WATCH "JEAN JEAN-PIERRE/KISKEYA ORCHESTRA - HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAITI - CARNEGIE HALL #2 " https://youtu.be/tVioPooSG5c @2:59 Ode to JeanDo Comp: Jean Jean-Pierre @ 14:57 Gary French Haiti de Bernard Wah Orchestre Kiskeya de Jean Jean-Pierre "Jean Jean-Pierre, the founder and director of the #Kiskeya Orchestra and its driving force, is a journalist, composer, musician, arranger, playwright, screenwriter, producer and bandleader. His unrelenting passion to affirm his Haitian identity and represent the rich and vibrant culture of Haiti led to the birth of the orchestra. Born and raised in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Mr. Jean Jean-Pierre began his training as a drummer and gained invaluable experience as a young musician performing locally with the Bossa Combo Band and with popular recording artists such as Haiti’s star Ansy Dérose, Brazilian vocalist Nelson Ned, and Puerto Rican singer Daniel Santos. He moved to the United States in the summer of 1974 and quickly immersed himself in New York’s music world. Since then he has distinguished himself as a musician and composer, performing with several touring bands whose styles range from R & B to pop-rock. Pursuing his commitment to affirm his Haitian identity and represent the best of Haitian society and culture, Mr. Jean Jean-Pierre began a journalistic career focused on Haitian issues, writing for the Village Voice and United Nations Radio and as a columnist for the Gannett Newspapers – all while writing and producing music. In 1995, along with Academy Award-winning filmmaker Jonathan Demme and human rights attorney Michael Ratner, Mr. Jean-Pierre co-founded MAPOU Productions Ltd., dedicated to promoting the rich and vibrant culture of Haiti. The same year, Mr. Jean-Pierre and MAPOU Productions produced Bouyon Rasin, the landmark Haitian-international “roots” music festival. Since then he has produced regular musical events at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and Carnegie Hall. In 1995 Mr. Jean-Pierre worked assiduously with Haiti’s Ministry of Culture to help reinstate Haiti to the Convention of Berne (for the protection of author’s rights). Currently Mr. Jean-Pierre is the bandleader and founder of Kiskeya. The Haitian Orchestra and recently composed the Ode to Jean Do, a musical composition in Jonathan Demme’s recently released film, the Agronomist, recounting the life of Haiti’s foremost journalist Jean Dominique, tragically slain on April 3, 2000. In the aftermath of the worst tragedy that has befallen Haiti on January 12, 2010, Mr. Jean-Pierre traveled to the Dominican Republic because he was, as he said :“bolstered by a deep sense of gratitude, for the way our neighbors came to lend their support to Haitians”. A few days later, with the help of Mr. José Rafael Lantigua. Minister of Culture and the great conductor and arranger, Maestro Jose Antonio Molina, he recorded with the Dominican Republic Symphonic Orchestra “Ayiti Leve Kanpe/ Haiti Get Back Up”, an 8 min. time capsule he composed to chronicle the day of the earthquake that took the lives of more than 225,000 people. This was recorded on January 27, 2010 at El Palacio de Bellas Artes. In August 2010, Mr. Jean-Pierre was honored by the Ministry of Culture of the Dominican Republic at the Teatro Nacional during the season opening of the orchestra. The execution of his composition “Ayiti Leve Kanpe/ Haiti Get Back Up” received rousing applause from the audience of a packed house. Jean Jean-Pierre and the Kiskeya Orchestra Founded in 1995 by drummer, composer and arranger Jean Jean-Pierre, the Kiskeya Orchestra is a 25-piece ensemble that combines classical, pop, and the best of Haitian and Caribbean traditional music, all percolating over a hot bed of excitedly syncopated island rythms. The Kiskeya Orchestra is the ancestral home of the Taino people where African and Europeans meet creating a vibrant sonic mélange. The Kiskeya Orchestra surpassed itself in a sterling performance in May 2003 at Carnegie Hall, during the presentation Haiti: The Rythms, the Dances and the gods starring Danny Glover and Theresa Randle. The orchestra’s first CD, entitled 1804-2004 Happy Birthday Haiti, was released in January 2004 on Global Beat Records, Gary Topper is the conductor. Vision While it is irrefutable that the Perez Prado Orchestra, Benny More and the Sonora Matancera – all three from Cuba - were the best known large musical formations in the Caribbean to have influence in the 1950”s and 60”s most musicians from the area, in