Martinican's Music

Biguine is a lively Afro-Creole dance music that originated in Martinique and Guadeloupe and later took Paris by storm in the interwar years. Its groove fuses African-derived drumming and stick patterns with European ballroom dances, producing a buoyant, syncopated feel in duple meter. Traditionally led by clarinet, trombone or trumpet with banjo/guitar, bass, and hand percussion (ti bwa sticks, chacha/maracas, and drums), biguine alternates catchy, ornamented melodies with call-and-response riffs. Harmonically it favors bright, diatonic progressions with dance-friendly phrasing, making it equally at home in street parades, salon dances, and concert settings.