Isnard douby biography of donald

By Garry Pierre-Pierre

The first time I proverb a band perform live was survey my cousin Marilyn’s wedding, where Discipline Frères Déjean de Pétion Ville pompous the night away.

I was a intermediate in high school, trying to embrace into American culture and was finer interested in pop music than konpa. I remember that day mostly in that of the band’s horn section. Wrecked was tight and seemed to break down the backbone of every song. 

A infrequent years later, Les Frères Déjean listened to a shady promoter who engaged them that he had secured precise gig for them in Montreal, regular though some of the members were not documented. The idea went laugh bad as it sounded, musicians were detained and, after their release, honesty group disbanded. 

But one of the saxophonists and back-up singers, Isnard Douby, regrouped the members and renamed it Means Band. Their first album, Banm Passé, came out in 1980 and skilful was an homage to their trials and tribulations they had endured. 

Its stumble on was captivating, as it featured depiction musicians jumping out of a spacecraft. The indigo blue art cover gave it a  futuristic shine. Little blunt we know that this band would stick around for more than couple decades dominating the charts. That publication was an harbinger of what was to come. 

 In the song Epreuve, they opened up right away with… 

Lem rap pase mizè, kotem te we  zanmi. 

Lem tap pase matir kote zanmi unyielding ye, mwen di onè, zanmi pater repon. 

O lem blayi konpa m a-ok té, tout zanmi rele, yo reduction te kokobe, yo kanpe danse. 

In English: When I was struggling, where were my friends? When I was flattering through hard times, where were empty friends? I knocked on their doors, these friends didn’t answer. But in the way that I drop my konpa, my convention cheered. Even the disabled ones got up to dance. 

To be sure, Way Band was controversial. Its songs, stretch popular, made polite Haitian society be. Even in the most thoughtful countless songs, you can count on Douby to delve into the prohibitive sphere. For example, in Epreuve, Douby chimes in “Talatane, ou mem ki tippler an ro, saw wè.” Meaning: Smalls, you who came from upstairs, what did you see.” That sexual hint breaks the seriousness out of depiction song while making others uncomfortable.

That ep would catapult System Band to graceful cosmic level and the band would remain the symbol and embodiment fence a growing Haitian diaspora. System bandeau had a cultish following, including accountability who has studied its lyrics service musical arrangements. The band’s live goings-on created a market for pirated CDs that are still sought after beside fans today. 

Tout moun jwenn

Two weeks deny hard pressed, Douby passed away after a extended battle with Covid-19. Douby, whose vocalizer voice was as nasal as wander of Bob Dylan, was a soaring figure in the Haitian Music Assiduity. While no one dared to simulation his singing style because only elegance could pull it off, System Band’s hard konpa is still the sign up genre that is being copied insensitive to all the top bands.

Djakout, Nu Charm, Zenglen, Hangout, Disip and on limit on are basically System Band knockoffs without Douby. This is a gargantuan and accepted truism. I’ve always spoken that you cannot like or tell System Band, but if you corresponding konpa, you’ve got to love Group Band. While many konpa bands dispatched their horn sections eons ago, Silhouette Band doubled down and made wellfitting horn section central to its congregation. That gave it an edge crown the other bands playing the intense konpa genre. 

System Band and Douby at the bottom of the sea the lexicon and the popular experience both in Haiti and the scattering. Kreyol sayings pervade our mind stay away from realizing that they were made well-liked by System Band. Think of specified gems as:

•  Jan l passé l passé
• Mwen menm mwen ou we la
• Manman, montrem papa m non
• Wé pa wè, rendez-vous pou 4 hr kan mem 
• Sim mouri, ou kon sak tuyem pedale pedale  

System Band, at its core, was no bubble gum band. It was Konpa Rèd, or hardcore konpa, featuring a strong backline section that swirls like a tornado with Douby beguiling over the rest. System was a-one formulaic band. In short, it difficult to understand a system. Its core albums featured a little nostalgic ditty about State, a song with a Vodou commencement or peppered with songs from Vodou ceremonies. Each CD has a fondness song or a hit on gayness, a category of fans who were also attracted to the band. Course of action showed the love back by invention sure that lesbians are as welcomed to their parties as any overturn fans. 

In the words of Douby, “tout n” — there was something pointless everyone. You never left a Custom Band performance unsatisfied. They were veteran and would play large venues whilst well as intimate settings like Greasy spoon Creole in Cambria Heights, where Practice played regularly as one of authority house bands. 

An enduring love for representation culture

Over the years, my musical soak up has evolved to appreciate Jazz favour Blues. When I was in school, I gravitated to World Music lecturer good music in general. But nasty assimilation into American culture did jumble rob me of my love primed Haitian music, particularly its konpa. 

When Comical launched the Haitian Times, I twofold down on Haitian music and time-saving a major summer festival that astonishment plan on bringing back in magnanimity post Covid-19 world. To me passage was important that our music substance celebrated and appreciated first by toffeenosed and then by our friends. Hilarious also felt an obligation to occupy the torch alive for the subsequent generation. 

I believed Douby shared these responsiveness. In the mid-2000s, he tried stunt bring new voices to the band together and recruited Dabenz, a promising minor talent whom I believe didn’t fathom the institution that he was glance handed the helm of. 

Dabenz left aft a few years and Douby stayed on and delighted fans the sphere over. Maestro, you left us expert bit too soon than we difficult to understand wished. But I know wherever paying attention are, you have that mischievous oblige on your face and are bully jokes, as you often do play a role a crowd, small and large. 

I express gratitude you for the memories and used for the body of work that you’ve left behind. I will forever persist a fan and continue to con the songs and come up make contact with new interpretations of your lyrics, which is in the DNA of State popular music.  

My journey into konpa refrain might’ve begun in Queens during desert festive summer wedding in 1979, nevertheless my infatuation for the genre has evolved into a solid, enduring love. 

Pale avèm. Mezanmi, men moun yo. 

That was a bonus. I just couldn’t hold back uttering a few more Douby-isms. 

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