Webert Sicot (1930 – February 1985) was a

Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...

an saxophone player, composer and band leader. He is recognized as one of the creators of ''

compas Compas (; ; ), also known as konpa or kompa, is a modern méringue dance music genre of Haiti. The genre was created by Nemours Jean-Baptiste following the creation of Ensemble Aux Callebasses in 1955, which became Ensemble Nemours Jean-Bapti ...

'' also known as ''compas direct'', a style of Haitian music born in the 1950s that he named

cadence rampa Cadence rampa (, ), or simply kadans, is a dance music and modern méringue popularized in the Caribbean by the virtuoso Haitian sax player Webert Sicot in the early 1960s. Cadence rampa was one of the sources of cadence-lypso. Genres: Caribbean ...

after he left Nemours' band to differentiate himself in 1962 in the spirit of competition.

Career

Sicot was born in

Port-au-Prince Port-au-Prince ( ; ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Haiti, most populous city of Haiti. The city's population was estimated at 1,200,000 in 2022 with the metropolitan area estimated at a population of 2,618,894. The me ...

, Haiti, in 1930. He took his first musical lessons from Augustin Bruno. He made his debut as professional with Claudin Toussaint's Jazz Capois. He also worked with the groups Jazz des Jeunes and the Saieh Orchestra, in the second half or the 1950s. He founded with

Nemours Jean-Baptiste {{Infobox musical artist , name = Nemours Jean-Baptiste , image = , image_size = , landscape = , alt = , caption = Inventor of Compas, a style of Haitian music , ...

the Conjunto Internacional and took part in the Citadelle orchestra and Casino Internacional Band. With Jean-Baptiste, he created the compas direct, a variation of the Haitian

méringue Méringue (; ), also called ''méringue lente'' or ''méringue de salon'' (''slow'' or ''salon'' méringue), is a dance music and national symbol in Haiti. It is a string-based style played on the guitar, horn section, piano, and other string ...

. In 1961 he commenced a solo career and became one of the pioneers of

. He played several instruments as trumpet, bass, piano and drums. Because of his frequent Caribbean tours with his brother Raymond in the Caribbean, cadence became very popular in

Dominica Dominica, officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island country in the Caribbean. It is part of the Windward Islands chain in the Lesser Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean Sea. The capital, Roseau, is located on the western side of t ...

and the

French Antilles The French West Indies or French Antilles (, ; ) are the parts of France located in the Antilles islands of the Caribbean: * The two Overseas department and region of France, overseas departments of: ** Guadeloupe, including the islands of Bass ...

Guadeloupe Guadeloupe is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France in the Caribbean. It consists of six inhabited islands—Basse-Terre Island, Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre, Guadeloupe, Grande-Terre, Marie-Galant ...

and

Martinique Martinique ( ; or ; Kalinago language, Kalinago: or ) is an island in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It was previously known as Iguanacaera which translates to iguana island in Carib language, Kariʼn ...

. Sicot died in February 1985 and is considered as one of the most influentials band leaders in Haitian popular music.

Career

References

See also