Kassav' is a French Caribbean band formed in Guadeloupe in 1979. The core members of the band are Jacob Desvarieux, Jocelyne Béroard, Jean-Philippe Marthély, Patrick Saint-Éloi, Jean-Claude Naimro, Claude Vamur, and Georges Décimus (who left to form Volt Face and returned). Kassav' have issued over 20 albums, with a further 12 solo albums by band members.
The music of Kassav' is an extension of cadence-lypso or compas bands, such as Grammacks, Exile One, Les Aiglons and Experience 7 of the 1970s.
History
Kassav' was formed in 1979 by Pierre-Edouard Décimus (former musicians from the Les Vikings de Guadeloupe) and Paris studio musician Jacob Desvarieux. Together and under the influence of well-known Dominican, Haitian and Guadeloupean kadans or compas bands like Experience 7, Grammacks, Exile One, Les Aiglons, Tabou Combo, Les Freres Dejean, etc., they decided to make Guadeloupean carnival music recording it in a more fully orchestrated yet modern and polished style. The name of the band is Antillean Creole for a local dish made from cassava root.
Kassav' is the creator of the fast carnival zouk Beton style. The French Antilles' Kassav' was the first to apply the MIDI technology to cadence and fused the genre with funk, and Makossa.
Music of Guadeloupe and Martinique:
The gwo ka, traditional music of Guadeloupe, of which there are 7 versions (rhythmic) The bélé, traditional music from Martinique, of which there are 11 variants (rhythmic) The biguine music of Martinique The chouval bwa, traditional music of Martinique associated with the city of Saint-Pierre The mazurka and quadrille, European music of the French Antilles The Compas, modern Haitian méringue popularized by Nemours Jean-Baptiste in 1955 The cadence rampa (kadans), alike compas, a modern Haitian méringue popularized by Webert Sicot in the very early 1960s that spread to the Caribbean The cadence-lypso of Dominica cadence popularized by Exile One with Gordon Henderson and also interpreted by groups such as Grammacks with Jeff Joseph as a senior member. Experience 7 was a Guadeloupean cadence band formed in the mid-1970s, led by Guy Houllier and Yves Honore.
Most authors credit Décimus, his brother Georges, the band's bassist and Desvarieux as its inventors. Their first album was Love and Ka Dance (1980). The band gained popularity in their much-heralded live performances in Paris's Club Zenith and toured widely. For a band ostensibly operating in a "narrowly focused" Caribbean dance-based new genre, their success and influence on other artists was remarkable, although they were most influenced by a veritable cornucopia of other styles as noted above.
Kassav' continued to gain popularity both as a group and by several members' solo recordings and eventually peaked in 1985 with Yélélé, which featured the international hit "Zouk la sé sèl médikaman nou ni" (meaning "Zouk is the only medicine we have" in French Antillean Creole). With this hit song, zouk rapidly became a widespread dance craze in Latin America and the Caribbean, and was popular in Europe, Africa, and Asia. Zouk performers became known for wildly theatrical concerts featuring special effects, stage spectacles and colorful costumes. One important contribution of Kassav' in concert was the appearance of featured dancers on stage with the band; these dancers were in many ways as much a part of the band as any musician. Kassav' has been noted by its acolytes and aficionados as a dance band par excellence.
Among the strengths of Kassav' that helped lead to the group's success were and are its members' superior musicianship, songwriting and production skills, and worldwide audiences eager for lively dance music more sophisticated than the disco/techno-based styles that otherwise dominated dance music charts in that era. The especially gravelly singing voice of Desvarieux, Décimus's driving bass, Naimro's and Joseph's inventive keyboards and superior drum-machine-based and Vamur's solid jazz-inflected live percussion, along with dance party-inspiring simple French-creole lyrics are among unique Kassav' "trademarks". During his tenure with Kassav', St. Eloi's soaring vocals were another unique ingredient, and the romantic vocals of Marthely and Naimro's as well as Béroard's very strong vocals, a plethora of fun songs, and significant guest appearances including by Stevie Wonder and others are important parts of the Kassav' mix.