Gwo Ka and Jazz

Jacques Schwartz-Bart, who was born December 22, 1962, in Les Abymes is based in New York. His mother is the Guadeloupean novelist Simone Schwarz-Bart, author of The Bridge of Beyond. His father was French Jewish author Andre Schwarz-Bart. The couple published a joint novel, Un plat de porc aux bananes vertes, in 1967.

The family travelled widely, living in Senegal, Switzerland, and Goyave, Guadeloupe. Jacques Schwarz-Bart is dubbed “Brother Jacques” and his music incorporates rhythm and blues as well as hip hop influences. His musical path is atypical. At age four, he was offered a Gwoka drum and renowned musician Anzala showed him how to play the seven fundamental rhythms – Toumblak, Graj, Lewoz, Kalagya, Padjanbel, Mende, Woul?.

At age six, while living in Switzerland, Schwarz-Bart discovered jazz music through a record collection owned by his best friend’s father. Fascinated, he taught himself to play the guitar by playing along with records. By age 11, he sat in with the players of the local Lausanne scene, but soon after, his family relocated to Guadeloupe.

There, without a jazz scene, he concentrated on his studies, most notably at the prestigious School of Government called Sciences Po, and eventually landed a job as a Senator’s assistant in Paris. At 24 he appeared poised for a more conventional success, until by chance he tried a friend’s tenor saxophone. He practiced between his long hours at the Senate, and three years later, he abandoned his nascent career to attend the Berklee School of Music.

After a gruelling practice schedule that spanned four years, Schwarz-Bart graduated from Berklee, and developed a reputation by playing with acknowledged leaders of the Boston jazz scene, such Danilo Perez, Bob Moses, Giovanni Hidalgo, before leaving for New York City. One week upon arriving there, Schwarz-Bart went to hear Chucho Valdes, Roy Hargrove and Randy Brecker perform at Bradlee’s Jazz Club. In a moment of boldness, he pulled out his horn, jumped on stage and joined in. One month later, he got a call from Roy Hargrove to replace David Sanchez in his Latin Jazz band, Crisol.

By early 2000, Schwarz-Bart had earned his nickname, “Brother Jacques,” from musician D’Angelo, in praise of his musicianship.

In addition to Hargrove and D’Angelo, Schwarz-Bart has done session work and performed live with Erykah Badu, Eric Benet, Meshell N’degeocello, James Hurt, Danilo Perez, Soulive, Ari Hoenig and David Gilmore, among others. His tune “Forget Regret” was the single on Roy Hargrove’s 2003 album Hard Groove.

Jacques Schwarz-Bart has produced several personal projects. After a straight ahead CD entitled Immersion, came The Brother Jacques Project a mixture of soul and jazz, with layers of Caribbean rhythms, featuring the vocalist Stephanie McKay.

With his 2007 album on Universal, Son? Ka-La, Jacques Schwarz-Bart has emerged as one of the first musicians to fully explore the connection between gwo ka and jazz, two musical styles of the African diaspora. The project features musicians such as Admiral T and Jacob Desvarieux of Kassav’. It is his oldest project, and yet the one that took the longest to achieve.

Gwo ka is both a family of hand drums and the music created with them, which is a major part of Guadeloupan folk music. There are seven rhythms in gwo ka, which are embellished by the drummers. Different sizes of drums establish the foundation and its flourishes, with the largest, the boula, playing the central rhythm and the smaller, markeur (or mak?) drums embellishing upon it and interplaying with the dancers, audience or singer.

Gwo ka singing usually is guttural, nasal and rough, though it can also be bright and smooth, and is accompanied by uplifting and complex harmonies and melodies. There are also dances that tell folk stories that are accompanied by the gwo ka drums.

Rural Guadeloupans still use gwo ka drums in communal experiences called lewozes, the most traditional manifestation of gwo ka in modern Guadeloupe. Gwo ka is also played at Carnival and other celebrations.