Versatility in Caribbean Music- Dutch Speaking Countries
Welcome back to the best place to be, with ME of course. As always, I promise to keep it real, short n sweet see what I gat for you today. In chapter three of Tour de Force, there were a few examples discussed about versatility. So, I have come to the realization that every time I blog about adaptability, the subject gets more interesting. As we continue to delve deeper into the world of variety, this time in Dutch-speaking Caribbean nations, for this blog, I'll concentrate on two of the given examples and toss in a third as a bonus to clarify any misconceptions you may have.
Na, I know our opinions may differ, however, while watching a few class recordings, I made a note of a few musicians who I found to be interesting, and who I felt made a significant contribution to the musical world.
The first person is Wim Statius Muller. Wim Statius Muller was born in Curaçao, 26 January 1930 and died in Curaçao, 31 August 2019. Muller was a Curaçaoan composer and pianist, nicknamed "Curaçao's Chopin" for his romantic piano style of composition. He was noted as a Juilliard graduate but his musical career did not begin until after he retired from a career in security and counterintelligence. On top of that he was also assistant professor at Ohio State University. This is another person I am definitely interested in due to my new found love of piano playing lol. Let us take a look of a picture of Wim Statius Muller below.
According to the book Tour de Force, "Statius Miller has performed and recorded widely and composed almost exclusively for the piano, as did his idol, Frederic Chopin". He is therefore versatile when it comes to playing and composing for the piano. Now let us look at some of his work as a pianist below. This is called Wals Nostolgia (the title seems familiar to me). In this piece, I love how peaceful and soothing it sounds and then its gets dramatic/ dramatized when he speeds up and intensifies the notes. Whilst listening to this it certainly shows his undeniable talent as if this is the easiest thing in the world for him. That is amazing.
My second example that I chose was of a versatile Dutch musician named Roel Calister. He is known as a versatile percussionist that combines tambu beats with electronic dance. Roël Calister was born in Curaçao and is famous for his ability to tastefully mix dance, pop and jazz with folklore elements from Curacao. He is specialized in African and Caribbean instruments, which play a prominent role in Roël’s project 'Kuenta i Tambu'. Speaking of which, according to the authors of Tour de Force, "Calister demonstrates that traditional music is still fertile ground for musicians and composers". What is the saying? Home is where the heart is? Why not show others a piece of your home from listening to your music? Below is an image of him.
Here is a piece from Roel Calister below. In this video, Roël Calister gave a wonderful performance starting on what is known as a Meinl Fiberglass Liquid Ibo Drum (Udu) and finishing with impressive playing with the Meinl Nino Ball Shakers. The shakers are seen as a modern take on the West Afrivan Kashaka shakers. It takes a lot of practice to play such intricate polyrhythmic passages, but Roël put in the time and effort ! I chose this because this seems very unique to me from the other music that I have encountered.
Now I know I can be a bit extra, but I can't let yall leave just yet. Listen to me, talk about raw talent with a face that captures your attention and music that captures your heart. My extra on top of the extra example given above is none other than Randal Corsen. He is another versatile musician that is a pianist, composer, and arranger from curacao that specializes in jazz, classical and popular music. According to Tour de Force, his composition and arrangements blend jazz with Antillean and classical elements". He worked as a professional musician and music teacher for about 23 years in the Netherlands and received many awards for his musical works. Randal Corsen is a very accomplished musician and a big contributor to Curacaoan culture.
Fun fact, he composed the first Papiamentu Opera "Katibu di Shon (Slave and Master). But that is not what I am going to show you at this very moment. So let us take a look at another piece of his work. Below is a music video produced and arranged by Randal Corsen and Oscar Bor. Some instruments used in the musical composition are trumpets, piano, trumbone, and keys, bass, congas, wiri and tambora and drums. The video represents local Tumba music. This is extraordinary.
Thank you for reading my blog, for more real, and interesting facts about versatile, talented, HOT, Caribbean artists you know where to come!
References
Farandula. (2014). ‘Paranda di Pasku’ di Randal Corsen & Friends ku 4 kantante invitá na Brakapoti.
This blog will focus on the theme of Versatility in Caribbean Music. The word versatility as it relates to music simply means artists ability to adapt or perform several genres and styles of music without sounding weird. Based on the book Tour de Force, versatility refers to musicians having a wide range of musical skills or practices. The text also mentions that being versatile allows artists to sustain a musical career. The thing about versatility is it places no restrictions on musicians as they are not limited to using one method of demonstrating their talents such as singing, rapping, writing lyrics or playing an instrument. Instead, musical artists can incorporate as many talents and genres as possible to make them stand out among other artists in the field, which I see as a plus. There are so many Caribbean artist that exhibit versatility in their music however, I will focus on two Reanno Gordon a.k.a Busy Signal and Ronnie Butler. This popular dancehall reggae artist is
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