Lakou Mizik at Festival International...

I saw Lakou Mizik in 2018 at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. They are a great Haitian band bringing " the healing spirit of music to communicate a message of pride, strength and hope for their country." They were good again at Festival International in Lafitte, La. this past weekend. 

If you don't know the story of Haiti I'll run it down and you can read more. Slaves in what was once the most lucrative territory in the New World were inspired by the French and American revolutions to turn on their French owners and successfully fight and achieve independence in 1791. In what has been called the "the greatest heist in history" France forced the new government into a deal to pay them for this independence to the tune of a debt that took 122 years to pay off. They even had a bit of help from old Tom Jefferson who worked to isolate the country fearing that revolution (read the link) would spread to this country. Imagine that.  

Tack on election of corrupt leaders, poor people, assassinations,  hurricanes, earthquakes and as some believe evil spirits loosened on the island by the terrible violence of the revolution and things seem to go from bad to worse. Lakou Mizik has spent the time confined to the country by covid well as I think the band was tighter and better than the last time I saw them.     

I guess if you want to talk to me about this kind of music, the roots of which are in Africa and I have seen a lot of bands from there as well as South America, the Caribbean, and Cuba you have to go way back to the jazz fest in about 1983 when I saw Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey, or when I bought my first King Sonny Ade record or wear out a few Steel Pulse, Third World or Burning Spear cassettes while driving down to New Orleans to see those bands in concert. Maybe you need to read a few books by Ned Sublette or borrow the book Congo Square book I picked up at the gift shop of the Hilliard Museum on the campus of the University of Louisiana during my visit this weekend. 

Do all these things so we can dance and talk revolution.    

The group has all the same members as when I last saw them and you know old papa is going to lose that hat and the dreads will flow sometime during the show. 

Please check them out. The latest cd has a lot of New Orleans musicians backing them up and it's great. I bought it and you should also.