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The Creole mazurka, "la mazouk," is a fashionable dance in the Caribbean, featuring a syncopated three beat pattern. Instead of a waltz, think of a beguine (such as Serpent Maigre, our May 2014 release) with an extra beat.
We learned this month's track-of-the-month, La Mazouk En Avant, from a recording made by Martinique clarinet hero Eugène Delouche in 1953 that featured a vocal by David Martial. Our version spotlights New Orleans chanteuse and Panorama collaborator Jane Harvey Brown (check out our May 2016 release, Shame Shame Shame, as well as three tunes on our Panoramaland CD, Don't Touch Me Tomato, Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen and If You Love Me). You will also hear instrumental solos by Panorama saxophonist Aurora Nealand and our trombonist Charlie Halloran.
Special thanks to the France-based vocalist Sylvain Padra, originally from Martinique, who transcribed the lyrics from the original Delouche recording as well as to the Haitian-born, New Orleans-living teacher, Yves Conséant, for providing the English translation.
lyrics
Lyrics in Creole and English translation:
La mazouk en avant.
Kavalié ka pointé ,
Les dames subordonnées
Les mains sur le coté.
Robes, jupons, souliers d'or,
Colliers, foulards madras,
Peau kréyol Martinique,
Yo peu di yo joli.
Au bordèl Lè yo bèl!
Yo dou, yo dou, yo dou!
Yo joli, yo joli!
Pa ni, pa ni konsa.
Junn' kon vieu ka pasé,
Étranjé ka rivé,
Yo ka di Martinique
Pa ni pli dou ki sa.
The mazurka is beginning.
The gentlemen are pointing,
The ladies who accompany them
Have their hands on their hips.
Dresses, skirts, gold shoes,
Necklaces, madras scarves,
Creole skin of Martinique,
You can say they are pretty.
They are beautiful!
They are sweet, sweet, sweet!
They are pretty, pretty!
There is none other, none other like them.
Young and old who pass by,
Strangers who arrive.
They will say there is no other place
As sweet as Martinique.
credits
from The Next One (2nd compilation from our "Good Music For You" series),
released April 15, 2017
Music arranged by Ben Schenck
Lyrics transcribed by Sylvain Padra
Lyrics translated by Yves Conséant
Recorded, edited and mixed by Michael Seaman at Listen Up!
Studios, New Orleans, LA
Mastered by Lu Rojas at Oak Street Recording, New Orleans, LA
Panorama Jazz Band / Panorama Brass Band - New OrleansNew Orleans, Louisiana
"New Orleans' genre fluid jazz band"
The Panorama Jazz Band and the Panorama Brass Band have
been working steadily in New Orleans and beyond since 1995. Many hundreds of nightclub gigs, festivals, weddings, crawfish boils and Mardi Gras parades have added to this community of musicians' collective experience, all of which they bring to each of their recordings....more
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