RAM

RAM's bandleader, Richard August Morse, is a third generation Haitian musician. His maternal grandfather, Candio, wrote an arrangement of a traditional tune which Harry Belefonte later covered as "Yellowbird". His mother, Emerante de Pradines, is a well-known singer and dancer who has been recorded by Folkways Records. Through his father, a retired Chairman of Latin American Studies at Yale University, he is descended from New England's earliest Puritan settlers. Following Richard's graduation from Princeton University, he played in punk-rock bands throughout the north-eastern US, but the of his maternal heritage compelled a move to Haiti in 1985. He began to trace the common African roots of Haitian rhythms and American pop music styles in search of an honest synthesis. Richard's exploration of Vodou music took time and patience, as the religion surrounding it is not easily penetrated, but eventually trust was achieved and he was made welcome.

Meanwhile, Richard took up the management of the legendary Oloffson Hotel in Port-au-Prince, which was the model for the Hotel Trianon in Graham Greene's novel "The Comedians". While booking local talent to perform at the hotel, he met his beautiful wife, Lunise Morse, who was a dancer in the in-house troupe. She grew up in the heart of Haiti, immersed in homegrown rhythms and exposed to American music over the airwaves. When RAM was formed in 1990, Richard encouraged her to develop her vocal talents and she is now the charismatic co-lead singer and spiritual mother of the group.

Richard's songs for RAM drew freely from folklore and his rock n' roll background, expressing his unique interior perspective as a child of two contradictory but not antagonistic milieus. RAM evolved into a unit of over a dozen performers gathered from the cream of Haiti's music scene, including a trio of master drummers whose hand-carved instruments are the soul of the countryside.

RAM performs every Thursday night at the Hotel Olofson in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Members

Richard August Morse, Lead Singer
Lunise Morse, Lead Singer
Wilson Theluce, Drummer
Jean Mary Brignol, Drummer
Robert Wood Romain, Drummer
Jose Modelus, Bass
Onito Parfait, Guitar
Emmanuel Marcelin, Keyboards
Yonel Justin, Roland Octapad
Sylvain Jean, Chorus
Patou Lindor, Chorus
Jonas Jean, Horn
Pierre Jules, Horn
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMXMaQ-cAZ0