Traditional music
In Martinique, Carnival is a key moment in social and cultural life. It's an ancient tradition, born of the meeting of European and African cultures during colonization. Carnival traditionally begins in early January (just after Epiphany), and continues until Ash Wednesday (the day after Shrove Tuesday). During this period, weekends are marked by musical parades, accompanied by various festivities, balls, miss elections, etc., in preparation and anticipation of the carnival! Carnival itself takes place at the end of this festive period, over a 5-day period from Saturday to Ash Wednesday, in a frenzy of costumes, music, brass bands and drums. It's the most beautiful festival of the year.
Opening the festivities is the Vaval, a statue several meters tall carried by the crowd and representing a topical theme. His life is short-lived, as tradition dictates that he is burned in a public square on the last day of Carnival (Ash Wednesday). Between Saturday and Wednesday, anything goes, and everyone celebrates among the "vidés", the splendid carnival processions and floats that the population eagerly follows, swaying to the music.
Another of Martinique's unmissable musical traditions is the bèlè. A blend of song, music, dance and storytelling, the bèlè (or "bel air") is organized around a singer, while the dancers and tambouyé (drummer) converse. Approximately 80 cm high and covered with goatskin or sheepskin, the bélé drum is played by clapping and rubbing the hands and fingers. This music, originally from Benin, is said to be the result of a fusion of African musical traditions and European influences. The great masters of bélé are Ti Émile and Edmond Mondésir (in the 1980s). If you're in the east of the island, the Maison du Bélé in Sainte-Marie has set itself the mission of preserving and transmitting the genre.
From the rhythmic heart of bèlè, we also find chouval bwa (the wooden horse), a music that accompanied traditional wooden horse rides. This somewhat more marginal genre has seen some real stars, such as Dédé Saint-Prix and Claude Germany.
One of the island's most popular musical forms, biguine took shape at the end of the 19th century, shortly after the abolition of slavery. Originally a fusion of the bèlè brought from Africa by the slaves and the polka brought from Europe by the colonists, biguine was enriched with jazz rhythms in the 1970s. A biguine orchestra used to include all the instruments, but formations have become more variable over time. Although highly protean and versatile, Malavoi, the iconic group from Martinique, played some very fine biguine. Eugène Delouche, a clarinettist in the 1930s, and Alexandre Stellio, who popularized biguine in France at the time, were two of the leading figures in this Caribbean swing. Biguine is best heard on Sundays at the Tante Arlette restaurant in Grand-Rivière. Or at the Big In Jazz Festival, an annual event with a great line-up all over the island.
The city of Fort-de-France's annual cultural festival, held in the first weeks of July, opens an interesting window on Martinique's musical traditions.
Popular music
When you think of music from Martinique, you inevitably think of zouk. Indissociable from the French West Indies, zouk first appeared in the 1980s. It's a fusion of kadans (a Haitian meringue popular in the French West Indies in the 1970s) and cadence-lypso (kadans from Dominica) with biguine influences.
Although zouk is very popular in Martinique, it was a Guadeloupean icon who popularized it in France and around the world: the group Kassav. It all began in 1979, when Pierre-Edouard Décimus and Freddy Marshall, another West Indian musician, decided to renew and modernize the music they had always played. Jacob Desvarieux (d. July 2021) joined them and the group took shape. With their first album, Love and Ka dance, this young group called Kassav gave birth to a new musical genre: zouk. With the second album, Lagué mwen, Jocelyne Beroard, a native of Martinique, joined the band. The group expanded and Kassav became popular all over the world: Paris, Cape Verde, New York... Under the group's impetus, zouk was exported and quickly became a worldwide success.
Since its birth, zouk has continued to evolve, incorporating new trends. At the end of the 1990s, the rhythm became simpler and the lyrics more melodic, with the "zouk love" wave. In the early 2000s, zouk became tinged with hip-hop and R'n'B, and artists such as Perle Lama from Martinique enjoyed success singing in French (rather than Creole).
The island is full of places to listen to zouk. In Fort-de-France, the Atrium complex is a regular venue. You can also hear a lot of zouk at Nouvelle Savane, in the open air, around the little bandstands, or on concert nights at Baba Bistro.
Contemporary music
With a love of music and an eye for what the Caribbean as a whole is producing, Martinique has welcomed ragga with open arms. A purely Jamaican product, ragga (or dancehall) quickly found its feet in Martinique, and a number of local artists have made their mark: Kalash, who has collaborated with rapper Booba, Matinda the pioneer, Paille recognizable by his (straw) hat, and X-MAN, once considered one of the best of his generation.
While most ragga concerts take place at the Atrium, some great DJ nights can be found in clubs such as Kinky Mango in Lamentin. Otherwise, ask a few questions at the Saint-Pierre rasta market and you'll get the best tips and buy some good albums.
The dance
Another widely known and developed aspect of the island's culture is dance. Between zouk, bèlè, biguine, kalenda and mazurka, there's no shortage of possibilities for physical expression, and the island also offers other, more singular forms of dance. Among these, the mazouk (or Creole mazurka), a dance in which the rider embraces his partner as close to the body as possible, is one of the most sensual. Ladja, meanwhile, is strikingly similar to Brazilian capoeira . Also known as danmyé, this combat dance accompanied by drumming and singing was banned at the time of departmentalization, but enjoyed a revival in the 1980s.
