what a weekend

saturday i found myself getting up at 4 in the morning, total darkness to go on a hike, i cant remember the last time i got up or tried to get up at 4, okay i lied, i tried it last year for jouvert (carnival) but didnt make it, but to my surprise i was up and ready for the walk, i started my hike around 6, almost an hour after some ppl had started but i was determined to be one of the first to make it to the soufriere hot springs that morning. i walked at a quick and steady pace, stopping for no one or nothing, well except when i almost got run down by a mad driver. i stopped for a second to give him a few choice words.

i passed over 18 persons who started before me, i was the fifth person to reach the destination, i felt so proud of myself, what a journey, but off course i took the time to soak my body in the hot waters of the soufriere, for almost an hour. You can imagine me walking back to Roseau after that, i had promised myself i would do it but i couldnt leave up to that promise, the muscles were just took relax after soaking in the soothing sulfuric waters. so i hoped on the first pickup that stopped my way and i was heading to roseau, occasionally hiding so that the persons who were walking back didnt get a glimpse of me on the pickup.

all in all it was fun, i might have left out a few things but i'm sure if u ever get a chance to do that walk u would enjoy it just as much as me.

I dont know how it happened, or even why i accepted but i now have the post of President of one of the most vibrant youth organizations within my country. You can call me Mr. President from now on, lol, I am the President of the Dominica Youth Environment Organization. I went to the AGM without any intentions of coming out with a place on the executive much less the the head post. but when everyone started declining the role and ppl started to look at me, even after i had declined, i had a change of heart. i took the position, i hope i live up to the standards set for me and those i set for myself, i intend to do my outmost best in keeping the organization at the top in youth development and environmental activities.

So now, the road ahead looks bright, i was able to use my elected position to inspire other persons to join me on the executive and now i feel i have a good group of young persons in support of me and the organizations, looking forward to bigger and better things in 2007 and 2008.

Mr. President, lol, i like that.

Jetzzz

The New York Times listed Dominica as the place to visit for adventure in the Caribbean. The widely circulated paper named ten islands as the best getaways in its The 10 Point Caribbean Escapes Plan which was the cover story for its travel supplement in its January 28, 2007 edition. The paper recommends to its readers to visit each island for different reasons (or pleasures).

Dominica for adventure

Anguilla for culinary delights

Trinidad and Tobago for clubs

Jamaica for golf

The Dominican Republic for relatively inexpensive vacations

Eleuthera (in the Bahamas) for beaches

St. Barthelemy (more commonly known as St. Barts) for celebrity-sightings

St.Vincent and the Grenadines for sailing

Araub for family vacation

Marie-Galante for seclusion or solitare

Zouk - Tracing the History of the Music to its Dominican Roots
Neva Wartell (Reprinted from National Geographic)


With seeds planted in the French Antilles and cultivated in the studios of Paris, zouk exploded onto the music scene in the late 1980s, taking over dance floors throughout Europe, Africa and the Caribbean.

Guadeloupans Jacob Desvarieux and the brothers Decimus are widely credited for having created the zouk phenomenon in the high-tech recording studios of Paris in the 1980s.

Yet they themselves acknowledge that zouk was merely a natural progression from the "kadans-lypso" of such bands as Exile One (led by singer Gordon Henderson), Grammacks and the Midnight Groovers –all from the tiny island of Dominica – whose late '60s Caribbean fusion set the stage for some of the region's most significant musical developments – such as zouk, "new generation" compas, and soca – in the decades that followed.

The 1960s were the heady days of the independence era throughout the former European colonies across the globe, and new national identities were being expressed through music.

In these years, Exile One was the primary Antillean band performing the cadence (kadans) music that was common to the entire French-speaking Caribbean.

The band moved from Dominica to Guadeloupe and developed a style that layered onto the kadans form elements of American rock and soul, as well as the Latin and West African rhythms coming into popularity at the time.

From there, lead singer Gordon Henderson went on to found a highly influential kadans fusion band, the Vikings of Guadeloupe – of which Kassav' co-founder Pierre-Eduard Decimus was a member.

