The purpose of the Haitian music billboard is to establish an electronic archive that will serve to promote the understanding, and appreciation of Haitian music through publication and recordings, as well as providing the public access to all Haitian recordings. This billboard will enlist all the genre of Haitian music: Konpa, Racine(voodoo), Djazz Creole, instrumental. Heritagekonpa would like to dedicate this Billboard to all Haitian artists who have contributed to the evolution and development of Haitian music across the World.

The early history of popular Haitian music is marked by the appearance of big band , such as Septentrional, Nemours Jean Baptiste, Webert Sicot, Tropicana, Difficile, Gypsy De Petion ville,Tabou Combo, Magnum Band, Skah Shah, Shleu, Shleu, Jazz Des Jeunes, Bossa Combo, DP Express, and Scorpio. These groups are often consisted of 13 to 18 musicians, and play with a full set of instruments: two guitar ( lead & rhythm), bass, percussion, conga(tambour), keyboard or piano, drum, sax, trombone, trumpet, and two singers. Where as traditional Haitian music, Twoubadou ( country) features artists like Ti Paris and Althery Dorival who just play with a set of 3 to 5 musicians: two lead guitars, and a conga (tambour). This era also gave birth to tremendous and excellent solo artist, such as Gerald Dupervil, Guy Durosier, Leon Dimanche, Ansy & Yole Derole, Lemane Casimir, Dodof Legros, to name a few.

The most popular form of Haitian music was created by Nemour Jean Baptiste, Webert Sicot, Djazz Des Jeunes and Septentrional in the early 40's. However, Haitian music dates back to the native Indians who originally inhabited the Island Hispanola several hundred years before the arrival of Africans in Haiti.

According to Dr. Gage Averill, who is the chairman of New York University Music Department. Ricardo Widmaier, a Germain-Swiss immigrant, first recorded Jazz Guinard ( Haitian Jazz) at 78 rpm ) in his radio station HH3W, Port-au-Prince. Konpa first commercial record, Konpa direck, was made in 1956 by Nemours Jean Baptiste (under the direction of Herby Widmaier).The record had a profound effect on Haitian musicians and the public. Nemours' konpa style set the precedent for all konpa bands from Tabou to Sweet Micky. Konpa's first record reflects all the tendencies in African music which is organized to reflect around rhythm and accent. Improvisation is also a big part of Haitian music, as most musicians have successfully create their craft from there.

As Haitian music proliferated into the late 20th century, traditional band music gradually changed, there was less emphasis on live instruments. The digital era in konpa, which began with Top Vice in the mid-80's, was a big shift in Haitian music from big band konpa to preprogram sequence, where almost every instrument was programmed into a drum machine (electronic). As result most new band consist of only 3 to 4 musicians: a lead guitar, bass, drum machine, and a lead singer.

The following inscriptions denoted the difference in bands: F= full band; T= twoubadou; E= electronic bands; S= single artists; and P= project albums.

We would like to thank Heritagekonpa Research Department, Dr. Gage Averill, who has done extensive research on Haitian music, and everyone who has contributed to this project.

Written by Rene Devis & Scheeler Devis