Island Juju
Tigertail Takes Us to the Crossroads
By John
Hood
 |
|
Jan
Sebon. Photo by Andrew Friedofer |
Miami
has long been known as the city of merge, meld and collide —
that’s what makes us polyglot in the first place. So it only
makes perfect sense that the good folk at Tigertail Productions
would continue to conjure up our crossroads. And if it takes a
two-step off our shore to get back to where we come from, where
we are and where we one day may be — well, good for us, because
it is just such a two-step that reveals our own singularity.
We’re
talking, of course, about the
Caribbean,
whose island beats continue to pump through our lives, whether
we acknowledge it or not. Of those fabled lands is
Haiti,
second only to Cuba in polyrhythmic influence, and Curacao, that
lesser known, Lesser Antilles jewel that sits just off the coast
of
Venezuela,
itself another increasing beat in our city’s ever-expanding
heart.
Of the
former, one of the foremost operatives is Jan Sebon, a musician,
poet, teacher and radioman who’s been plying his potent blend of
island urbanism in Miami for some 23 years. Well-known in
circles both small and large (he’s side-kicked and soloed with
everyone from Nil Lara to Don Cherry), the cat’s mad natural,
and his group Kazak is so revered Miami New Times
selected ’em “Best Haitian Band” three years running.
Now Kazak
is back with “Peyi Mwen” (“My Country”), which is billed as “a
multimedia musical work that blends current events,
autobiography, dance and video.” We’re not sure how the blend’s
gonna go down, but with Sebon’s rep, bet that it’s gonna go down
smooth — and wild.
Countering
the Haitian experience will be
Curacao’s
own Oswin "Chin" Behilia, who brings his band of merrymakers to
Miami
for the very first time. Behilia’s been at it since Batista ran
Havana (his “Plegaria” is considered by many of his country folk
to be their de facto national anthem), and his mingling of Cuban
danzas and boleros with more Papiamento forms like the sehu and
creolized waltzes is wildly — and rightly — called classic
Afropop.
But it’s
the crossroads themselves that we’re concerned with here, the
point at which peoples and histories and countries collide.
Curacao, still part of the Kingdom of the
Netherlands,
counts slave trading and piracy among its past, prostitution
among its present, and Bolivar among its cadre of storied
exiles, not to mention the oldest active Jewish congregation in
the Americas.
Haiti,
as we all well know, ditched its slave-trading ways before
anyone, kicked its French buccaneers to the Louisiana curb back
when freebooters were best for the booting, and continues to
maintain its own grand tradition of voodoo Papacy. Sure, the
land has literally been stripped to its sand, but that hasn’t at
all diminished its peoples’ soul.
Yes, once
upon a time the indigenous Haitian Taino and the Lesser Antilles
Indo-Carib were at war, but these days we might say they’re in
full embrace. Sure the tongues differ, but Creole and Papiamento
have more in common than not. And if this melding of kanpa,
rasin and rara with danzas, boleros, tumbas and sehú is any
indication at all, the tongues each speak will soon enough be as
one. Now that’s what we call juju.
Tigertail
Productions Caribbean Crossroads: An Evening of Music From Haiti
and Curaçao With Jan Sebon & Chin Behilia takes place at 8 p.m.
Saturday, April 12, at the Colony Theatre, 1040 Lincoln Road,
Miami Beach. Tickets are $50 (VIP priority entrance and
seating), $25 (GA) and $20 (student / senior) For more
information call 305-545-8546, or log on to www.tigertail.org.
On
Thursday, April 10, at 6:30 pm
there will also be a free panel discussion, From Dushi Korsou to
Peyi Mwen:
Caribbean
Culture and the African Diaspora, with Oswin "Chin" Behilia, Jan
Sebon and others, followed by a meet-the-artist reception at
Circa39,
3900
Collins Ave.,
Miami Beach.
