12435: TABOU COMBO FINDING NEW CONVERTS (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

NEW YORK, June 27 (Haitian Times) -- Tabou Combo showed old fans and new
konpa converts at the club Sounds of Brazil in lower Manhattan on a recent
Friday how they have managed to stay on the scene after almost 34 years
making music.
   Roots band Boukman Eksperyans got the crowd jumping and throwing their
fists in the air with their revolutionary lyrics, and Tabou drove it to
frenzy with hits like "On Fire" towards the end of the night.
   With classics such as "Aux Antilles," (French for "In the Antilles") and
"Mabouya," the band members did not have to work too hard to get the club's
patrons of various races and ages to come along and dance. African
headwraps and blonde hair were among the objects seen going up and down in
the air as people jumped around to the konpa.
   "Ever since I was a small child, they've been here," said Constant
Mothersy, 31. "They've stayed alive, they've stayed in the business."
   Even though some fans murmured about the lead singer Roger "Shoubou"
Eugene's absence when the band first took to the stage, the others'
enthusiasm made up for it. At some moments, vocalist and conga player Yves
"Fanfan Tib-t" Joseph was jumping over the microphone cord in excitement.
One patron, Sandy St-Cyr, said the band's performance was still good, right
before jumping up to groove to the last song.
   In 1968, Tabou Combo struck its first note with konpa lovers in
Petion-Ville, Haiti. More than 300 songs and 29 albums later, the band
continues to strike a chord with audiences around the world.
   Long-time friendships and musical skill are characteristics that Joseph
said have attributed to the band's success. "We have an open mentality, we
don't want to stick to one thing," Joseph said. "We have always followed
the American market."
   The group started in a Port-au-Prince suburb. Joseph, Eugene,
percussionist Yvon "Tikapi" Andre, drummer Herman Nau and rhythm guitarist
Jean-Claude Jean attended the Petit Lycee de Petion-Ville.
   "Everybody was playing music," Joseph said.
   Joseph said the teens were the leaders at their Petion-Ville high
school. They participated on the soccer team, organize trips and played in
the marching band. When the teenagers formed the group, Joseph said they
were just hanging out, but their friends liked the way they sounded. They
became popular by playing at neighborhood functions such as baptisms in
1968.
   Those little gigs soon lead to their first big break as the opening act
at Cine Paramount movie theater. Their performances on Saturdays turned
into bookings at hotels, clubs and other venues. By the end of 1968, they
made their first album.
   "Our parents were devastated," Joseph said. "We didn't intend to make it
professional."
   The parents wanted them to finish school, and not to be musicians. After
the boys graduated from high school, their parents sent them off to school
in Canada and the United States in hopes of ending Tabou Combo.
   The young men, however, reunited in New York City in 1971 at the urging
of fans living there who had heard them in Haiti. Though their fans were
elite bourgeois such as Michelle Bennett, the ex-wife of former dictator
Jean-Claude Duvalier, the band didn't live luxuriously.
   "We only had each other," Joseph said. Joseph said they shared cars and
two of them slept on the same queen-sized bed for a few months while they
worked and made music.
   "We never played pure konpa, we always wanted to be international,"
Joseph said.
   Within three years, the band performed regularly at Corona, Queens' La
Cane ... Sucre club; released "New York City," a single that incorporated
disco sounds to the konpa and sold more than 500,000 copies in France.
   With songs such as "Bolero Jouk Li Jou" with funky James Brown-like
elements, Tabou Combo officially crossed over. They've toured in Europe,
Panama, Curacao and Aruba, among many places. "We're not stuck with one
public," Joseph said. "Once that public doesn't want you, what are you
going to do?"
   One reason they had tried to cross over is because of the lukewarm
reception they got from the Haitian community. Andre said it rankled the
band that international audiences embraced Tabou Combo while the Haitian
community criticized their music for not being strictly konpa.
   "It's not a matter of Haitians," Andre said. "We just happen to be from
there (Haiti)."
   The ages of the five original members range from 48 to 50, and these
family men show no signs of slowing down. They are working on a new album
and have big shows such as KreyolFest on Sunday, June 30, in Brooklyn. A
ticker tape of upcoming shows flash across their Web site at
www.taboucombo.com.
   "The energy comes from the people," Joseph said. "Live music stems from
the heart. The people come to see someone performing, someone playing his
guts out."
   Andre said, "Once we're on the stage, we're on stage...We're obliged to
give 150 percent."
   Their performances are so renowned and craved by fans worldwide that
some fans have gone to extremes to attend them. One Amsterdam man, for
example, drove for hours from that country to Paris to attend Tabou's 30th
anniversary concert.
   "The thrill of my life is to play for those crowds," Andre said.
   Among their biggest turnouts have been 40,000 in Denmark, 25,000 in
Central Park, N.Y., and 22,000 in Panama -- a concert Andre said helped
unify Haitians and Panamanians in 1981.
   Tabou Combo has set its mark on the music industry like no other has
been able to do. There are adults in their late 30s who grew up listening
to Tabou, their parents' choice. Even their own children know such catchy
names as Fanfan Tib-t and Shoubou's.
   "It's our parents. They listen to it, we listen to it," Nancy Rene, 27,
said during that night at SOB's. "They're changing, they're more
contemporary."
   Their success has not come without some troubles. Andre said there is a
strong sense of jealousy among some Haitian musicians and that it hurts a
little that some Haitians have not accepted Tabou wholeheartedly. "In the
eyes of the public, we have existed for too long," Andre said.
   Joseph said more than 30 musicians have come and gone throughout the
three decades. Nau, who was responsible for bringing samba rock to konpa,
left the group last year to serve as Haiti's Secretary of Youth and Sports.
Joseph said Nau's leaving left a big hole in the organization. "It's like
breaking up a marriage," he said.
   Another disappointing chapter in the history of Tabou Combo happened in
the mid-70s, when the band was on the verge of signing with Motown Records.
After "New York City" was praised throughout Europe, Tabou Combo caught the
attention of music brokers in the United States.
   The Commodores' producer worked with the band on an album, Andre said,
and they would have been the first Haitian band to release a funk album,
but the producer died of a heart attack.
   Since that setback, Tabou Combo hasn't missed a beat. In 1998, the band
was awarded a lifetime achievement award at the Ivory Coast Music Festival,
which has honored artists such as reggae legend Bob Marley and South
Africa's Miriam Makeba.
   Andre, who traveled to the West African country to accept the award on
behalf of the band, said the presentation of the award was one of the best
moments for the band.
   Jean, the band's original guitarist, said the founding members are ready
to retire. But he said they have not done so because it is difficult to
find young musicians such as themselves to take over. "We think we've given
enough," the West Palm Beach resident said.
   Before they officially get off the stage, however, Tabou is working on
an album. Joseph said the songs he is working on now are more reflective
and seek to raise awareness of social topics such as racism.
   "There's a lot to be said about our society," Joseph said. Andre said
the glamour has worn off and party days are over because Tabou Combo has
found that such things don't matter anymore. "Been there, done that," he
said.