The Creole Choir Of Cuba
Album: Santiman
Label: Real World
Tracks: 15
Website: http://www.creolechoir.com

The Creole Choir of Cuba, which comprises six women and four men, celebrate their fascinating Haitian roots with harmonies and solos, using humour and compassion to tell stories of freedom, survival, traditional folk tales, and assorted anecdotes. Many of these come from Haitian Voudo. Cuban claves and Conga drums provide much of the percussion used to good effect throughout the album.

The lyrics of many songs on the album tell the many stories of people and events through Haitian history. Song subjects include oppression, misery, censorship and imprisonment and songs look at society on many different levels. Haiti's (as other parts of the world) misunderstood religion of vodou (or 'voodoo' as it is known in other parts) has, throughout history, inspired a strong tradition of producing folk songs, many of which have later come to teach us about the past.

The fascinating thing is that to look at what the songs speak of, the music should be, you would think, maudlin and hard to listen to. Instead, the band have, for the most part, created cheerful, upbeat world music, that makes the listener want to hear more. Despite the lack of lyrics, or of lyrics we understand, the songs and the music still have a way of speaking their stories. World music at its finest. It has even inspired me to find some Cuban recipes to have a themed evening. Not many CDs have inspired me to cook!

Helen Mitchell