“Rasin Kreyol”

Emeline Michel

Times Square Records

Floods, hurricanes and political coups cannot silence the “Queen of Haitian Song.”  Listen, and you will hear hope for the world’s first black Republic in the voice of Emeline Michel.

            Michel lives in New York, but was born in Gonaives, Haiti, where more than 1,500 people died because of flooding caused by the recent flooding caused by the recent hurricane Jeanne.  She says her eighth album, “Rasin Kreyol,” is her way to “be there” and show the positive side of the 200-year-old nation’s culture.

            She ministers to her people with lyrics that challenge America’s policies towards “boat people,” and grieves betrayals by failed leadership.  Michel lays her classic, effusive vocals over frenetic hand-drums playing traditional musical styles, such as Haiti’s laid-back dancehall music called compass, and rara, which is high-energy carnival music that usually inspires lots of gyrating.  She sings in her Creole (spelled Kreyol in Haiti), recalling childhood memories and mango trees in “La Karidad.”  In “Nasyon Soley (Sun Nation)” she implores Haiti to stay strong because “We don’t want to grow old because “We don’t want to grow old elsewhere waiting/For our country to get better.”

            In the liner notes, Michel says she is indebted to having “inherited a history so indisputably magnificent.”  This music gives us a poignant taste of that history.

—Aimee Maude Sims

The Associated Presss