Music of Haiti / Various Artists Music of Haiti: Vol. 3 - Songs and Dances of Haiti

• 1. Cé Moin Ayida (Zépaule Dance) – The Ayida Group
• 2. Ayida Déesse Arc en Ciel (Mahi Dance) – The Ayida Group
• 3. Ayida Pas Nan Bètise (Pétro Dance) – The Ayida Group
• 4. Vive le Roi (Martinique Dance) – The Ayida Group
• 5. Mambo Ayida (Congo Dance) – The Ayida Group
• 6. Legba Aguator (Nago Dance) – The Ayida Group
• 7. Angélique Oh (Jerico) – Blind minstrel with guitar, young boy with cha-chas
• 8. Balilé (Carnival Music) – Wandering Rara band from Pétionville
• 9. Fiolé (Rara Song) – Rara band from Pétionville
• 10. Belle Manman (Meringue) – Jazz Majestic Group

The Ayida Group, a troupe folklorique of Port-au-Prince that sprung (with many similar troops) out of a 1930’s—’40s social movement revaluing traditional cultural practices as critical artistic expression, demonstrates religious and dance musics associated with the deities of vodoun. In addition, a blind troubadour and the Jazz Majestic play popular méringue-s and an itinerant Rara band comprised of saxophone, trumpet, drums and whistle plays in the streets for the pre-Mardi Gras festival. Folklorist, ethnographer and ethnomusicologist Harold Courlander, known for his important early work documenting the “vast unwritten literature, dances, music” of the Haitian peasants, released these field recordings from the urban cities and mountain villages of Haiti before nearly any other recordings were available.