Compas
Compas, or konpa, is Haiti's national popular music, created in 1955 by saxophonist *Nemours Jean-Baptiste* as compas direct: a smooth, danceable big-band music built on a steady m茅ringue-derived beat, bright guitar lines and call-and-response vocals. Rival bandleader *Webert Sicot*'s cadence rampa pushed its tempo, and orchestras such as *Tabou Combo* carried it across the Caribbean and to Paris and New York. From mini-jazz combos to the digital nouvelle g茅n茅ration of *Carimi* and *T-Vice*, compas remains the soundtrack of Haitian life at home and in the diaspora.