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Bouyon: a name that means soup

In Antillean Creole, the word bouyon means something like a gumbo soup, or a koubouyon pwason, a fish broth typical of the Caribbean. A dish where you put everything you have, and where the mix creates the taste. The creators of the genre could not have found a better name.

The mix as a philosophy

Jing ping, cadence-lypso, bèlè, kwadril, chanté mas, lapo kabwit, mazurka, zouk: the list of bouyon ingredients reads like a recipe. As in a soup, no ingredient completely dominates, and the mix is what makes the identity of the dish, and of the genre.

A word from everyday life

The musical bouyon carries the name of a popular kitchen dish, not a studio name. That fits its history: a music born in the village fetes and the carnival of Dominica, for the people, with the people’s words, in Kwéyòl and in Creole English.

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