Haiti, the Issa El Saieh and the Jazz des Jeunes were the musical templates that inspired many generations of musicians. Jean Jean-Pierre’s musical education came from these great bands, which could easily combine the sound of a Benny Goodman or a Cab Galloway with the plethora of Haitian rhythms, a result of a confluence of tribes from Africa. (According to the incomparable Haitian master drummer (Mapou) Azor, Haiti claims more than (95 rhythms and combinations of rhythms.) Jean Jean-Pierre, through his series of annual concerts at venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and recordings, uses the Kiskeya Orchestra as the vehicle to promote this music pioneered by those wonderful Haitian orchestras, a sound emulated all throughout the Caribbean. Enabled by its vibrant human and musical mosaic, the Kiskeya Orchestra is poised to continue gracing the worlds’ most prestigious concert halls and stages." Tours May 23, 2003: At Carnegie Hall, Haiti: The Rhythms, the Dances and the Gods, with actor/activist Danny Glover playing the role of Haiti’s independence precursor Toussaint L’Ouverture and Theresa Randle (Bad Boys 1 and 2) portraying Toussaint’s wife Suzanne. Concerts Chanje December 30, 2007 As the bandleader for the latest version of Haiti’s great Jazz des Jeunes, he performed with the band at Tara’s in Haiti with the legendary Sonora Matancera directly from Cuba. June 10, 2005: Replant Haiti the Concert at Carnegie Hall with hosts ator Danny Glover, actress Susan Sarandon and journalist Amy Goodman December 24, 2994: How Papa Noel forgot Haiti, starring Danny Glover. A Haitian Christmas story, it is a parable that finds its power in the dreams of a child October 2004: Billingham Festival, Billingham England August 2004: CIOFF – UNESCO, Folkloriada, Budapest, Hungary January 3, 2004: Carnegie Hall, New York, 1804-2004 Happy Birthday Haiti star studded concert featuring Danny Glover, Harry Belafonte, Erna Letemps, Jean Claude Eugene, The Mighty Sparrow, Keith-Designer Prescott, and a plethora of great performes. (Music by Kiskeya: The Haitian Orchestra of Jean Jean-Pierre) June, 2002: Rotary Club International, Les Cayes, Grand Bal Blanc, Music retrospective 60”s and 70’s December 29, 2001: Carnegie Hall, New York: a musical and dance production entitled The Haitian Community Salutes Our Heroes, provided a moving tribute to the victims of the World Trade Center tragedy September 26, 1999: Brooklyn college concert held with Kiskeya Orchestra to honor the life of the great Haitian artist Guy Durosie, who died a month earlier. A constellation of Haitian singers whose careers span stretched from 1946 to the present shared the bill July 28-30, 1995: A landmark International Roots Music Festival in Haiti with Celia Cruz, Boukman Exsperyans, Papa Jube with Wyclef Jean, Simbie (Sweden), Ram and a host of other artists, recording a live CD which received rave reviews in Rolling Stone. Press releases The New York Times, December 2004: “ A Christmas Hope for a Troubled Country” Rollling Stone Magazine, October 1995: “A new Wave” The Beat Magazine, October 1995: “Haitian Fascination” The Haitian Times Weekly, December 2004: “Little Drummer Boy” Listin Diario (Dominican Republic) DVD/CD Happy Birthday Haiti featuring Ossie Davis, Danny Glover and Susan Sarandon (Carnegie Hall, January 2004) The Rythms, the Dances and the gods (Carnegie Hall, May 2003) First Haitian Roots Festival (with Celia Cruz) – Stade Sylvio Cator, July 1995 #Video Watch "Jean Jean Pierre - HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAITI/CARNEGIE HALL #2 Pt 1" https://youtu.be/af689wERp1Y Watch "Jean Jean Pierre - HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAITI/ CARNEGIE HALL #2 pt 2" https://youtu.be/tVioPooSG5c @2:59 Ode to JeanDo Comp: Jean Jean-Pierre @ 14:57 Gary French Haiti de Bernard Wah Orchestre Kiskeya de Jean Jean-Pierre Watch "Jean Jean Pierre - HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAITI/ CARNEGIE HALL #2 pt 3" https://youtu.be/7Zf2EDPJit0 🎶 Listen and Purchase: Culture & Tradition by Jean Jean-Pierre & Orchestre Traditionnel d'Haiti on iTunes - https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/culture-tradition/id925222519 HAITI☆LEGENDS #JeanJeanPierre #haitilegends #OrchestreKiskeya #balletBaccouloudhaiti #HappybirthdayHaiti

