Take Me But Save the Coffee: Lakou Mizik and "Peze Kafe"

Today's random song is by Haitian group Lakou Mizik, and is called Peze Kafe. A music collective that formed in the chaos surrounding the 2010 Haitian earthquake, Lakou Mizik's members range in age from 20's to 60's, all with a shared passion to rediscover the roots of Haitian music which they feel is being lost as the world becomes more interconnected. Their name has many meanings, from "yard music" shared among friends to "home music" in a place where you are from, to its Haitian vodou meaning as music in a holy place that speaks to your ancestors. Peze Kafe is a 100 year old or so Haitian folk tune about a boy who is sent by his mother to fetch coffee from the store, and on his way back he is wrongfully arrested by the police. As they haul him away, he cries "what will I tell my mother about the coffee?" The song speaks to the importance of coffee in Haitian life and tradition. You can find Peze Kafe on Lakou Mizik's 2016 release Wa Di Yo.

Listen to songs like this and more on the KUNM Global Music Show every Monday night from 10 pm - 1 am Mountain Standard Time. Live streaming, program information and the two-week digital archive can be found at http://www.kunm.org.

Source: https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-04-07/haitis-lakou-mizik-holds-tradition-through-tragedy; http://lakoumizik.com/