very fast and almost like a percussion.
His style was a mix
of his Haitian influences and folklore
mixed with the American influences
that he grew up hearing.
So he created a mix
of compas mixed with funk and jazz.
As a young man,
he played and toured with live bands
in the US and in Europe,
but had never recorded an album
or a song before moving to Canada.
It was in Montreal in 1979
that he released
his first album called, "Piano."
Completely on his own,
on Henri-Pierre Noël Records.
He only made what he could afford:
2,000 copies of the record.
The record received
a little bit of airplay,
a little bit of support
in Canada and in Haiti,
but without a big label behind it,
it was very, very difficult.
Back then,
if your record wasn't getting played
on mainstream radio,
if you weren't in jukeboxes
or if you weren't invited to play on TV,
the odds were completely against you.
Releasing an album
as an independent artist
was so much more difficult
than it is today,