Caribbean Square Dancing in Paris - Part 2

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 on this 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:

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