“I made my instruments with the means at hand”

I am a born musician – a Mardi Gras to boot [en février 1953]. I have always sweated the music. My life as an artist began with resourcefulness, “the Dédé system”: I made my instruments with the means at hand. Old pans, cans, cardboard boxes, scrap metal that turned into a battery. Pumpkin or papaya stalks as a flute. Comb and thin paper became a paper clip, a piece of garden hose, a trumpet.

My musical education was refined thanks to the radio (I listened to all Caribbean music). At the time, Creole and the drum were rare on Radio Martinique. I went to 450 AM every Saturday afternoon to listen to “La Gazette créole” by Casimir Létang and I never missed the balls. With my grandmother Man Dèdène, we watched the musicians through the cracks of the La Canne à sucre hut (at the François [sa commune natale, au sud-est de la Martinique, sur la côte atlantique]), or even in the school canteen, which became a dance hall during the “Green Ball”.

As soon as there was music in my town, I was there! high waist, ladja, bèlè, chouval-bwa, casino, orchestra rehearsal, brass band… I let nothing pass. My first orchestra was an “owkès’bonm” and “mizik djol” in my grandmother’s courtyard and it was I who set the tone! the chouval bwa, a traditional carousel of Martinique, gave me confidence in my abilities, because I had the blessing of the adults who accepted that I play with them. This was my first “music school”.

Residences and master-classes

My second orchestra was Madinina, where I was first a drummer before moving on to tumbas then to congas [percussions]. In the orchestra of the Lycée Schœlcher (in Fort-de-France), my nickname was “Dédé Congasolo” or “Dédé Conga”. I was then hired by the group Les Trouvères, then played with Les Juniors, the Maxi-Twenty du Marin, La Selecta, Malavoi, Le Groupe E +, Pakatak and Avan-Van. My national career started with Pakatak and my international career with Avan-Van. In the early 1990s, I started residencies and master classes, activities that I continue to this day in prisons, hospitals and schools.

I spent my last year as a school teacher in Paris, rue de la Réunion (20^e). As soon as I showed my press-book to the director, she made me understand that I was taking the place of another civil servant because I had two careers at the same time… As I had used all the leave authorized by the national education, she refused me an afternoon without pay that I had asked for to go and do my soundcheck at the Olympia… With this killer sentence: “ Mr. Saint-Prix, we need you at school, you will make your music during the school holidays. » Music and inspiration having no time or period, my freedom and my independence not being negotiated, my choice was quickly made.

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