Gwo Ka: Music of Guadeloupe, West Indies

Many listeners may have been drawn to the exuberant, complex percussion found in Guadaloupe by Kassav’, the long-lived Paris-based band that has integrated the style known as gwo ka (meaning literally ‘big drum’) into its racy, carnival-friendly zouk. There has been a trickle of dedicated gwo ka albums, but Soul Jazz's latest foray into the hidden worlds of Caribbean traditional music is the first to be easily accessible yet remain deeply faithful to tradition.

With excellent liner notes, the 12-track set from island super-group Tradisyon Ka is a fascinating insight into some of the seven drum patterns that structure the centuries-old Africa-derived style. Rhythms such as the toumblack, the notes tell us, are ‘associated with love and fertility.’ In the lewoz, a war dance perhaps inherited from secret, up-country maroon ceremonies (maroons being escaped slaves), rhythms either accompany the vocal interplay, or are improvised for a short period to quite hypnotic effect. While the barrel-shaped gwo ka drums provide a resonating anchor, the higher-pitched boula and chacha accentuate the core rhythm, atop of which lead vocalist, François Dinane, unfolds the lyric, triggering choral responses and occasional whoops and yells. Although the compositions are superficially similar, repeated plays reveal subtle variations in time signatures, vocal shades and tonal densities. Gwo Ka brings an ancient island music centre-stage, for the uninitiated to truly enjoy.