Awesome Music!!!

On Sunday, February 11, 2018, Dimanche Gras (Fat Sunday), my wife and I attended The Grand Carnaval of Martinique parade, in Fort-de-France, the capital of Martinique. I will do another travelogue post on the whole trip, but I really want to get this music out. It was absolutely, completely, totally awesome - a bucket list event! After the 1st couple of bands, you could not stop moving!

After reading the David Byrne book with one its main messages being, how the corporate state wants us to be music consumers rather than music producers, it was great to see the exact opposite here. There was a little corporate sponsorship, but by and large, this parade, with the dozens of bands and other groups participating, seemed to be a labor of love. The many hours spent on the lavish costumes and music rehearsal were done out of the community values of creativity, tradition, and love.

I tried to get a pic of the banner of each group, and then a video. So I will present them in that same order. 1st up, a human field of sugar cane! Several of the groups had 1 person dressed as a plantation overseer as this one did.

Now we start getting some serious rhythms. Some of these groups had well over a dozen rhythms going.

Note, the 1st 5 days we were on Martinique, it rained for a few minutes every hour or so. Usually it rained hard for 30-60 seconds in the middle. It rained 3 times during the 2 hour parade, the groups soldiered on. I think the rain on my phone terminated this video prematurely.

Some of the dancing was very stylized.

Nice costumes, and a guy on stilts! Plus the 1st horn section. The horns in general weren't so good.

Man, dancing even simple stuff like this for 2 hours!

This appeared to be an all-female group.

This next was the most commercial group - it was sponsored by one of the rum distilleries. They were giving out plastic cups with the distillery marketing info on them. The jungle cat makeup was outstanding, but the dance routine looked like that of a US high school dance team (some of which are very good I'm sure).

The next group was my favorite. I think they were an AIDS awareness group. I stopped the video when they weren't doing much, then restarted when they started doing some set pieces. After that, they just kind of took it to another level (at around the 2:49 mark) - the crowd went nuts, and you can see how it got them high when the crowd started roaring!

Not sure what this meant. The dancers were all coated in what looked like black oil?!?!?

More great costumes and dance steps.

A lot of the horn sections included conch shells.

A little faster pace.

A common theme of the groups wearing headdresses was headdresses sliding off, headdresses being uncomfortable, and other general modes of headdress failure.

Well, that's it. At one point when they were stopped the guy in of me was playing a really complex rhythm on a cowbell, and I thought, "Now that's what I call more cowbell!" - then I noticed that he was in a row with 3 other cowbell players, all of whom were playing different rhythms! I thought I had that on video, but I didn't see it.

So, if you ever get a chance to go to Carnaval on Martinique, or who knows which other Caribbean island, go for it! This was one of the most moving experiences of my recent life.