On July 30, 2021, the talented and famous artist-musician Jacob Desvarieux, one of the founders of the legendary musical group called KASSAV, disappeared in the city of Les Abymes in Guadeloupe. Beyond the tribute to the artist with multiple hats, it is also the man who contributed with many other members of the group to build a great bridge between Africa and the West Indies that we must salute.
They were legion around the world to continue to hope that Jacob Desvarieux will come out after the announcement of his hospitalization due to COVID-19. But we knew he was suffering from other pathologies too. His time will have come on July 30, 2021.
The news of the death of Jacob Desvarieux aroused the emotion of an immense loss, particularly in Black Africa where KASSAV is adored and Zouk in all musical atmospheres. Jacob Desvarieux is a particular vocal range and an outstanding guitarist that we will no longer see or hear live.
It was in Paris that Jacob Desvarieux was born on November 21, 1955. He lived the first years of his childhood in Guadeloupe before leaving for Senegal at the age of ten. And it is there, in the heart of Black Africa, in the Senegalese capital, that the talent of the young Jacob Desvarieux will hatch. The least we can say is that it is precocious. With his first guitar that his mother gave him at the age of ten, he became an arranger at the age of sixteen. An artist is born. Together with his band of friends, they founded their first group THE BAD GRASS to make Rock first. Afterwards, he turns to Disco and the meeting with Pierre-Edouard Décimus does the rest. The magic works as we are used to saying. Here we go ! The rest of the adventure is long and will remain etched in the annals of West Indian, French, African and international music.
Stéphanie Melyon-Reinette, Researcher-Sociologist-Writer-Activist residing in Guadeloupe told Aujourd’hui L’Afrique:
“Jacob DESVARIEUX is a voice that has permeated our emotional memories. He was one of Kassav's sounding boards and with his departure we know that a fundamental page in our history is turning. I remember his incomparable tone and his virtuosity. His power, combined, increased tenfold, by those of his acolytes. With Desvarieux and the essence he gave to Kassav, it is a manifestation of our greatness that is dying out. It is up to us, heirs and heiresses of this reverberation, to make the country shine through our respective talents, skills and prisms. Because it teaches us that there is no need to doubt the primordiality of our world being and what we can contribute in my great global cultural gesture”.
For his part, Giles Guilon, alias Gilou Apiyé of the Made in Mizik Group from Martinique told Aujourd’hui L’Afrique about Jacob Desvarieux:
“I retain the talent of Jacob Desvarieux! The expression of our roots throughout the world. I had the chance to share the stage with this myth, memory will be our greatest weapon! I will not forget his titles which have marked my musical career: Sweet Florence, Euphrasine Blues, Mwen diw awa... On my album in preparation with the group Made in Mizik on two compositions (Doudou sé wou, Sa ki Taw), JACOB DESVARIEUX left me an invaluable treasure of two remarkable guitar scores... followed by a live concert where he came to perform the said score. We mourn a Man, a Myth, simply Jacob. Thank you for everything and see you soon the artist”.
During his last vacation trip to Benin, in January 2021, Jabob Desvarieux said on the airwaves of the Benin Radio and Television Office (ORTB):
“...Concerts mean that we see the airport, the hotel, the stadium and back...And after that, do you know Benin? Yes, I went. What did you see? Uh...uh....There you go. There, for once, a few days I stayed there and saw Ganvié. I knew the images, because I had gone to school in Senegal when I was little, and there were the images of lakeside towns, there were things like that...I heard about Bèhanzin at school, there I was able to go and see what had happened...the many Kings there were. I was able to go to Porto-Novo. Ah, I'm sorry, I couldn't go to Ouidah but I'm going to come back..."
Alas, this homecoming will never happen again.
There are many Africans who believe that the West Indies should not wait for Black Africa to come to them, even if they think that Africa owes them a public and official apology for their share of responsibility in the trafficking of Blacks due to the greed of some, but which cannot be put on the same footing as that of slavers and other decision-makers of the time in the West. And to emphasize that the West Indies have an influence on Black Africa that it ignores. As if to say that everything that happens in the West Indies affects Black Africa in one way or another and vice versa without a doubt. The influence of the KASSAV Group and the bond it has helped to strengthen in everyone's eyes should therefore not be overlooked, and even less hidden.
In an interview with the newspaper L'indépendant du Mali in 2014, Jacob Desvarieux told how he and his mother had arrived in Dakar:
"They were said to be savages like in Tarzan, misery in huts, tribal wars, disasters, so many clichés they wanted to fight,"
told Jacob Desvarieux during an interview with the newspaper L'indépendant du Mali in 2014.
“We took the boat and landed in Dakar. I lived there from 1966 to 1968. I went to school there. I learned my first guitar notes with the older brothers in the neighborhood and I have very precise memories of it (...) As an adult, I went back there, I recognized all the places in my childhood, my home, my school. I found some friends."
He considered himself African, and rightly so: “I am African. I appreciate their wisdom, the respect they have for elders. Africans are less hypocritical than us,” he added during this interview.
The Senegalese artist-musician, Youssou Ndour, is quite right to say about him: “Africa and the West Indies are losing a great ambassador”.
By Elvis Koffi
2 – KASSAV IN A FEW DATES
The KASSAV Group was created in Guadeloupe in 1979 by Pierre-Edouard Decimus (a former member of the Orchestra Les Vikings de la Guadeloupe), Georges Decimus, Jacob Desvarieux and Freddy Marshall. It was not until 1983 that the emblematic singer Jocelyne Béroard, who was already collaborating there, formally joined the Group.
Discography
Albums studio
1979 : Love and Ka Dance 1987 : Vini Pou (disque de platine)
1980 : Lagué mwen 1989 : Majestik Zouk (disque d'or)
1981 : Kassav n°3 1992 : Tékit izi (disque d'or)
1982 : Kassav' 1995 : Difé (disque d'or)
1983 : Kassav n°5 2000 : Nou la
1983 : Passeport 2004 : Ktoz
1984 : An ba chen'n la 2007 : All U Need Is Zouk
1985 : Ayé (disque d'or) 2013 : Sonjé
Autres albums
1983 : Gréviss (avec Jocelyn Mocka)
1998 : Un toque latino (chansons de reprise en espagnol)
Albums live
1986 : Kassav au Zenith
1993 : Live au Zénith - Sé nou menm'
1996 : Kassav' cho : Live au zenith 96
2005 : Carnaval Tour
2009 : 30 ans : Live au Stade de France
2016 : Chiré Douvan
E. K
