Kompa is a popular form of jazz-based dance music that originated in Haiti during the mid-twentieth century. Kompa is derived from méringue de salon, a string-based style of Haitian dance music inspired by contra dance, a dance style from Europe. The popularity of kompa has inspired many Caribbean music forms, including the Antillean zouk and cadence-lypso, from the Dominican Republic.
The traditional kompa sound features the brass instruments associated with big band, like the saxophone, trumpet, and trombone, and the slower rhythms of méringue de salon, set to the pulsating beats of tanbou, a barrel drum from Haiti. Modern kompa, or compas nouvelle génération, replaces many traditional kompa instruments with electronic equipment, such as synthesizers and drum machines, and adds elements of hip-hop and reggae to appeal to club and dancehall audiences.
Kompa adopted its moniker from the Spanish word “compás,” which means “rhythm” or “measure,” as in a musical measure or bar. The genre is known under various names in the different countries where it has flourished. In the French-based language of Haitian Creole, it’s also called “konpa,” while other languages and nationalities refer to the music as “compas direct” or “kompa direkt,” among other spellings.