WOMAD

The Creole Choir of Cuba

From Cuba

The label says Cuban. The music says Haitian

Their passports might be Cuban but, for the ten singers who make up the Creole Choir, their musical focus alights on another musically strong north Caribbean nation - Haiti. Back in Havana, they're known as Grupo Vocal Desandann (the Descendants' Choir), acknowledgement that it's the Creole musical traditions of their slavery-escaping Haitian forebears that inform their songs. In fact, they draw from Creole traditions right across the Caribbean, their layered, towering harmonies telling the history of this oft-troubled region. And these songs have made quite a splash in international waters. Having performed at WOMAD a couple of years back, they've since toured the world, graced the set of Jools Holland's Later and been shortlisted for the Best Newcomer gong in this year's Songlines Music Awards. It's easy to see why. Rarely have songs revealing the depths of human suffering been delivered with such dignity and optimism.

Their latest album, Tande-La, is out now on Real World Records

(Biography written by Nige Tassell 2011
Photography: Sven Creutzmann)

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