THE SOUND OF SILENCE - KILLING THE HOPE IN HAITI by JEAN JEAN-PIERRE THE VILLAGE VOICE, NEW YORK The myriad bullet holes embedded in the facade of Radio Haiti since the military staged the bloodiest coup d'etat in Haiti's history in 1991 stand as a reminder of the precariousness of practicing independent journalism there. Memories of the expulsion and torture of scores of journalists and human rights activists and the total destruction of Radio Haiti by the regime of Jean-Claude (Baby Doc) Duvalier in the wake of the 1980 U.S. presidential election are indelibly etched in the national consciousness. But last week, a voice that had survived all those perilous episodes was silenced forever. Early on Monday, April 3, journalist and radio station owner JEAN LÉOPOLD DOMINIQUE was shot dead, execution style, in Radio Haiti's garage in Delmas, just outside of Port-au-Prince, as he was about to enter the building to host his popular daily program, Inter-Actualités. MICHELLE MONTAS, his wife and co-anchor, missed the assassin or assassins by minutes. She discovered the bodies of Dominique and caretaker Jean-Claude Louissaint, also murdered, lying a few feet from each other. "Today was one of the rare occasions we drove to the station in separate vehicles," she said in a telephone interview from Port-au-Prince. With the odious murder of this courageous journalist much of the hope entertained by many Haitians about the future of democracy in their country was wiped out. Indeed Jean Dominique epitomized the difficult battle for freedom of expression in Haiti. An #agronomist by profession, Dominique, 69, began his #broadcasting career in the early '60s with a time-leased commercial program on Radio Haiti. After he purchased the station in the mid '70s, he changed its name to Radio Haiti Inter. Dominique gained prominence in 1973 when U.S. ambassador and Duvalier apologist Clinton Knox was kidnapped by a group of leftists. They demanded the release of political prisoners, $500,000 ransom, and a plane to Mexico. Dominique's nonstop reportage and the subsequent cave-in of Baby Doc emboldened journalists and activists. Dominique's work, along with that of the weekly newspaper Le Petit Samedi Soir, laid the groundwork for an independent press in Haiti. In the late '60s, Dominique introduced the first daily #Creole program in Haiti. Prior to that, all programs other than government propaganda and time-leased shows were broadcast in French, the colonialist tongue, as a way of keeping the masses outside of the mainstream. Following the election of Jimmy Carter in 1976, his administration's human rights-oriented foreign policy helped create a new journalistic paradigm in Haiti. This allowed Dominique and an increasing number of people working in the media to challenge the repressive rule of the Duvaliers and their thuggish Tonton Macoutes. Dominique took advantage of U.S. pressure on the dictator to begin broadcasting editorials critical of the government. Through it all, Dominique always sought to inform his listeners on the role Washington played in Haitian politics. Ronald Reagan's election in 1980 focused his analysis. Less than one month after the election, the Duvalier government sent more than 30 journalists and human rights activists into exile. Dominique escaped to the Venezuelan embassy and later to the U.S., where he was reunited with his wife, who was among the exiles. They remained in New York for the next six years. In February 1986, in the aftermath of the popular revolt that overthrew Baby Doc, they returned to Haiti. More than 50,000 people greeted them at the airport. Radio Haiti had to be rebuilt from scratch. Haitians from every shade of the socioeconomic spectrum from the impoverished street vendor in Port-au-Prince to those living in the Diaspora poured in thousands of dollars. In late 1986, Dominique was back on the air. In December 1990, Jean-Bertrand Aristide won the presidency in what was called the first truly democratic election in Haitian history. Although Dominique was a fervent Aristide supporter from the start, he refused the president's offer to become minister of information. "I am an independent, and I will die an independent," he often said. Yet his advice was often sought by Aristide (as it was by René Préval, the current president), fueling rumors that he was in Aristide's pocket until his death. However, the acerbic editorials of the sometimes irascible journalist spared no one. Dominique was known to publicly and privately criticize the popular Aristide for his intractability, as well as for his penchant to surround himself with sycophants. The violent 1991 military coup thrust Dominique and his wife into three more years of exile in the U.S. Upon his return to Haiti in 1994, when Aristide was restored by a U.S.