David Bontemps - Gede Nibo (2017)

In 1934, the year of the end of the American occupation of Haiti, the composer Ludovic Lamothe (1882-1953) won the Port-au-Prince Carnaval competition with his famous meringue ‘Nibo’, named after one of the gods of the Haitian voodoo pantheon. Gédé Nibo was a legendary prince of a West African Kingdom who sacrificed his life on a quest into the underworld to find a cure for a fatal epidemic that plagued his people. Gédé’s sole request to his people was to have libations poured on his grave in his remembrance.
Symbol of the cycle of life and death, guardian of cemeteries and protector of children, Gédé’s spirit is especially invoked in Haiti to bluntly denounce social biases, while dancing to the sensual and royal Banda rhythm. The track, Gédé Nibo, contains 12 variations, which pay homage to the genius of Lamothe, and are a way of translating Gede’s spirit unto piano- a musical manifestation of the woes, the strength and hopes of a people.