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Guadeloupe

Biguine and gwo ka, 1960s–80s

Joseph Lacides

Joseph Lacides led his own trio on Guadeloupe's biguine and gwo ka scene from the 1960s into the 1980s, cutting a string of singles and a handful of albums for local labels, Henri Debs's Disques Debs among them. By 1984 his self-titled album for Debs had moved toward the zouk sound then sweeping the French Antilles. His early records have since come back on Strut's anthology of Disques Debs's first decade and on Born Bad Records' 2018 compilation of 1960s biguine and gwo ka from the French West Indies.

1960s biguine from Guadeloupe

Mahy et les Amis des Ondes

Mahy et les Amis des Ondes was the group of bandleader André Mahy, who recorded biguine and gwo ka on 45s for the Guadeloupe labels Aux Ondes and Célini in the 1960s. That made him part of the small local record industry that documented the island's dance music. Hardly anything about Mahy himself was ever written down. The records did the surviving instead: collectors found them, and they were reissued on Born Bad Records' 2018 compilation of 1960s French West Indies biguine and gwo ka, and again on a 2020 digital anthology of Kreyòl music.

The Collection