-led multinational force, Dominique faced some of the toughest hurdles of his career: The oligarchy refused to air commercials on his station. "You have betrayed our class," he once recalled being told by some of his former sponsors. In a country where privileges are commensurate with the lightness of one's skin, Dominique, a mulatto from a well-to-do family, chose agronomy, a profession which, in Haiti then a truly agricultural country brought him closer to the peasants. As a journalist, he grew into a passionate advocate for social justice for the downtrodden. Filmmaker Jonathan Demme, who was working on a documentary on Dominique at the time of his death, referred to him as "a composite of Edward R. Murrow and Paul Revere in that he was the quintessential professional and patriot." News of Dominique's murder brought a disturbing dose of new reality to the Haitians in the Diaspora, as both of his daily programs Inter-Actualités at 7 a.m. and the interview-oriented Face à l'Opinion (Face the Opinion) in the afternoon have been simulcast since 1995 in the tri-state area over Haitian-owned Radio Soleil, a Brooklyn-based subcarrier, which reaches over 275,000 people. As speculations abound as to who was responsible for the assassinations of Dominique and Louissaint, some suspicions have focused on the atavistic Tonton Macoutes, while others hint at participation of the left. Jean Dominique was a staunch opponent of the Duvaliers and their murderous Tonton Macoutes, who had tortured and jailed him. And a celebrated editorial last fall addressing what he believed was unjust pressure being put on him by Aristide's former chief of police, Danny Toussaint, now a senatorial candidate, reads like a testament: " . . . and if I am still alive, I will close down the station after having denounced the plot hatched against me and I will return into exile one more time with my wife and my children." Nevertheless, in spite of the tears of his friends, nobody on the political scene in Haiti today can be exculpated. Friends and foes alike have helped create a climate of violence in which a life is not even worth the $100 that is reportedly the asking price for hired guns these days in the country. Jean Dominique recently told a journalist, "I have no tolerance for those who speak with guns in their hands." Once again in Haiti, we are reminded that those with the guns have no tolerance for people who speak with their hearts and minds. ~ Jean Jean-Pierre (Photo courtesy of AFP Photo) http://www.nchr.org/nchr/images/Jean_Dominique http://www.nchr.org/nchr/images/spacer.gif The Sound of Silence - Killing the Hope in Haiti 🎶 Listen to Ode to Jean Dominique par Jean Jean-Pierre et son Orchestre Kiskeya au Carnegie Hall 3 Jan. 2004 by HAITI☆LEGENDS #np on #SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/gabrisan/ode-to-jean-dominique-par-jean ---------------------------------------- ABOUT JEAN JEAN-PIERRE Jean-Pierre, the founder and director of the Kiskeya Orchestra and its driving force, is a journalist, composer, musician, arranger, playwright, screenwriter, producer and bandleader. His unrelenting passion to affirm his Haitian identity and represent the rich and vibrant culture of Haiti led to the birth of the orchestra. Born and raised in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Mr. Jean Jean-Pierre began his training as a drummer and gained invaluable experience as a young musician performing locally with the Bossa Combo Band and with popular recording artists such as Haiti’s star Ansy Dérose, Brazilian vocalist Nelson Ned, and Puerto Rican singer Daniel Santos. He moved to the United States in the summer of 1974 and quickly immersed himself in New York’s music world. Since then he has distinguished himself as a musician and composer, performing with several touring bands whose styles range from R & B to pop-rock. Pursuing his commitment to affirm his Haitian identity and represent the best of Haitian society and culture, Mr. Jean Jean-Pierre began a journalistic career focused on Haitian issues, writing for the Village Voice and United Nations Radio and as a columnist for the Gannett Newspapers – all while writing and producing music. READ MORE: https://ht.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Jean-Pierre HAITI☆LEGENDS #history #JeanDominique #RadioHaiti #MichelleMontas #VillageVoice #JeanléopoldDominique #JeanJeanPierre #JonathanDemme #haitilegends #iamgabrisan

