Martinicans both on the islands and in France losing interest in their musical traditions, Caribop has been reaching out to other folk music enthusiasts. As Paris has a vibrant folkdancing scene, Caribop has found some new fans of old-school Kwadril and Biguine.
This particular night, his biggest challenge: getting folk dancers, used to dancing “straight” dances à l’européen, to biguiner (swing) like it’s done in the French Caribbean. Just imagine shaking yer booty while doing a ballroom waltz. Not too easy, but it’s at the essence of French Caribbean music. Check out some footage:
The Dances
Behind the traditional dances of the French West Indies is a tangled transatlantic cultural conversation. Most North American musical forms have their origins in the marriage between African rhythms and European melodies – country music, blues, jazz, rock, etc. French Caribbean music is similar and the dance traditions reflect this.
Starting as early as the 16th century, the urban European upper classes began to adopt and “refine” wild rural peasant dances, such as the “country dance” (contredance). By the 18th century, these had evolved into new forms, such as the Quadrille or other “square” dances, which quickly became all the rage in ballrooms throughout Europe. These dances made their way – along with French colonists – to the plantations of the Caribbean. Lost yet? It gets more confusing.
Over time, the contredance and quadrille were “Creolized” by African slaves, who initially adopted the dances to mock their masters. After the abolition of slavery in 1848, Afro-Caribbeans took the dances and music to whole new levels, adding a bit of tropical sultriness into the genteel and courtly dance patterns. Quadrille became Kwadril, and other new Caribbean styles emerged out of European dance forms. Yet the dances still kept some of the aristocratic trappings from Europe – curtsies, bows etc.
Take the “Mazurka,” a popular 19th century ballroom dance that actually comes from an ecstatic triple meter dance form in Poland. Along with other courtly European dances, it was taken up and altered by Afro-Caribbeans. In Europe, it’s a stately waltz, while in the Caribbean it is at the essence of many musical forms. Marc breaks it down here how the triple meter Mazurka (a waltz in Europe) became a penultimate Caribbean groove (video in French):
For those familiar with modern Caribbean music, “zouk,” probably the most popular style in the West Indies, has its root in this dance. Mazurka became “mazouk” in Creole and was eventually shortened to “Zouk.”
Youssou N'Dour from Senegal performing in Warszawa, Poland
during the 5th Cross Culture Festival
13 December 2009
Photograph by Henryk Kotowski
Youssou N'Dour, world-renowned singer and recently appointed Minister of Culture and Tourism of Senegal, will appear in concert at the Louvre on September 29, 2012 in celebration of the reopening of the museum's Islamic Arts department. The Louvre is touting him as representing "another face of Islam, one of tolerance, dialogue and respect for others." As such, he is thought to be the perfect person to celebrate the opening of the department. N'Dour will perform in the Cour Napoléon, the grand courtyard that contains the glass pyramid erected by the American architectural firm Pei Cobb Freed & Partners.
From 1993 until 2003, the museum's Islamic collection was housed in an area of the Richelieu wing that was renovated by African-American architect David Harmon as part of the Grand Louvre project executed by the Pei architectural firm. When the department reopens, all works will be located in the Cour Visconti of the Denon wing.
The Louvre is using this auspicious occasion to solicit donations to the museum in support of the concert. They are offering perks in return for various levels of contribution:
your name posted at the entrance to the concert (5€ and higher)
limited edition T-shirt (30€)
free pass to the Louvre (50€)
an invitation to the concert and a donor bracelet (100€ and higher)
an invitation to the concert and a visit for 2 persons to the Islamic Arts department when the museum is closed (200€)
an invitation to the concert, priority seating at the concert, and a visit for 2 persons to the Islamic Arts department when the museum is closed (300€)
a viewing of the Mona Lisa prior to the concert (museum will be closed), exclusive seating on a balcony terrace for the concert, and a visit for 2 persons to the Islamic Arts department when the museum is closed (1000€)
If you pay French taxes, you benefit from a 66% reimbursement of your gift to the museum, so the perks become even more attractive!
The evening before the concert, N'Dour will greet the public in the museum auditorium at 6:30 PM (free entry) and then appear as a guest performer at a concert featuring Guinean songstress Namassa Dioubaté. N'Dour invited Dioubaté to be a part of the event because he wished to include a female voice that represents Africa and Islam.
Born in Kankan, Guinea Conakry, Dioubaté is descendant from two prestigious families of Mandinka griots. She will perform with N'Dour at his concert on the 29th.
Tickets for the N'Dour concert are 35 euros. They will be on sale at the Louvre beginning on September 3rd. To purchase tickets now, visit the FNAC Web site (3 euro supplement).
Tickets for Namassa Dioubaté's concert are 14 euros. They will be on sale at the Louvre beginning on September 3rd.
Interview conducted, recorded, and transcribed by Ellen Kountz
Tannie Stovall was a pillar of the contemporary African-American community in Paris. A graduate of Morehouse College and the University of Minnesota with degrees in physics (B.S. and Ph.D., respectively), he came to Paris with his family in 1964 to work as a research assistant at the Ecole Normale Supérieure and eventually became an associate professor at the Université de Paris. He began writing fiction in 1967 and continued to pursue this activity throughout his adult life. He and his family moved to Nigeria in 1971, where he worked as a physics professor at the University of Ife. He became disenchanted with the level of corruption he observed in the country and moved back to Paris after two years. As founder of the African-American men’s group “The Brothers,” Tannie sought to provide a welcoming environment and a supportive network for African-American men in Paris, whether they were tourists or residents.
Tannie succumbed to pancreatic cancer in June 2012. Just a few weeks prior to his death, he agreed to grant this interview. Black Paris Profiles™'Ellen Kountz graciously consented to conduct, record, and transcribe it for the Black Paris Profiles™ series.
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Tannie Stovall Photo from The Brothers Web site
ETBP: It’s been a long time since you came here to work as a research assistant at the Ecole Normale Supérieure. Have you kept yourself informed about what is happening in the field of physics since you retired?
TS: I have not however I still subscribe to scientific magazines in English.
ETBP: What advice do you have for blacks in physics (or any other scientific field) who want to work in Paris?
TS: If they are Americans, I’d say they’d be better off remaining in the United States. Opportunities for success are greater back home. This was not the case 50 years ago, because in Europe after a World War everything was destroyed and needed to be rebuilt. The French built up their armament and there was a surge in demand back then.
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