Creole Choir a bicultural showcase
At the Painted Bride, Haitian and Cuban elements merged in a treat for the senses.
When the Creole Choir of Cuba spent a couple of months in Haiti last year after the earthquake, they did so not as representatives of the Castros, but as Cubans of Haitian descent.
The two nations have always had a bond - many Cubans, especially in the east, are of Haitian descent, and the 10 members of the group all fit this description.
The group's bicultural orientation resulted in fascinating music Sunday night at the Painted Bride. The six women and four men sounded like a mass choir, with wide-range, multipart harmony supported by the deep and solid bass vocals (sounding like a human marimbula) of cofounder Marcelo Andres Luis, operatic soprano from Irian Rondon Montejo, and percussion from conguero Rogelio Rodriguez Torriente, Andres Luis, and group leader Emilia Diaz Chavez. The principles of asymmetrical warfare were applied successfully to Caribbean music.
The choir is powerfully plugged into Haitian music, both the very oldest and the latest. Popular Haitian songs, such as "Fey," by RAM, "Wongolo," by Boukman Eksperyans, and "Neg Anwo," by Boukan Ginen, all made their way into the program. All showed combinations of Haitian Carnaval dancing, newly reworked ancient rhythms of mizik razin (old-style roots music), counterpoint and call-and-response, expertly and happily delivered by classically trained singers.
The Creole Choir's experience is just as much for the emotions and gut as it is for the ears and eyes. "Mangaje," and "Marasa Elu" told stories of tragic figures of the past (slaves) and present (abandoned children).
"Tande" and "Neg Anwo," on the other hand, were protest songs, but their delivery was full of exuberance, passion, and pride.
The members of the group showed distinct personalities; a fun version of this showed up in dance with the dynamic between Dalio Arce Vital and Fidel Romero Miranda; it was like contrasting Richard Pryor and Jim Brown, court jester and pimp daddy, Bouki and Malice.
Though Cuba and America are at political odds, the Creole Choir had no problem gaining a bit of inspiration from El Norte. "Unforgettable," the Nat King Cole classic, was done up in tight Los Zafiros-style harmony, and the choir - inspired, as Diaz Chavez said, by its presence on American soil - seemed especially reverent, singing the song with palpable emotion.