Makarios Cesaire – Lead guitarist for the New York All Stars.
He started playing the guitar at the age of five, and by his early teens he was already touring abroad with a couple of Haitian gospel groups. At the same time, he sought to improve his guitar skills even further. He drew his influences from the great guitar players Jimmy Hendrix, George Benson, Pat Matino, Dadou Pasket, Ti Police, Jean Claude Jean and Robert Martino. In the late eighties, he moved to Florida where he began to experiment with Rock ‘n’ Roll, Jazz and other musical styles that over the years would contribute to the shaping of one of the most versatile contemporary Haitian guitarists.
As a testament to his musical prowess, Makarios has collaborated with an incredibly long list of artists. His past musical accomplishments include collaborations with popular musicians Wyclef Jean, Emeline Michel, Papa Djoube, Reel Kila, Dante , Fred Paul, and others. His work is featured on a great deal of albums from groups such as Lakol, Ska Sha, Phantom, Zin, etc. He has also toured with several major artists; most recently it was with international R&B star Mary J. Blige on her 2001 Jamaican tour.
Despite his arduous schedule, Makarios has found time to earn his bachelor’s degree in economics at the Brooklyn College of the City University of New York where he graduated in 1994. His love for music, however, has overshadowed his academic background and he remains foremost a musician. So, with his large skill set, he has gone beyond the status of a performer into the production business. His label “Makarios Productions” has produced several artists worldwide from Tokio, Dakkar, London, Paris as well as the U.S.
Makarios Personal Bio
The seeds of Makarios’ career were planted when, at the tender age of 5, he received a guitar from his father as a Christmas present. His musical initiation began at the 7th Day Adventist Mission of Diquini in Carrefour, a suburb of Port-au-Price where he was raised after his family migrated from Port-de-Paix, the town from the North-Ouest of Haiti where he was born. So sure was his talent that he became the youngest musician ever to join the mission’s famous gospel choir.
Curious and adventurous in nature, it wasn’t long before Makarios was drawn to the more effervescent and colorful Haitian popular music. Fascinated by the exceptional skill of Andre “Dadou” Pasquet, the captivating grooves of the late Polynice “Ti Polis” Nozile and Robert Martino’s unique talent for playing and experimenting with sounds, Makarios was inspired to develop his signature vibrant and soulful style which incorporates his native sounds and rhythms with the influences of his childhood icons like Jimi Hendrix, Steve Vai, Eric Jonson, Joe Satriani, Eddy Van Halen, George Benson, Steve Moorse
Innovation is the recurring theme of Makarios’ career. His taste for challenge and experimentation is well known and his name associated with almost every avant-garde musical movements emanating from Haitian cultural circles.
He pioneered with Daniel “Dadi” Beaubrun and Vladimir “Jimmy” Jean-Felix the unique fusion of rock guitar and voodoo drums known as “Haitian Racine (Roots) Music”, popularized later-on by bands like Boukan Ginen and the 1992 Grammy Award nominee Boukman Eksperyans. In the late 80’s and early 90’s, he contributed to the “Nouvelle Generation” movement, a rejuvenation of “Haitian Konpa Music”, with bands like Kalewès, Zin and Lakòl. Later on, in 2003, he teamed-up with longtime friends Pierre-Henri Jospitre and Michael Celestin for a revival of the band DOZZ and the release of DOMINE, the critically acclaimed album he produced and has become the new benchmark for musical production in Haiti.
A seasoned performer Makarios has never stopped being one of the most sought after guitarist of his time, lending his services to iconic Haitian artists and bands like The Mighty Jean Elie Telfort and and the greatest cast of Haitian musical talent ever assembled: the New York All Stars. As the bandleader for Emeline Michel, the first lady of Haitian Music, he has also toured the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia.
His carrier has also led him to collaborate with some of the biggest name of the music world like Aretha Franklin, German “Pop diva” Inessa, Ron Isley, French superstar Tonton David, Tanya St Val (Guadeloupe), Armel Larrieux, Kat Deluna, Motown sensational Maxine Brown and Dante Thomas with whom he worked on the multi Platinum selling album Ms California.Today, Makarios is once again pushing the boundaries of his art. Following in the footsteps of Haitian guitar masters Frantz Casseus and Amos Coulanges known for their timeless arrangements of Haitian folk music, Makarios has captured with his guitar the mystical soulfulness of traditional Haitian voodoo singing. To carry-out this ambitious project Makarios had to study with the custodians of Haitian sacred music, who in turn mandated him to bring it to the world.