THE SOUND OF SILENCE - KILLING THE HOPE IN HAITI by JEAN JEAN-PIERRE THE VILLAGE VOICE, NEW YORK The myriad bullet holes embedded in the facade of Radio Haiti since the military staged the bloodiest coup d'etat in Haiti's history in 1991 stand as a reminder of the precariousness of practicing independent journalism there. Memories of the expulsion and torture of scores of journalists and human rights activists and the total destruction of Radio Haiti by the regime of Jean-Claude (Baby Doc) Duvalier in the wake of the 1980 U.S. presidential election are indelibly etched in the national consciousness. But last week, a voice that had survived all those perilous episodes was silenced forever. Early on Monday, April 3, journalist and radio station owner JEAN LÉOPOLD DOMINIQUE was shot dead, execution style, in Radio Haiti's garage in Delmas, just outside of Port-au-Prince, as he was about to enter the building to host his popular daily program, Inter-Actualités. MICHELLE MONTAS, his wife and co-anchor, missed the assassin or assassins by minutes. She discovered the bodies of Dominique and caretaker Jean-Claude Louissaint, also murdered, lying a few feet from each other. "Today was one of the rare occasions we drove to the station in separate vehicles," she said in a telephone interview from Port-au-Prince. With the odious murder of this courageous journalist much of the hope entertained by many Haitians about the future of democracy in their country was wiped out. Indeed Jean Dominique epitomized the difficult battle for freedom of expression in Haiti. An #agronomist by profession, Dominique, 69, began his #broadcasting career in the early '60s with a time-leased commercial program on Radio Haiti. After he purchased the station in the mid '70s, he changed its name to Radio Haiti Inter. Dominique gained prominence in 1973 when U.S. ambassador and Duvalier apologist Clinton Knox was kidnapped by a group of leftists. They demanded the release of political prisoners, $500,000 ransom, and a plane to Mexico. Dominique's nonstop reportage and the subsequent cave-in of Baby Doc emboldened journalists and activists. Dominique's work, along with that of the weekly newspaper Le Petit Samedi Soir, laid the groundwork for an independent press in Haiti. In the late '60s, Dominique introduced the first daily #Creole program in Haiti. Prior to that, all programs other than government propaganda and time-leased shows were broadcast in French, the colonialist tongue, as a way of keeping the masses outside of the mainstream. Following the election of Jimmy Carter in 1976, his administration's human rights-oriented foreign policy helped create a new journalistic paradigm in Haiti. This allowed Dominique and an increasing number of people working in the media to challenge the repressive rule of the Duvaliers and their thuggish Tonton Macoutes. Dominique took advantage of U.S. pressure on the dictator to begin broadcasting editorials critical of the government. Through it all, Dominique always sought to inform his listeners on the role Washington played in Haitian politics. Ronald Reagan's election in 1980 focused his analysis. Less than one month after the election, the Duvalier government sent more than 30 journalists and human rights activists into exile. Dominique escaped to the Venezuelan embassy and later to the U.S., where he was reunited with his wife, who was among the exiles. They remained in New York for the next six years. In February 1986, in the aftermath of the popular revolt that overthrew Baby Doc, they returned to Haiti. More than 50,000 people greeted them at the airport. Radio Haiti had to be rebuilt from scratch. Haitians from every shade of the socioeconomic spectrum from the impoverished street vendor in Port-au-Prince to those living in the Diaspora poured in thousands of dollars. In late 1986, Dominique was back on the air. In December 1990, Jean-Bertrand Aristide won the presidency in what was called the first truly democratic election in Haitian history. Although Dominique was a fervent Aristide supporter from the start, he refused the president's offer to become minister of information. "I am an independent, and I will die an independent," he often said. Yet his advice was often sought by Aristide (as it was by René Préval, the current president), fueling rumors that he was in Aristide's pocket until his death. However, the acerbic editorials of the sometimes irascible journalist spared no one. Dominique was known to publicly and privately criticize the popular Aristide for his intractability, as well as for his penchant to surround himself with sycophants. The violent 1991 military coup thrust Dominique and his wife into three more years of exile in the U.S. Upon his return to Haiti in 1994, when Aristide was restored by a U.S.