I was singing more and more with people who had a lot of success , but I was behind the chorister . Even being a chorister and studying fine arts , music was not part of my dreams when I was a kid . For us it was not viable as a job when we lived in the West Indies . A that time , it was not a profitable job at all ...
When you dropped your pharmacy studies to embark on this uncertain path of music , what was the reaction of your relatives and parents ?
At first , they didn ' t know ; I was doing my business on the sly . They heard people tell them “ Ah ! I heard your daughter sing ” … for them I was singing as a dabbler … I was making Jams with in the clubs , with friends who asked me to play with them … for them it was not my job . I had a good reputation . They told my parents that I sang well … but o cially I was a fine arts student at that time . It was as a dilettante . Finally , I became a professional . They realized especially that it had become my job when I asked my mother not to send me the monthly allowance , because I earned more than what she sent me . I found it abnormal that she continued to send me money , when I was earning enough to pay my rent . My parents understood above all that I was an adult already , and that I chose to do what I liked . At no time did my parents told me that it bothered them that I made music … I think they just wanted us to succeed in a profession that we had chosen .
Kassav was created in 1979 and you were one of the first to be recruited as a backing vocalist in 1980 . What was the atmosphere like in the group ? Your first impressions when you arrived there ?
I felt very good at first when I listened to Kassav ' s first album , I said to myself , this is where I want to be . This is the place … this music called out to me . The style of music they played the arrangements they made were originals . The music from back home that I sang in piano bars , was the Biguines and the Mazurkas , so sometimes we put a little jazz in it , we jazzed it up ... to give it a slightly less folkloric color ; but I told myself that I had to find a style that would not be copied from others when I started dreaming to sing solo … Back home in the popular music there was Malavoi , there was the Perfecta , and the Haitian Kompa was very strong , the Salsa too ... the salsa ? I did not speak Spanish ... the Biguine and Mazurka ? Malavoi already did it , the Haitian music ? I did not see myself doing Haitian music , while I am from Martinique , and the Haitians were already doing it very well . So , I was dreaming of a style that I could have had , but hey , I wasn ' t arranger , so I didn ' t worry too much . And when I heard Kassav , I felt attracted by their style … In fact , the universe must have heard my cries , things fell into place and for the second album , they called me , to do the backing vocals , they hadn ' t called me to be part of the group . At the start , there had been a little spat with Jacob during a session , which made me think that they weren ' t going to call me back . It was nothing at all , but who knows … in the meantime I continued my life like before ; I sang with the Gibson Brothers , Bernard Lavilliers and others … in 1982 Kassav went on tour but I was not available … in 1983 they called me back and I joined them . First as backing vocalist then as soloist , I no longer want to leave them and progressively I became part of the group .
Success will not come immediately at the first attempts , because you will know some setbacks in 1982 when you try to launch the group at that time , you played in balls and other carnivals had you ever had any doubts ?
Kassav wanted to do concerts that ' s for sure , it was a fiasco , a big money pit . People couldn ' t imagine that our music was played anywhere else but in ballrooms . Pierre Edouard-Décimus who created the group , then thought that it was first necessary to be known in the balls . We o ered our music during the intermission at parties , where the more popular bands performed . Gradually people found an interest and judged our music cool , di erent , interesting … During the year 83 and Carnival 1984 , we mainly applied ourselves to making our style known at balls and playing on floats in the streets during carnival . Back in Paris , we made solo albums in addition to the annual Kassav ' album to establish the style . Jean Philippe ( Marthely ), Jacob ( Desvarieux ), Patrick ( St Eloi ), Jean Claude ( Naimro ), and even Georges ( Décimus ) who was a bass player but a composer … all of them gradually o ered variations of zouk , that was not yet named . It was a strategy that refined the style of Kassav ', Flashmag ! Issue 129 May 2022
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