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Guy Durosier
Guy Durosier, a versatile Haitian singer and organist whom Edith Piaf once called ''the living breath of Haiti,'' died on Thursday at his home in Bothell, a suburb of Seattle. He was 68.
The cause was complications from pulmonary cancer, said his son Robert.
In a career more than 50 years long, Mr. Durosier also played the saxophone and composed music. Like most Haitian musicians, he had an eclectic style, ranging from big band sounds to Cuban music of the 50's.
His genre reached even those who left Haiti too young to have known his music firsthand and those who were born in the United States to Haitian parents. His cross-generational appeal was evident when Mr. Durosier received a standing ovation after performing at Lincoln Center in June 1998 during a fund-raiser for the Haitian-American Alliance, a community group based in Brooklyn. Reviewers said Mr. Durosier outshone younger and more popular Haitian musicians like the singer Emeline Michel and the guitarist Beethova Oba.
Born in Port-au-Prince, the capital, Mr. Durosier started performing at age 14. In 1947 he began playing the clarinet with the school band at St. Louis de Gonzague School in Port-au-Prince. A few years later, he began to play professionally when he caught the attention of Issa Saieh, the maestro of the most famous orchestra in Haiti.
Emeline Michel
Emeline Michel, born in Gonaïves, is a Haitian singer who has been called "The Joni Mitchell of Haiti." Her songs merge native Haitian compas and rara music with jazz, pop, bossa nova, and samba. She is a well accomplished dancer, versatile vocalist, songwriter and producer. She sang a version of Jimmy Cliff's "Many Rivers to Cross" at Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief.
RAM
RAM is a mizik rasin band based in the city of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The band derives its name from the initials of its founder, songwriter, and lead male vocalist, Richard A. Morse. The band's music has been described by Morse as "Vodou rock 'n' roots", and has been one of the prominent bands in the mizik rasin musical movement in Haiti. RAM began performing together in 1990, and recorded their first album in 1996. The band's music incorporates traditional Vodou lyrics and instruments, such as rara horns and petro drums, into modern rock and roll. The band's songs include lyrics in Haitian Creole, French, and English.
RAM is famous for its regular Thursday night performances at the Hotel Oloffson in downtown Port-au-Prince, attended by hotel guests and a wide spectrum of the country's political and racial groups. During the years of the military junta of Raoul Cédras, one of the band's singles, "Fèy", was banned nationwide by the military authorities who perceived it to be a song of support for the exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The band continued to play weekly concerts in defiance of death threats from the regime until Morse only narrowly escaped a kidnapping from the hotel in 1994. The band began recording albums in 1996, after United States military intervention restored Aristide to power. In 1998, the band clashed with the newly elected mayor of Port-au-Prince, a supporter of Aristide, and survived an assassination attempt during their Carnival performance. Through its song lyrics, RAM continues to provoke the antagonism of both the supporters of Aristide and former military regimes.