Pierre, Ulrick

The duo comprised of singer Claudette Pierre-Louis and composer / organist Ulrick (Ti Pierre) Pierre formed in 1977 near Port-au-Prince. Ti Pierre, born blind, learned music at a school for the handicapped. The duo released 10 albums between 1978 and 1990, touring throughout the Caribbean and Africa. During the 1991 coup in Haiti, Claudette fled to Canada and Ti Pierre was murdered in a house fire in a case of mistaken identity. One Youtube commenter, claiming to be a family friend, wrote that Claudette is alive and well with two daughters, now singing gospel music.

In stark contrast to their tragic end, the music of Claudette et Ti Pierre is joyful, tender, and exuberant. Three instruments comprise the majority of their discography: vocals, organs, and drum machine. “Zanmi kanmarad” in particular leans into complex organ harmonies that echo the synth programming of Kraftwerk. Bright organ timbres zip by their own reflections as Claudette’s spectral voice erupts from the bed of electronics, urging men to respect their mothers’ labor and sacrifices. I think of peppermint, crystallized dew and yesterday’s blanket of dusk.

“Zanmi kanmarad” was first released in 1979 on Claudette et Ti Pierre’s second Macaya Records album, Camionette. Information on the duo themselves beyond Discogs’ dedicated archivist community proved to be more difficult to piece together. Between Discogs, nostalgic French, English and Haitan Creole Youtube comments, plain-text websites covering Haitan music releases and sentence-long descriptors on file-sharing websites I have constructed a crude timeline for the duo that evidently touched the hearts of millions of Caribbean households.

Claudette et Ti Pierre were a musical duo whose catchy and exuberant songs echoed in households throughout the Caribbean and beyond. Formed in Haiti in the 1970s, the duo was composed of vocalist Claudette Pierre-Louis and organist Ulrick Pierre (known as Ti Pierre). Claudette et Ti Pierre toured internationally and released 10 albums between 1978 and 1990, spanning the final years of the Duvalier regime in Haiti. In 1991, Ti Pierre was tragically killed during protests following the January 6 coup attempt by Roger Lafontant, a former Duvalier official who sought to oust recently elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Claudette is said to have left Haiti around this time for Canada. Among the albums released by Claudette and Ti Pierre is “Noël”. This collection of celebratory holiday songs features titles such as “Tonton Noël,” a track in which the sweet and haunting timbres of Claudette’s voice resonate over Ti Pierre’s zippy synth organ harmonies. The cover art of the Noël album (image 2) is of a nativity scene that appears to be set in the Caribbean, perhaps Haiti.

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