By Christine Jean-Pierre
CSMS Magazine Staff Writer
This week on Trace TV’s Tropical, fresh new folkloric song Avan I Two Ta by Jocelyne Labylle featuring legendary Kassav songstress Jocelyne Beroard made its way on the countdown. It was number 10. The song Avan I Two Ta (before it’s too late) written and composed by Jocelyne Labylle and produced by Frederic Wurtz is the first single out of the new Jocelyne Labylle album Jocelyne et jocelyne set to be released in the fall. The video was filmed in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, on the island’s countryside where one can see both singers singing in a beautiful duet. It is about how they want to get the last chance to express how much they love their significant others.
According to Le Blog du Zouk, originally, the idea for the song Avan I Two Ta began to develop in late 2009, while Jocelyne Labylle was in the studio with zouk producer Frederic Wurtz. She was pondering some ideas of a kind of modern folkloric song to give to Jocelyn Beroard of Kassav for the new Kassav album. Then, when Jocelyne was done recording the demo, she sent it to Jocelyn Beroard via email to request her opinion. She loved it instantly, and she agreed to do the song with only one condition, that Labylle would have to sing the song with her as a duet.
Adjustments were made later as the production progressed. Avan I Two Ta started as slow piano base. Then, rewording of the lyrics and changing the melody of the song came into application by adding guitarist, Johan Rochambeau. Avan I Two Ta became a fun loving folkloric song with a modernized twist about love, and how it’s more important to tell our loved ones how much we love them before it’s too late.
Avan I Two Ta premiered in zouk radio last month. It was and is still being played on the NRJ Antilles stations in Martinique, Guadeloupe, and French Guiana; and last week it was heard on the TraceFm stations in Martinique and Guadeloupe. The song is highly requested on both stations. In fact, it’s been holding the number 6 spot on the NRJ zouk countdown for three weeks straight. The video itself holds the number 13 spot on Trace Tropical’s daily top 20 zouk video countdown, and has 9,000 views to date on YouTube alone.
The recent success of Avan I Two Ta serves as a great comeback hit for Jocelyne Labylle after her two smash hit singles with Haitian band T-vice ToujouLa in 2005 and J’aimerais te revoir in 2007 for the album Kite m Viv. Music critics would also argue that Avan I Two Ta is a great single for Jocelyne Beroard as well, because it is her first single in over 5 years after her last solo album Madousinay released in 2003. That is also the first album in which she is featured in a song without help or accompaniment from her traditional band Kassav. Rumor has it, according to industry insiders that Jocelyne Beroard is working with mainstream zouk producer Kaysha on a possible solo album project. But in a recent interview on the Guadeloupian talk show En attendant l’ INFO Beroard along with her fellow Kassav bandmates stated that she has no plans on releasing any solo album, and that the only album project she is working on is another Kassav album set to be released in the fall.
