Search - Boukan Ginen :: Jou a Rive

In Haiti, popular discontent with the island's dictators and juntas surfaced through the local music. When bands fused folkloric forms with amplified pop music, the "mizik rasin" (roots music) movement was born. The movement gained an international profile when Boukman Eksperyans released the landmark Vodou Adjae album in 1990. Soon after, however, the group's singer Eddy Francois and percussionist Evens Seney left to form Boukan Gine (Creole for "Bonfire of the Motherland"). On Jou a Rive, Boukan Gine deliver a more focused, more aggressive punch. Seney and his four fellow drummers organize their patterns around a definite groove, and the gifted Jimmy Jean-Felix adds North American rock guitar licks. The album is dominated, though, by Francois, who delivers the group's anthemic songs with the political/spiritual fervor of a Bob Marley. The Marley influence is especially obvious on the reggae-influenced numbers such as "Nati Kongo" and "Sa Red," but even on the distinctively Haitian rara numbers, Francois radiates star presence. --Geoffrey Himes