The Sonic Common Wind: Hearing the Communitarian Relations and the Migratory Movements of the Haitian Revolution in the Jazz of Haiti and New Orleans

Abstract Music has been a force for social cohesion and a site of politicized consciousness for the migrants of the Haitian diaspora as early as the outbreak of the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804). This essay explores Vodou Jazz movement of Haiti during and after the United States occupation (1915-1934) by connecting this 20th century movement to Haitian migration to New Orleans in the early 19th century. Both are expressions of transcarribean culture (“the common wind”) which spread the news and militancy of the Haitian Revolution through popular song and dance. Rather than passive victims to enslavement, forced migration, and economic imperialism, this essay demonstrates how multiple transnational communities made sense of their world through a sophisticated aural culture which challenged imperialism, slavery, and the plantation mode of production.