DOMINICA: MUSIC AND DANCE

If there’s one word that can describe music from Dominica, that would be diverse. It draws its influence from many different places: Africa, other Caribbean islands, French, British, the Americas, Latin America. But not only did they borrow styles and genres from other countries, it also took these styles and developed their own variations and sub-genres as well. It can be quite complicated to list all of these different styles of music performed on this small island.

During the 1950s and 1960s, music from Caribbean nations, especially Trinidad, had a lot of influence on Dominican music. Genres like calypso, samba, merengue, and funk were commonly performed. Steel bands also emerged and were widely popular as well.  A Haitian genre called kadans or compas also landed in Dominica, and Dominican musicians used kadans and merged it with other styles, like calypso.  Groups like Exile One and The Grammacks were heavily influenced by not only kadans, but also zouk and soca as well. 

During the 1990s, Dominicans developed a new style called bouyon music.  One band in particular, WCK (Windward Caribbean Kulture) was instrumental in developing this style, which is more or less a fusion of cadence-lypso and jing ping styles to create bouyon music. It tends to rely on a drum machine with keyboards, cowbell, and guitars.  The language used is a mix of both English and Creole (also called Kwéyòl) and is really influenced by dancehall and rap styles, making it more a young people’s genre. 

Starting in 1997, the World Creole Music Festival is held every year in Dominica and features Creole music from all over the Caribbean (including Louisiana’s zydeco).  Many people see this festival is the only festival aimed at celebrating indigenous music in Dominica, and some even extend that to the Eastern Caribbean. One day, I’ll definitely have to come.

Carnival is also an important time for music and dance.  A style known as chanté mas or lapo kabrit is a call-and-response type of music is commonly sung at Carnival – the lead singer does this while dancing backwards.  Dancing and dance contests are always a part of Carnival and other festivals. Some of the folk dances of Dominica have their roots from French and British dances (like the quadrille, lancers, mazook, polka, cotillion, schottische, contredanse, la ronde), but some have their roots in African dance, like the famous bélé dance.  This dance is accompanied solely by drumming, and the dancer dances in the middle of a circle. There are actually two dancers, but only one dances at a time, except in transitions.

One musician I came across is reggae musician Nasio Fontaine. I’m a huge fan of reggae, and I’ve been listening to his album Universal City.  I absolutely love this album. I asked for some iTunes gift cards for Christmas, and I hope I get at least one so I can buy this album.  I think his style has a lot of African reggae sound to it, very easy to listen to.

Of course, I also listened to Exile One’s album Old School Sessions: Green / Vert as well as The Grammacks’ album 1974-1976 Grammacks Collection. I think The Grammacks remind me of early Bob Marley.  The Gaylords were another group who came out of the 1960s who played calypso and steelpan styles from Trinidad.

Up next:  the food

COSTA RICA: MUSIC AND DANCE

The music of Costa Rica is as diverse as its people.  Geographically speaking, it makes sense that it has had a lot of influence from calypso, reggae, and other Caribbean styles of music.  It’s also been highly influenced by Mexican music as well.  Today, the younger generations listen to more British- and American-influenced rock as well. 

Some of the common instruments used in folk music include the marimba, ocarina, accordion, different types of oboes, and guitar.  Musical styles and instrumentation does vary slightly regionally.  The state of Guanacaste has the strongest folk music traditions.

Costa Rica doesn’t really have one true style that is “Costa Rican” per se, but they have taken styles that are popular elsewhere and sort of make it their own so to speak. They’ve made their mark in all different genres: classical music, jazz, rock, metal (weirdly enough, metal is pretty big in Costa Rica), and folk music.

I came across the rock band called Evolución that I like pretty much. I’ve been listening to the album Amor Artificial. They rely pretty heavy on the guitars but taking caution to not overdo it. Sometimes the music is pretty predictable but in a way, it makes it easy to listen to while working. But there are songs on the album that stand out as well.

The group Malpaís mixes a little bit of rock with some jazz and folk music as well. I like the album I’ve been listening to, Historias de Nadie. It’s different from what I expected, and I appreciate their musicianship. 

Reggae is huge in Costa Rica.  This is one of the remnants that they borrowed from the number of Jamaicans who arrived in Costa Rica for work.  One reggae musician I discovered is Michael Livingston.  I’ve been listening to the album Natural.  I really like this album.  It falls into the category that I call “chill out reggae.”  At times, it almost resembles African reggae in its style, melodic lines, and instrumentation. After doing additional research, I don't think he's actually from Costa Rica, but I think he spent a lot of time there honing his skills. He's popular there, so that's good enough for me. I like him too. 

Most of the more popular folkloric dance traditions do happen to also originate from the Guanacaste region, commonly showcased as part of the Annexation of Guanacaste holiday events.  One dance called the Punto Guanacasteco is one in which the women two-step toward their partners as they seductively dance toward the women. 

There’s another dance called La Cajeta, stemmed from the candy-making traditions of making a rich milk caramel.  This process is long, taking days to complete, so when the caramel is finally done, people dance this dance to celebrate that it was ready to eat.  And it was alsosomewhat symbolic of the sweetness of first love. In both traditional dances, the women wear long skirts with ruffles on the ends, and the hold the skirt to move it from side to side as part of the dance as well. 

Other Latin dances are also quite commonly danced in Costa Rica as well. Dances such as merengue (from the Dominican Republic), cumbia (from Colombia and Panama), and salsa (from Cuba) are enjoyed with a Costa Rican twist as well.

Up next: the food!