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Mélissa Laveaux

Kouzen

Mélissa Laveaux turns Kouzen, a traditional Haitian song first recorded in the 1920s, into a two-minute, guitar-driven ride on Radyo Siwèl, her 2018 album about Haiti under the American occupation of 1915 to 1934.

By korczis 2 min read
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Review

Genre and Mood

Mélissa Laveaux’s “Kouzen” is a traditional Haitian song played as folk with a surf-rock guitar: energetic, groovy and over almost before it has begun.

Song Summary

The song is credited as traditional, and Laveaux’s label traces it to its earliest recordings in the 1920s. She recorded it for Radyo Siwèl, an album of Haitian songs she arranged with the production trio A.L.B.E.R.T. The label calls her reading surf rock, Exclaim! hears a “guitar-driven ride”, and Drowned in Sound singles out the track’s “rhythmical guitar”. It lasts two minutes and twenty-one seconds.

Musical Breakdown

No source describes Kouzen section by section, so this breakdown follows the players the album credits and what the reviews say about them.

The Guitar

Laveaux plays electric guitar throughout the album, and here it is the engine: the reviewers hear a rhythmical, driving part at the centre of the track.

The Cuatro and the Band

Drew Gonsalves, leader of the Trinidadian band Kobo Town, adds the cuatro, a small four-string guitar; Vincent Taurelle plays keyboards, Ludovic Bruni bass and Vincent Taeger drums.

The Voices

Laveaux sings lead with background vocals from herself and Gonsalves. Drowned in Sound writes that next to the guitar of Kouzen, her voice proves as pliable as her playing.

Concepts in Focus

Kouzen is a cover version of a song older than any one performer. Traditional songs have no original to be faithful to, only earlier recordings, so each new version is free to change the setting; a surf-rock guitar is a long way from a 1920s record. Compare Mélissa Laveaux – Needle in the Hay, where she reworks a songwriter’s song the same way.

The riff is the backbone of surf rock, a short guitar figure that repeats and carries a song. The reviews describe Kouzen’s guitar as rhythmical and driving rather than notating it, so listen for the figure yourself.

Artistic Context

Laveaux, born in Montreal in 1985 to Haitian parents, went back to Haiti for the first time since she was twelve and built Radyo Siwèl from traditional and vodou songs. The album looks at the American occupation of Haiti from 1915 to 1934; its title nods to the troubadour orchestras whose songs kept a record of the people’s history and resistance. It was recorded in Pantin in April 2017 and released on No Format! in 2018.

Impact and Reception

Radyo Siwèl was long-listed for the 2018 Polaris Music Prize, and in 2024, for No Format!’s twentieth anniversary, Melanie Charles remixed Kouzen into a jazzy jungle version. Turn it up; it will not take long.

Learn from this track

Intermediate

What you will learn

  • Explain how a traditional song with no single author can be recorded anew, and how that differs from covering a known writer's song.
  • Hear how an electric guitar can drive a short song, and relate that to the surf-rock reading Laveaux's label describes.
  • Place Kouzen within Radyo Siwèl, an album that revisits Haitian songs from the era of the American occupation of 1915 to 1934.

Listening guide

  1. the guitar Laveaux's electric guitar, the rhythmical, driving part that reviews single out in Kouzen.
  2. the cuatro Drew Gonsalves of the Trinidadian band Kobo Town on the small four-string cuatro, alongside the guitar.
  3. the voices Laveaux's lead with background vocals by Laveaux and Gonsalves, a voice Drowned in Sound found as pliable as her playing.
  4. the length Two minutes and twenty-one seconds: the arrangement makes its point and stops.

Concepts in this track

cover version

58 tracks

A new recording of a song by an artist other than the original. A cover can be faithful or transform the song's genre and meaning.

riff

25 tracks

A short, repeated melodic or rhythmic figure, usually played by an instrument, that anchors a song. Rock riffs are often guitar figures; in electronic music the same role falls to a synth or bass line.

Listen next, and why

Questions for discussion

  1. Kouzen was first recorded in the 1920s and credited as traditional. Who owns a song that nobody wrote down?
  2. Why might a surf-rock guitar suit a Haitian song from the time of the American occupation?
  3. Laveaux learned this repertoire as an adult, reconnecting with a heritage her parents did not pass on. How can a song become a way back to a place?

References

  1. Bandcamp (Mélissa Laveaux). Radyo Siwèl (2018). Liner notes
  2. Bandcamp (Mélissa Laveaux). Kouzen (Melanie Charles Remix) (2024). Label
  3. Drowned in Sound. Mélissa Laveaux: Radyo Siwèl (2018). Review
  4. Exclaim!. Mélissa Laveaux: Radyo Siwèl (2018). Review
  5. The Line of Best Fit. Mélissa Laveaux: Radyo Siwèl (2018). Review
  6. PAM (Pan African Music). Radyo Siwèl: Mélissa Laveaux Gets Back to her Haitian Roots (2018). Article
  7. YouTube (Melissa Laveaux - Topic). Kouzen (2018). Video
  8. Wikipedia. Mélissa Laveaux. Encyclopedia

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