Overview:
The Montréal-based group, rooted in Haitian tradition, celebrates its comeback with a Creole-language album and plans for a world tour
1 / 4 century after first electrifying Montréal’s Afro-Caribbean music scene, Black Dad and mom is stepping again into the highlight with Agreable, a Creole-language album launched Aug. 20.
Shaped in 1999 by siblings Wesly, Wesendave, Mario and Béatrice Mum or dad, the group rapidly distinguished itself with Sensualité, a debut album that launched its Ragga Konpa fashion, a fusion of Haitian konpa and Jamaican reggae. The band grew to become a fixture within the diaspora, acting from Québec to Paris to Port-au-Prince, with songs equivalent to Vacances and My Quantity One incomes each industrial success and demanding recognition.
The brand new 11-track venture is an announcement of renewal, drawing from on a regular basis experiences of affection, battle and pleasure. Anchored by the one Paka Sipòte, it displays the band’s long-standing ethos of unity and hope. “This new report is our method of thanking longtime followers, reaching new ears and proving that Black Dad and mom is extra alive than ever,” Wesendave stated.
For Agreable, Black Dad and mom collaborated with artists throughout borders, together with David Estellis of Paris, Montréal’s Geena Titus and Mixsy Lova and Haitian performers Bob Cailloux and Artwork Love. Producer Atrel Additional helped form the preparations, mixing up to date textures with the group’s signature sound.
The discharge additionally units the stage for a world tour that can take the group by Europe, the Americas and the Caribbean, reaffirming its position as a cultural bridge between Haiti and its diaspora.
Even because the band evolves, it stays rooted within the musical traditions of Pétion-Ville, the place the siblings first realized music from their uncle Jean-Jacques Clark Mum or dad— composer-singer and founding father of Les Frères Mum or dad, a gospel style group, made up of him, his brother Alain Picard and sister Claire Ludy. Their newest chapter, like their earliest, speaks to resilience — an indicator not solely of their profession but in addition of the broader Haitian diaspora.
Through the years, Black Dad and mom has constructed a catalog of songs that stay touchstones for followers. The breakout single Sensuel from their 1999 debut Sensualité launched the group’s Ragga Konpa fashion and rapidly unfold throughout the diaspora. The 2006 hit Vacances grew to become a summer season anthem in Haiti, North America and the Antilles, whereas My Quantity One and Vini’m Pale W drew thousands and thousands of streams on-line.
These songs stay a part of the soundtrack of Haitian diaspora life — whether or not at household gatherings, festivals or on dance flooring. With Agreable, the group goals so as to add a brand new chapter to that legacy.
“Black Dad and mom’ “Agréable” album touches my soul!,” commented one fan on the official music video for his or her single “Pa ka Sipòte.” “It’s not simply music, it’s emotion in sound!”