Wesley Louissaint, better known as Wesli, was born on September 6, 1980 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The Canada-based award-winning Haitian guitarist and singer aims to give a new mainstream life to rhythms and instruments that he says have been neglected as Haiti faces an increasing amount of global commercial music and culture.
He weaves contemporary messages into traditional forms and keeps a wide range of roots percussion at the heart of his songs. “Each Haitian roots rhythm reflects different situations and requires different drums and instruments” Wesli explains. “One unique thing we do in all these genres is dance! We dance to everything in Haiti.”
Wesli also supports aspiring young Haitian musicians from at-risk backgrounds via a school he opened in Port-au-Prince in 2014.
The album Tradisyon came out in Oct. 21st, 2022 on Cumbancha. To prepare for this ambitious musical project, Wesli had to return to his roots. He embarked on a multi-year musical pilgrimage to explore often hidden facets of Haitian traditions. Wesli traveled across his homeland, visiting lakous, gathering places and community groups for practitioners of Haiti’s voodoo religion, to learn songs in African languages brought to Haiti hundreds of years ago.
Tradisyon, the sixth album of Wesli’s celebrated career, is the first of a two-part set that retells the story of Haiti’s past and imagines its future. The encyclopedic first album features 19 songs, original compositions and treasures from the expansive Haitian music repertoire. By drawing on these traditions, Africa inevitably emerges — through the rara, petro, nago, congo and yanvalou rhythms, and the lyrics sung both in Creole and the African languages of Yoruba, Ewe, and Fon. They are all accompanied by local instruments such as the bamboo, the kata, the segon, the boula, the manman and the banjo, an originally African instrument that had been adopted by European colonizers.
Discography:
Kouraj (WUP, 2009)
Liberté dans le noir (WUP, 2011)
ImmiGrand (WUP, 2015)
Ayiti Étoile Nouvelle (WUP Wes Urban Productions, 2015)
ImmiGrand Deluxe (2017)
Rapadou Kreyol (2018)
Tradisyon (Cumbancha, 2022)
Author: Angel Romero
Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.