GWO KA: Music of Guadeloupe, West Indies [Vinyl]

Soul Jazz Records continues its journey into the Caribbean - digging deep into the cultural African roots of the region. Tradisyon Ka's Gwo Ka album is newly recorded in Pointre-A-Pitre, Guadeloupe, by Soul Jazz Records. Like the cult music of Haiti’s Vodou and Cuba’s Santeria or the roots music of Belize’s Garifuna (all of which Soul Jazz have travelled to record), Gwo Ka is the musical and cultural product of the region’s African ancestry, forcibly brought to the Caribbean through slavery. Drawing on hundreds of years of musical and cultural strength, the music of Gwo Ka remains both steeped in tradition and, at the same time, progressive and forward-looking. New melodies and compositions (all the songs featured here are new compositions) are performed over a long-established group of unique rhythm patterns played by expert drummers (including playing with their feet!).Tradisyon Ka, made up of some of the island’s finest singers and master drummers, is part of a powerful network of politicised Gwo Ka groups on the island – upholding the traditions and cultural importance of Gwo Ka as part of a larger process of defining the identity of Guadeloupe and Guadeloupe culture.