The Easy Appeal of Kompa band Bossa Combo

Updated December 2, 2012 9:19 PM

Bossa Combo, a Haitian jazz band, rose to fame in the late 60s. Made up of ten musicians in the beginning, they played organ, saxophone, lead and rhythm guitar, bass, and percussion. Two band members doubled as vocalists. Reymond cajuste was the lead singer for the band. They were all born and bred in Haiti.

Bossa Combo's first album issued in 1970 titled Haiti . . . Que J'amie brought them their first flush of fame, which endured for over 25 years. A prolific band, they issued numerous albums during their career, among them Te Quiero, Compas Kekal, and Live El Rancho Hotel. Eventually, some of the band members broke away to form a new group, based on one of their top three albums Accolade. They called themselves Accolade de New York.

Bossa Combo stayed popular for more than a quarter of a century, their reputation for being a very listenable and danceable band, enjoyed by younger as well as older generations, a key factor in maintaining their appeal. The band's easy, languid rhythms and slow-tempo music relaxed and unwound people at the week's end.

Weekends when they played clubs, the venues were jammed with partygoers, and if you and your wife or girlfriend wanted to see and dance to Bossa Combo, you had to call ahead and get a table reserved.

The last album of the Haitian Kompa Band and Reymond Cajuste was a compilation The Best of Bossa Combo Vol 2, which includes favorites "Vanite", "Madam Marie", "Joanne", "Femme a La Coquette", "Sourire", and "Acte Da Naissance".

Write a comment