Great Black Music at Cité de la Musique

Great Black Music - video billboard
© Discover Paris!
Tom and I were happy to receive an invitation to the vernissage of the Great Black Music exposition that debuted at the Cité de la Musique on March 11, 2014. We went to this private inauguration the night before, thinking that we'd be able to wander around the exposition at our leisure. So many people showed up that the museum staff could only allow a limited number of people to enter at one time, which made for a long wait outside the exhibit and little space to move around once we got inside. It made us wonder what would happen on opening day!

Entry to exposition
© Discover Paris!
After purchasing your entry ticket, you must first go to the desk where audio guides (in French and in English) are distributed. Without one, you may as well not enter the exposition because most of what you'll find there required access to recorded narrative and music.

Adjacent to the desk is a room with several posts, each of which has a flat top on which a short video about a black music legend is projected. Some of the persons featured include Miriam Makeba, Harry Belafonte, James Brown, Nina Simone, and Michael Jackson.

There are no barriers around the posts and they can be approached from any angle. This design was frustrating for us because with the number of people in the room, it was difficult to be able to stand in front of the post to watch the video of our choice. We often had to watch it from an angle, or even upside down. There were so many people in the room that the WiFi signals became disrupted and some posts were not operational. We were able to return to the room later to successfully view several videos that we could not see when we arrived.

From this area, we entered a room with several large video screens that extended around the room like a mural. Two or three clips about music from different regions of Africa are projected onto each screen. One could easily spend an hour in this room alone!

Mama Africa room
Image courtesy of Cité de la Musique
Next is a room that displays videos depicting voodoo, santería, candomblé, and other rituals, as well as the types of music associated with them. Gospel music was explored in this room as well but we did not stay there long enough to see how it was portrayed.

Sacred Rites and Rituals room
Image courtesy of Cité de la Musique
The adjacent room contains an illustrated timeline that begins with the construction of the ancient pyramids of Egypt and ends in 2011. The viewer is invited to listen to music that influenced, shaped, or was inspired by the particular historic events mentioned along the timeline.

Pyramid
The Modern Jazz Quartet
Image courtesy of Cité de la Musique
We thought that we had seen everything at this point but one of the museum staff cheerfully indicated that there was more to explore downstairs. We walked down the stairs to find ourselves in a room lined by pre- and post-Katrina photos of musicians from New Orleans. We walked through a space where you could sketch images on a white board to enter a room containing several individual video screens, each of which showed two or three clips of contemporary black artists from around the world. Zouk, reggae, funk, blues, rap, and more were featured on these screens.

And there was still more! The last exhibition room contains three semi-open areas where you can practice disco, salsa, and hip-hop dancing! Each comes equipped with a video lesson that teaches you the basic moves and a camera that broadcasts your image as you practice. When you feel ready, you press a red button beneath the screen to dance to the music.

Tom in Boogie Wonderland
© Discover Paris!
The most interesting and unexpected events of the evening occurred on this floor. First, we saw saxophonist Archie Shepp being interviewed by the press and were able to get him to pose for us once his discussion with the journalist had ended.

Archie Shepp
© Discover Paris!
Then we saw Minister of Justice Christiane Taubira stroll into the hip-hop area with her entourage and were able to snap a few photos of her enjoying the tagging wall that was set up in this area! She graciously posed with me for a photograph.

Justice Minister Christiane Taubira spotted at the tagging wall
© Discover Paris!

Minister Taubira enjoying tagging
© Discover Paris!

Monique and Justice Minister Christiane Taubira
© Discover Paris!
The exposition is provocative, educational, and extensive - be prepared to return to the Cité several times if you want to appreciate it fully! It runs through August 24, 2014.

Cité de la Musique
221, avenue Jean Jaurès
75019 Paris
Telephone: 01 44 84 44 84
Métro: Porte de Pantin (Metro line 5; Tram line 3)

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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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Caribbean Square Dancing in Paris - Part 1

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.”

Next week: Caribop's music

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Entrée to Black Paris!™ is a Discover Paris! blog.

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