13126: JJean-Pierre Responds to Florestal on the Origins of Ti Zwazo (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Jean Jean-Pierre <JJEANPIERRE1@aol.com>

Ti Zwazo as a song never existed.  The true name of the song is
"Choucoune"  and was based on a poem of the same name written
by Oswald Durand in  the early 1880s (real name is Charles Alexis
Oswald Durand 1840-1906) and the music -later adapted- by
Michel Mauleart Monton (1855-1898).

Oswald Durand was from Cap-Haitien.  A quasi autodidact, Oswald
Durand rose to become a depute (assemblyman/congressman)
and later the editor of all official documents of the government of Haiti.
A prolific poet, when he died in 1906, he left three collections of poems
unpublished.  When most Haitian writers of the time were publishing
their works exclusively in French, Durand (who also wrote beautifully
in French)  was one of  the early promoters of our Creole.

Michel Mauleart Monton was born in New Orleans.  His Haitian father
Milien Monton returned to Haiti where the family settled for good.

Choucoune was a real Haitian woman whose name was Marie Noel
Belizaire.  A very attractive young lady,  she was the object of Durand's
love.  She also lived in Cap Haitien.

Oswald Durand great great (I don't know exactly how many) son (of the
same name) is an accomplished reed player who is presently performing
with several bands.
(source: various, including Maurice Lubin)

My comments:
Ti Zwazo (little bird or mocking bird) are the first two words of the song's
chorus. So when people stole it from Haiti they did the most facile thing by
calling it Little Bird later deformed into Yellow Bird.

This sort of thievery will continue until we take ourselves seriously.  In
1995
while producing Bouyon Rasin in Haiti (The First International Haitian Roots
Music Festival) we requested from the Smark Michel/Aristide government
that it passes a law reintegrating (the Duvaliers never paid the country's
dues,
consequently we were kicked out) Haiti in the Berne Convention (to protect
authors', composers', writers' rights).  Aristide did sign the law on August
14,
1995.  Whatever the Preval government did subsequently is your guess and
mine.  All needed was the creation of an office to record those related
works
and regulate the mechanism of collecting residuals from around the world
(ASCAP-BMI-SACEM-PUBLISHING COMPANIES, etc.) as well as
fairly distributing them (after getting a cut for operations) of course
based
on organically national laws on intellectual properties.

Mind you, the country could have been receiving $ tens of millions in
royalties.

jeanjean-pierre