A Heart of Love for Culture and Music

I fall into the arms of love every time music fills the air and I am blessed with the opportunity to enjoy it. I am left with a cheerful disposition and a sunny temperament; especially when I can experience the great reward of performing songs that I wrote.

It is not every day that I am bursting in creativity. There are times when I have writer’s block and it kills me in so many ways. I can make up a cacophony of excuses for the days when trying to put words to the paper does not happen in the manner I would like, but at those moments when a flood of good thoughts just doesn’t seem to push through, there is nothing I can do to change that. It just happens. 

But then in that season of your life, someone comes along and inspires you with an idea and boom, there you go with a feeling of empowerment that allows you to once again, regain control of the writing process and productivity happens. I guess such was the case with the song my mom asked me to write. 

She had this confident expectation that a song would come out of her mere request. I guess the intention and hope that I had of being able to fulfill it was all I needed to be able to write Saut D’eau Song, a song about a region in Haiti where one of the most beautiful waterfalls in the world lives. 

The words came like an army of love, marching with intention to tear down the mountain that once blocked the free flow of words and at that particular moment, had a burning need to be released. If you are interested, you can check out the original tune here: https://open.spotify.com/track/6OgJmDcNvmBdnQzoNwOkp7?si=bILPJgF3SiObfMI92URzUw

I will admit that it was a bit different for me to write a song like this and I still can’t say why I had never intentionally written about the Haitian culture that was introduced to me as a child and that I grew up coming to know. But this tune gave me a reason to go deeper into my thoughts, share my own experiences about a place I had seen with my own eyes and confidently share a bit of my identity and story. And so, you can say it was a spirited event to actually perform this song live with my band for the first time. 

To grow up in the margins of cross-culturalization is to know a bit of more than one cultural background, practice the mores and behavioral patterns from a bit of each yet to dance to the beat of where you are, because you are there. But to be able to share a piece of what makes you different with people from all walks of life in the atmosphere of a musical gathering, and without fearing being exactly who you are, feels good. 

All I can say is that if you see a beatific smile across my face, it is because the other evening, under the brilliant sparkle of the moon, I turned the musical focus of interest to Haiti and shared a glamorized view of my ancestor’s home through song and had appreciable results. Drums by Richie Johnson echoed through the room as Kenny Alston plucked his bass with fierceness, Prrrl tickled the ivories with peculiar phraseology and Herb Lewis added a nice shaft of light with his saxophone which made me sing my lyrics with a heart of love. Together we performed this song for the first time at Silvana which is located in the Harlem section of New York and I would so love it if you would check it out here.The song is called Saut D’Eau Song and this is the live version that I was telling you about: https://youtu.be/Lls4VddAe_8

Thank you for allowing me to enthrall your attention to the detailed content of my story for just a bit. I admit that I can be a bit dramatic when reporting the good things that happened to me in my daily life, but such is the art of conversation. 

I hope my words did not meet you with a frozen silence, a blank gaze or find you determined to reach to the end of this post without any interest for what was being discussed but rather, that it reproduced a blossom of joy through your mental boundary in some way or another. Everybody is full of opinions which is something that cannot be avoided, I know. Yet still I hope that yours of me, based on this post was a good one. 

I must thank you for allowing this interlude from your song and dance, to waltz into the seductive tempo that is my life. Much love and respect to you!

Haitian Culture Falls Fresh On Me Like Waters From the Saut

“When you have unity. Nothing is heavy” – dad

It is weird how things come into play. Somebody says, hey try this and you do or you don’t. That’s the way it goes. You might have your own way of doing things and choose your own path. But there are times you think, hey why not and the results are amazing.

So I tried something completely different. I was Ushered into a transformative moment by my folks to write a song about Saut D’Eau (Sodo), which is located about 60 miles north of Port au Prince. Saut D’Eau is also the French word for waterfall, with this area in the Mirabalais province of Haiti being known for the most beautiful and peaceful waterfall you could find in the world.

Every year in July, there is a wonderful feast celebrated on the 16^th of July known as the feast of Mount Carmel where hundreds gather to celebrate this wonderful day together. This is part of my culture. I am Haitian and was raised with knowledge of my background, traditions and the peoples from whom we came. I have been to the feast once while I was in high school and it was such a beautiful celebration. So many people. Such a great gathering of like-minded beautiful people that left me with such an amazing feeling.

I was asked to write a song about this very place. Usually, I am not one who needs direction. I write songs based on what is in my heart and that is it. But when my family asked me to do it, I did. Who knew that going with someone else’s inspiration would let the words and music shed out of me like water weight while on the treadmill at the gym.  A few hours later, the song, Saut D’Eau Song was born. I guess you can say the weight of the mission I was tasked with was not heavy because it was with my folks in mind.

I hope that you’ll check it out. It is mostly in English as my Haitian Kreyol is not the best, though I did add a few words of Kreyol here and there because I am Haitian and this song is about Haiti. Saut D’Eau Song was written and produced by Stephanie Jeannot. All lyrics, music and vocals are by Stephanie Jeannot.

  

Anyway, here is the link to the song: https://soundcloud.com/stephanay-jnote/saut-deau-song 

Thank you so much for checking out my blogpost.