As he was on a mission, at the age of six his father gave him a guitar as a Christmas present, which Makarios ended up taming by training himself. To the point of propelling himself already as a kid, like the early accompanist of the parish choir of Port-de-Paix. As well as the keyboards which he simultaneously palpated. It must be said that the various sounds coming from the radio waves of Florida reaching the coasts of Port-au-Princiennes, are beginning to shape his musical horizon. When he was nine, his parents moved to Port-au-Prince where Makarios was subjected to urban resonances galvanized by the respective imprints of Dadou Pasquet, Robert Martino, Claude Marcelin, Tipolis which made him speechless; while inspiring him with new perspectives.
His meeting with the master double bassist Yves ” Chico ” Boyer, who was then in charge of a small musical learning workshop at Carrefour, will allow him to better understand didactic notions. A step that was decisive in the development of his career. Eventually opening the corridors to a future as an artist, including a debut in gospel music in the Adventist parish of Diquini. While continuing to enhance his talent under the influences of Georges Benson, Jimmy Hendrix, Carlos Santana among others. Eventually, Makarios left with his family for New York, where, between studying music and economics, he set about shaping a label merged from both original and unusual data.
AFICIONADOS ARE ALREADY TALKING ABOUT IT, THIS GUITARIST WHIP THAT EMERGED WITH HIS UNORTHODOX TOUCH.
Propelling an inspired style which comes to him from the fact that he finds his inventiveness through meditation. Meanwhile, the little prodigy begins to be noticed by the teachers of his establishment, who are amazed by the prowess of an insolent guitarist. His first “ stints ” found him in his gospel roots in the company of Rigaud Duverné, Jaurès Hervilus, Wycleft Jean etc. In a small group which animates the Sunday masses of the church of the father of Wycleft. Then, a small second-hand formation called “Kalewès”, a runaway from some college students, having been their first experience in the konpa.A step that forced him to audition all the records of Haitian groups (Tabou, SkaH-Shah, Scorpio, DP, Magnum etc.), to get into the game. And quite conclusive for Makarios who is starting to be noticed by the surrounding circles.
In fact, aficionados are already talking about it, this guitarist whip that emerged with his unorthodox touch. Diffusing a deconcentrated brand, filled with dissonance and progression, while ” cross-over ” which propels him with his groove and his swingas the most complex of string men of his generation. Meanwhile, Makarios does not neglect his university studies. As well as his foreign connections which give him convincing ” gigs ”. Alongside celebrities such as: Aretha Franklin, Mary J. Blige, Whitney Houston and among others Michael Jackson. The latter, during an impromptu meeting, while MC was working in a recording studio that MJ had booked. An opportunity that had allowed him to do very profitable business with the sacred music monster.
While continuing to travel the world, collaborating with rapper Papa Jube and other solicitations that make him appear as a traveling artist. With the new generation who also claim their share of their exquisite game. To be solicited by the maestro of the group “Zin” Alex Abellard, in order to imbue the music of the group with its atypical vibrations, during recordings in the studio. And not to be outdone, the “Phantom” and “Lakol” have also appropriated their expertise. Especially the second who made him his official guitarist. But, ceaselessly coveted, he is nabbed by Cubano on behalf of his “Skah-Shah” to make him more than a replacement for Mayala. At this turning point, his fame was established. The rise of the young guitarist with complex fingering, all haloed with arpeggios and a texture while counterpoint, is consumed.
Having galvanized his processes in the genesis of genres: gospel, pop, jazz, blues, swing, rock, konpa, voodoo-jazz and various peripheral resonances, Makarios did not give details, he interferes in all combinations. . Gratifying his mark to: Gifrants, Oasis, Gina Dupervil, Zshéa, Jefhté Guillaume, Jean Caze etc. And with the “NY All Stars”, in a new association which allowed him to find peers of his lineage such: the Welmyr brothers and Assel J. Pierre, Yves Abel, Shedley Abraham and others. All emerging musicians, each with extra-personal projects to accomplish. To say that this initiative was only a successive step. After everyone has returned to their journeys; and Makarios between two or three “ stints ”, including a passage to “Taboo”, which also took advantage of its flourishing sound. As well as having put his mark in all the records of the group “Karimi”.
In addition, his occupation as a real estate agent and then his own recording studio in the Hamptons allow him to better exercise his function as a producer. And obviously, headliners like “Nu Look” and others scrambled to have their selective imprint. But always between two projects, as with “Dozz”, without a future, he continues to get involved in collective or individual performances such as : Haitibonico , and Latibonit which he concocted in a “Hendrixian” version. Until his recent project “Level X”, in the company of singer Clinton Benoit with whom he had explored the “Kreyòl Alternative” and whom he found for one more, which he had promised to make waves. So, we wait.
