Jacob Desvarieux

The story so far.

Written and edited by Smokiller

Jacob Desvarieux was a guitarist, singer and composer who co-founded Kassav', the band most closely tied to the birth of zouk. The French Ministry of Culture describes him as a Guadeloupean artist whose path ran through Senegal and then Marseille, where he worked as an arranger, before he met Pierre-Édouard and Georges Décimus and launched Kassav' with them in 1979. AFP reporting carried by The Local adds that he was born in Paris and counted Chuck Berry and Jimi Hendrix among his influences. In 1984 the song "Zouk la sé sèl médikaman nou ni", written by Desvarieux and Georges Décimus, helped give the new style its name. His catalogue on Deezer includes the albums Yélélé, Gorée and Euphrasine's Blues, along with the 2019 single Ou Lè. He died of Covid-19 on 30 July 2021, aged 65, at the University Hospital of Guadeloupe, and President Emmanuel Macron called him a giant of zouk music.