Compas - Haiti Music Video

During early 2000, some compas bands such as T-vice, Carimi, Zeglen and Top vice, toured the French Antilles as usual with great success. With the formation of the group Klass of Richie, a new generation is taking over

The Evolution of Compas:
The compas' fine guitar line with the chorus and other synthesizer effects is being heard now in the lighter French Antilles compas. For example, French Antilles singer Tanya St. Val who has collaborated with many great Haitian compas artists like Dadou Pasket, Alan Cavefrom the great Magnum band, etc. is very close to this style. The magnificence of this is that these compas lands influence one another with nice chorus, female voices, and guitar lines; within the team up of the conga-drum-cowbell.

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Accolade de New York is a compas band that changed its group line-up from album to album, with a many as 12 group members and as few as six. Their first album La Foi, released in 1980, showed a cover photo of eleven priestly figures with large, white crucifixes superimposed on their religious garments. It made record buyers sit up and take notice. What were they all about?

On this debut LP, they added chants to the typical compas instrument mix. On tracks you hear alto and tenor saxes, trombone, guitar and bass guitar, congas, bongos, and other percussion instruments. Accolade de New York recorded eight releases over the 18 years they were together, using the LP format for all except their last release Koze Kredi, which they released as a CD in 1997.

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