What was the Caribbean up to while New Orleans, New York, and Chicago were bouncing to the sounds of ragtime, jazz, and swing? If you’re like me—someone relatively well versed in jazz, but primarily where it intersects with swing dance—then “biguine” might conjure images of Cole Porter, Artie Shaw, Broadway musicals, and tea dances. In this case, the word follows “begin” and “the” and its precise meaning is probably hazy.
But what you’re thinking of would be “beguine”—a word with similarly Caribbean origins but a slightly different meaning. A biguine, it turns out, is a creole style of music from 19th-century Martinique blending European and African influences. (Sound familiar?) Biguines Pour Vous is a collection of 13 biguines, valses, and mazouks made famous by some of Martinique and Guadeloupe’s biggest dance orchestras from the 1920s to the 1950s. Recorded here by the newly minted Orchestre Typique Transatlantique, it features top jazz talent from Australia (Michael McQuaid, reeds), the UK (including Nicholas D. Ball, percussion) and US (Charlie Halloran, brass).
What does it sound like? Synaesthetes should have a riot with this one, being as it is a rainbow of colors and unusual textures not found in the average jazz record. Be it Andrew Oliver’s gently pulsing piano on the likes of “Miranda,” Ball’s tropical-sounding percussion on “Renée