(As recently as the 1990s, the notable singer Tanya Saint-Val also launched her career with the Vikings, distinguishing herself as a jazz/rhythm & blues singer who crafts her smooth French and Creole vocals around sophisticated zouk-based orchestrations.)

Meanwhile, on Martinique, two other seminal groups were experimenting with the local "chouval bwa" carnival music: the roots revival band Pakatak, founded by Kali along with Jean Philippe Marthely, Dédé Saint Prix, and dancer/singer Marie-Line Laupa (all three of whom were to join Kassav'); and Marcé et Tumpak, led by Pago Bernard (Marcé), who added an electric kadans- and biguine-influenced sound which became known as "zouk chouv."

The 1970s brought West African funk and Central African rumba into the mix. During that time, the Congolese band Ryco Jazz had taken up residency in Martinique from 1967 to 1972.

This influence later surfaced in the guitar style Jacob Desvarieux brought to zouk – reinforced by the fact that zouk musicians living in Paris increasingly played and recorded with African musicians.

And, inevitably, Ryco Jazz's sound came to include local rhythms of biguine, kadans and Haitian compas. Mention also has to be made of Coupé Cloué, Haiti's only entertainer to have a West African career, most notably in Ivory Coast and Senegal.

He adopted the African style of two lead guitars, and his style of compas is still danced to in Africa and the French Caribbean.

Throughout the 1980s influences continued to travel in all directions. Many of the best musicians from Guadeloupe and Martinique were either living in Paris or touring there.

Jacob Desvarieux, a heavy metal rock guitarist who had spent very little time in the Antilles, met up with George and Pierre-Eduard Decimus, who had a deep knowledge of kadans, biguine, gwo ka, and the other rhythms of their native islands. And so began the story of Kassav', the band whose name became synonymous with zouk.

Caribbean Flavour Series - Fontaine's natural rhythm unbeatable
published: Sunday | February 4, 2007

André Jebbinson, Staff Reporter


Nasio Fontaine - Contributed

Dominican singer, Nasio Fontaine, is only one of the many artistes who reggae icon Bob Marley has influenced.

Though he grew up in Dominica, he was still under the influence of the flow of the music into his consciousness and it lifted his energy.

"I was a country boy. I just had to get use to what I grew up on. My love of music is from creation and my parents use to have to beat me sometimes beat to stop knocking on everything I found," Nasio, who is also of Carib heritage, said.

The youngest of seven children, Nasio can now look back at the one-room dwelling he shared with his parents and siblings with pride, knowing that did not stop him from becoming the artiste he is today.

Long before he could afford to buy his own instrument, Fontaine became creative and resourceful by using just about anything to accompany his vocals.

First instrument

"My dad, Atto, made my very first instrument, a piece of board with fishing lines for strings; it meant everything to me," Fontaine said in a quote on the Greensleeves website.

He knew he wanted to do music and he had a better chance of making it big at the neighbouring St. Maarten.

After much persuasion from his older sibling, he finally decided to check out what St. Maarten had to offer. It turns out it was a lot. While there, he saw musicians playing in the streets and just about every little hangout spot in town. That is where he got his first opportunity to sing in front of a microphone.

For the more authentic sound, Fontaine decided to spend a little of his time in Jamaica in 1994 working on his first album, Reggae Power. During that period, Fontaine also had the chance to work with some of Jamaica's best. His first album was followed by Wolf Catcher in 1997 and Revolution in 1999.

Now, music lovers around the world are familiar his Mufasa-like dreadlocks, his voice and his conscious lyrics. He speaks of revolution, of waking up the sleeping consciousness of the oppressed as well as the tales of freedom loving people across the Earth.

Greatest goal

"I want to make sure that black people have a right, and can stand up with equal rights and justice. My greatest goal in life is not a personal thing, but that this earth can be a better place," he told The Sunday Gleaner.

Fontaine says he holds firm to his Rastafarian faith and believes he will one day return to the land of his ancestors. Fontaine's most recent album, Universal Cry, was released in last year.