The passing of a great
Jacob Desvarieux recorded more than 50 albums and helped invent zouk
published : 3 Aug 2021 at 04:00 Jacob Desvarieux, left, and Kassav perform in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, in 2009. (Photo: AFP)
Guitarist, singer and Kassav founding member Jacob Desvarieux died last month in Guadeloupe at the age of 65. Kassav, which was founded after he met with brothers George and Pierre Eduard Decimus in 1978, went on to record more than 50 albums, released by the band or by individual members and the band remains hugely popular in the Caribbean.
Kassav put French Antillean music (that is to say, music from Martinque and Guadeloupe) on the map. Recent columns on the Disques Debs label showed how Antilleans created popular music from local styles, including gwo-ka percussion, during the 60s and 70s. Kassav built on that and incorporated other Caribbean genres, such as Dominican merengue and Haitian compas, calypso and cadence-lypso.