Talented musician, heterodox vocalist according to a chameleon bill. Contemporary samba “Wawa” emerged in music during the year 1957, within “Sentimental Youth”, of Bel-Air. Subsequently to his studies at Lycée Pétion, where he learned the fundamentals of music, and, while allowing him to be in charge of the ensemble “Les Caroussels de la Chanson”, a vocal orientation training, which already illustrated it in choreography. Then briefly join the “Ensemble de Nemours Jean Batiste”, showing his vocal flair and his musical sense. But, it is within “La Flèche d’Or” by Wébert Sicot, that he demonstrated his capacities as a musician, as a happy singer, as a good purveyor of verbal delirium, of his funny phrasing, animating the avant-garde in the company of A. Dorismond and G. French.: Kanaval djèt la, Fanatik 4 koulè, Pwen final; enveloping the kadans-ranpa with his enterprising imprint.
This is how he subsequently established himself as the leader of the group, which was renamed “Super Choucoune” after Sicot’s departure, and which he directed following the resignation of maestro-singer André Dorismond. Is showing again in fierce composer with songs like: Homo homini lupus, Hell, etc. Yavé . After this stage, he turned towards a more sophisticated music, of vocal preponderance, with “the Blue Camisoles”, which camped him in patented choreography. While performing as a pedagogue, providing sessions and folklore lessonsat the Collège Grégoire Eugène and other schools in the city. Still between two or three projects, he nevertheless returned to the ambient music by rallying the “National Radio Orchestra” under the leadership of R.Guillaume, in the company of his former boss W. Sicot as well as the drummer Charles Delva.
Still eager to explore, he ended up finding his way in the multiplicity of traditional rhythms. In 1990, he joined forces with the master drummer and samba player Azor to form the group “Rasin Kanga”, in an approach to voodoo music, nourished by atavistic adaptations. This collaboration resulted in three records which had leveled off, until Azor’s departure. A prolific composer, “Wawa” drew his inspiration from the secular and sound sources of “Etan Gwoyan”, and “Lakou Sikran” in Beauséjour commune in the 8th section of Léogane, where his mother and father are from. This has helped him to perpetuate his ancestral legacies and to establish himself through his multiple contributions in local music, as a full-fledged figure, as much as a reference in voodoo music, having earned him a great reputation. solicited.
Like this introduction to the song Sodo, on the album: ” San mele ” by the group “Zèklè” which attested to its know-how. And as a generator of native music, illuminated by exhilarating drums and katas, haloed with onomatopoeia sequences and euphonic data in the style of “jam sessions”. After more than half a century of making the soul of his native land throb, Jacques M. Fortère has shown signs of slowing down because of the disease; while counting to his credit more than four hundred compositions, many of which are unpublished, in his mission to consolidate authentic popular culture.
Wawa died this On Sunday April 12 at the Brookdale Hospital, Brooklyn (USA) , at the age of 82 years, Wawa passed away after suffering from a stroke.
