By Tadia Toussaint
Percussion instruments, the horn and acoustic guitar comes together to create an electrifying rhythmic sound in Paul Beaubrun’s solo album Vilnerab, which debuts on Feb. 19.
Although Beaubrun loves all seven songs on the album, the song that “resonates the most” with him at the moment is “Legba Blues.”
“It’s a mix of Haitian Roots, with traditional American Blues, which generates a very soulful and powerful sound,” he said.
I was born into the music, Beaubrun, lead vocalist and maestro of Zing Experience, a Roots Rock band, said. “It’s natural, I’m lucky to have parents that were so musically involved.” The son of Grammy-nominated Haitian legends Theodore and Mimerose of Boukman Eksperyans, believes the music “chose” him.
“Music was just there,” he said. “I didn’t choose music, music chose me.
“My message as an artist is Ayibobo meaning welcome, amen, hallelujah,” Beaubrun, who was born and raised in Port-Au-Prince, said.
Beaubrun’s cultural roots have never left his side and he is currently a part of an ongoing project with a Norwegian nonprofit that donates the majority of their proceeds to Haitian women and children. He named his previous album after the organization, Project Haiti, to honor the opportunity they were given by them to record their music in Norway.
I want my music to wake up people’s conscious, he said. “I just want to be that little light, that little spark.
“Haitian people, it is not what you see on television,” Beaubrun said. “It’s the cry, the hope, the love, the energy, the thing that gives goose bumps, it’s the voice.”
http://vimeo.com/117844615?ref=tw-share
Beaubrun performing live last week at BRIC's music program B-Side.