Creole Month celebrations would be incomplete without one essential element — music. The sounds of melodious voices, thumping drums, and strumming stringed instruments create an atmosphere that is uniquely Saint Lucian, unmatched anywhere else in the world. But why should these sounds be confined to a single day or month of celebration? Is there room to expand the use of Creole music beyond Jounen Kwéyòl?
These were two of the questions asked of renowned music practitioners Ronald Boo Hinkson and Sly. St. Lucia Times spoke with the pair to hear their perspectives on the matter. Hinkson, Saint Lucia’s leading jazz musician, advocated for infusing Kwéyòl sounds into more sophisticated and globally appealing formats. Hinkson shared that he has embraced this approach, incorporating Creole-flavoured rhythms and melodies into his jazz compositions to create a truly distinctive sound.
“It’s not just important in today’s age, it’s always been important because it’s our identity. It is what makes us unique, is what is indigenous to us, it is what makes us who we are and for that reason, I believe we must never disconnect from it,” Hinkson noted.
“Some of us are very deliberate in including indigenous rhythms in what we do in our folk music. I recall doing an interview for a magazine out of LA, and the guy was saying to me, when he hears my smooth jazz, there’s something that is different, but he cannot identify what it is. And that is because I have some Saint Lucian rhythms in it that sometimes might be hard to identify, but you just end up different and that is very deliberate because I want to sound different.”
“We must be very deliberate about it. We must be very deliberate about taking our indigenous rhythms and infusing it into our contemporary stuff that we do and that will make us unique. It will give us that identity that Reggae has given Jamaica, that Bouyon has given Dominica. So having said that, I think we need to embrace the Dennery Segment. But it is time that it starts to evolve and that is time the whole packaging becomes a little more sophisticated so that we can end up getting Grammys and so on with it because if we don’t do that, it’s going to die on us.”
The musician went on to reveal that Saint Lucian sounds are already being embraced by other cultures, including those within the Caribbean region. Particularly, he pointed to the hit soca single The Greatest Bend Over by Yung Bredda as proof of Saint Lucian music’s infectious nature.
“If you listen to [The Greatest Bend Over] by Yung Bredda. Listen to how that starts. That’s a Saint Lucian rhythm. I don’t think people have realised that. But if you listen to the introduction, what the instrument is playing at the beginning, that’s a Saint Lucia rhythm. Check it out!” he said.
Sly emphasised the profound impact of Creole musical instruments on Saint Lucian culture, calling it “second to none.”
“The sound of tambo is synonymous to our cultural music. It carries significant meaning in its origins to us as a people, with regards to its African origin. It has a very tribal sound, where a specific feeling can be associated with that sound. The moment tambo is at the forefront of a beat we get the Jounen Kwéyòl feeling,” he added.
“These instruments shaped the sounds where legendary artistes such as Sessene Descartes would sing over, violin players such as Ramo Poleon, who played with his group where the banjo was significant to the sound, especially in quadrille music, La Woz and La Maguerite, our two celebrated flower festivals.”
The Damn Proud Lucian singer further encouraged artists to embrace their cultural roots and promote them on the international stage.
“Now that we have developed the Dennery Segment, the tambo is a huge feature in some of the biggest Dennery Segment hits from guys like Umpa, Mighty, and Subance. The banjo is not used as much, as we don’t boast many great players who have modernised its use. This now brings one of the challenges that we face as to how we incorporate these cultural sounds from instruments such as the banjo into modern day music. How do we incorporate it into bands the same way we use drums, bass guitar etc?”
“This therefore is a call to creatives such as myself to make greater use of cultural sounds from these instruments which in turn would give our music a better identity. It has been done where some of these sounds have been sampled and new beats derived from them. With more creativity we can bridge the gap between modern day sounds and traditional instruments to give a fresh sounding musical product.”
As Saint Lucia continues to strive to export its culture on the global stage, music remains both a necessary and a dynamic part of the nation’s product offering. Whether it be the raw rhythms that highlight the true, unadulterated version of local music, or the creole-infused contemporary sounds that emerge from the island, the “Saint Lucian-ness” of the culture has a broader scope than just 238 square miles of land.
