Kaseko is a

musical genre A music genre is a conventional category that identifies some pieces of music as belonging to a shared tradition or set of conventions. Genre is to be distinguished from musical form and musical style, although in practice these terms are sometim ...

from

Suriname Suriname, officially the Republic of Suriname, is a country in northern South America, also considered as part of the Caribbean and the West Indies. It is a developing country with a Human Development Index, high level of human development; i ...

. It is a fusion of numerous popular and folk styles derived from Africa, Europe and the Americas. The genre is

rhythm Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular r ...

ically complex, with percussion instruments including skratji (a very large bass drum) and

snare drum The snare drum (or side drum) is a percussion instrument that produces a sharp staccato sound when the head is struck with a drum stick, due to the use of a series of stiff wires held under tension against the lower skin. Snare drums are often u ...

s, as well as saxophone, trumpet and occasionally trombone. Singing can be both solo and choir. Songs are typically

call-and-response Call and response is a form of interaction between a speaker and an audience in which the speaker's statements ("calls") are punctuated by responses from the listeners. This form is also used in music, where it falls under the general category of ...

, as are Creole folk styles from the area, such as kawina.

Etymology

The term ''Kaseko'' may be derived from '' Kasékò'', a Guianan creole dance.

History

Kaseko emerged from the traditional

Afro-Surinamese Afro-Surinamese are the inhabitants of Suriname of mostly West African and Central African ancestry. They are descended from enslaved Africans brought to work on sugar plantations. Many of them escaped the plantations and formed independent sett ...

kawina music, which was played since the beginning of 1900 by street musicians in

Paramaribo Paramaribo ( , , ) is the capital city, capital and largest city of Suriname, located on the banks of the Suriname River in the Paramaribo District. Paramaribo has a population of roughly 241,000 people (2012 census), almost half of Suriname's p ...

. It evolved in the 1930s during festivities that used large bands, especially

brass band A brass band is a musical ensemble generally consisting primarily of brass instruments, most often with a percussion section. Ensembles that include brass and woodwind instruments can in certain traditions also be termed brass bands (particularl ...

s, and was called ''Bigi Poku'' ("big drum music"). In the late 1940s,

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

, calypso and other importations became popular, while

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock-n-roll, and rock 'n' roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from African ...

soon left its own influence in the form of electrified instruments. Eddy Snijders incorporated kaseko to symphonic music. In the 1970s, Surinamese expatriates living in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, such as Lieve Hugo and Ewald Krolis, popularized kaseko.

References

External links

*https://web.archive.org/web/20100514061941/http://lievehugo.com/ *http://www.kingbotho.com *http://www.srananpoku.com/browse-kaseko-videos-1-date.html Music of Suriname Fusion music genres Dance in Suriname {{Suriname-stub