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1985-05-18

Nemours Jean-Baptiste dies blind and poor at Martissant

Haitian

Nemours Jean-Baptiste died on 18 May 1985. He had played banjo in the 1940s and then invented compas direct on a July night in 1955, and for more than a decade he was the biggest star in Haitian popular music. He ended blind and impoverished at Martissant. The whole country still dances to what he made.

Source Researched: Le Nouvelliste