-led multinational force, Dominique faced some of the toughest hurdles of his career: The oligarchy refused to air commercials on his station. "You have betrayed our class," he once recalled being told by some of his former sponsors. In a country where privileges are commensurate with the lightness of one's skin, Dominique, a mulatto from a well-to-do family, chose agronomy, a profession which, in Haiti then a truly agricultural country brought him closer to the peasants. As a journalist, he grew into a passionate advocate for social justice for the downtrodden. Filmmaker Jonathan Demme, who was working on a documentary on Dominique at the time of his death, referred to him as "a composite of Edward R. Murrow and Paul Revere in that he was the quintessential professional and patriot." News of Dominique's murder brought a disturbing dose of new reality to the Haitians in the Diaspora, as both of his daily programs Inter-Actualités at 7 a.m. and the interview-oriented Face à l'Opinion (Face the Opinion) in the afternoon have been simulcast since 1995 in the tri-state area over Haitian-owned Radio Soleil, a Brooklyn-based subcarrier, which reaches over 275,000 people. As speculations abound as to who was responsible for the assassinations of Dominique and Louissaint, some suspicions have focused on the atavistic Tonton Macoutes, while others hint at participation of the left. Jean Dominique was a staunch opponent of the Duvaliers and their murderous Tonton Macoutes, who had tortured and jailed him. And a celebrated editorial last fall addressing what he believed was unjust pressure being put on him by Aristide's former chief of police, Danny Toussaint, now a senatorial candidate, reads like a testament: " . . . and if I am still alive, I will close down the station after having denounced the plot hatched against me and I will return into exile one more time with my wife and my children." Nevertheless, in spite of the tears of his friends, nobody on the political scene in Haiti today can be exculpated. Friends and foes alike have helped create a climate of violence in which a life is not even worth the $100 that is reportedly the asking price for hired guns these days in the country. Jean Dominique recently told a journalist, "I have no tolerance for those who speak with guns in their hands." Once again in Haiti, we are reminded that those with the guns have no tolerance for people who speak with their hearts and minds. ~ Jean Jean-Pierre (Photo courtesy of AFP Photo) http://www.nchr.org/nchr/images/Jean_Dominique http://www.nchr.org/nchr/images/spacer.gif The Sound of Silence - Killing the Hope in Haiti 🎶 Listen to Ode to Jean Dominique par Jean Jean-Pierre et son Orchestre Kiskeya au Carnegie Hall 3 Jan. 2004 by HAITI☆LEGENDS #np on #SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/gabrisan/ode-to-jean-dominique-par-jean ---------------------------------------- ABOUT JEAN JEAN-PIERRE Jean-Pierre, the founder and director of the Kiskeya Orchestra and its driving force, is a journalist, composer, musician, arranger, playwright, screenwriter, producer and bandleader. His unrelenting passion to affirm his Haitian identity and represent the rich and vibrant culture of Haiti led to the birth of the orchestra. Born and raised in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Mr. Jean Jean-Pierre began his training as a drummer and gained invaluable experience as a young musician performing locally with the Bossa Combo Band and with popular recording artists such as Haiti’s star Ansy Dérose, Brazilian vocalist Nelson Ned, and Puerto Rican singer Daniel Santos. He moved to the United States in the summer of 1974 and quickly immersed himself in New York’s music world. Since then he has distinguished himself as a musician and composer, performing with several touring bands whose styles range from R & B to pop-rock. Pursuing his commitment to affirm his Haitian identity and represent the best of Haitian society and culture, Mr. Jean Jean-Pierre began a journalistic career focused on Haitian issues, writing for the Village Voice and United Nations Radio and as a columnist for the Gannett Newspapers – all while writing and producing music. READ MORE: https://ht.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Jean-Pierre HAITI☆LEGENDS #history #JeanDominique #RadioHaiti #MichelleMontas #VillageVoice #JeanléopoldDominique #JeanJeanPierre #JonathanDemme #haitilegends #iamgabrisan