Richard Auguste Morse
Encyclopedia
Richard Auguste Morse is a Puerto Rican-born Haitian-American musician and hotel manager currently residing in Port-au-Prince
, Haiti
. Morse manages the Hotel Oloffson
, and is the founder of a mizik rasin
band, RAM
, named after his initials. Morse is married to the band's lead female vocalist, Lunise Morse, and has two children. Morse and his band are famous in Haiti for their political songs and performances critical of the Raoul Cédras
military junta
from 1991 to 1994. In more recent years, Morse has also criticized Jean-Bertrand Aristide
and Fanmi Lavalas
through his music. Morse is a United States
citizen. His cousin Michel Martelly is a musician and right-wing Haitian politician. Richard Morse repeatedly expressed support for Martelly in the 2010 presidential elections in Haiti.
in 1957. His father, Richard M. Morse
, was an American academic sociologist
and writer
, and his mother was a famous Haitian singer, Emerante de Pradine. The family did not stay in Puerto Rico for long, and Richard grew up in the town of Woodbridge, Connecticut
in the United States. Morse graduated from Princeton University
in 1979 with a degree in anthropology
. While at Princeton Morse sang with a band, "The Groceries," which became sufficiently successful to play off-campus. They played New Wave
and punk rock
music with certain Caribbean
musical style elements.
, then in near ruins and the inspiration for the fictional Hotel Trianon in Graham Greene
's famous 1966 novel The Comedians
. In restoring the hotel business, Morse hired a local folkloric dance troupe and slowly converted it into a band. Morse fell in love with one of the performers, Lunise, whom he married.
RAM was formally created in 1990. Morse would become the songwriter and lead male vocalist, Lunise became the lead female vocalist, and the name of band, RAM, comes from Richard's initials. RAM was a rasin band. One of the most important musical movements that swept Haiti in the years following the exile of dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier
, mizik rasin combines elements of traditional vodou ceremonical and folkloric music with rock and roll
. The ancient drum rhythms of former African slaves combined with the beat of American rock and roll was a perfect combination for the musical background of Morse. The Hotel Oloffson was also a perfect venue for rehearsals and performances. When not on tour elsewhere in the country, RAM began playing a regular performance every Thursday night at the hotel.
in 1991. RAM and other rasin bands were strongly identified with Aristide and his political party, Lavalas
. When other performers, such as Boukman Eksperyans
and Manno Charlemagne
, left the country in exile, Morse and his band chose to stay in Port-au-Prince. The music that Morse wrote and RAM performed was often laced with political messages critical of the military junta led by Raoul Cédras. Richard, Lunise, and other members of the band were threatened or harassed. In 1992, Morse adapted a traditional vodou folk song, "Fèy
", to a rasin rhythm and instrumentation. Despite no overt references to the political situation, it was widely played on the radio and immediately taken up throughout the country as an unofficial anthem of support for Aristide. By the summer of 1992, playing or singing the song was banned
under military authority, and Morse was subjected to death threats from the regime. In one particular instance, Morse was summoned before Evans François, the brother of Colonel Michel François
, who told Morse that any number of assassins
would be willing to kill him for as little as fifty cents in payment.
In September, 1994, U.S. military troops arrived to oust the Cédras regime, and Morse and his band were finally able to release some of their music in their own albums. Over time, Morse, like many other Haitians, had become disillusioned with Aristide and his new political party, Fanmi Lavalas. In 1998, Manno Charlemagne, the newly-elected Fanmi Lavalas mayor of Port-au-Prince, sent armed men to the Oloffson to dismantle the float on which RAM was scheduled to perform in the upcoming annual Carnival
. The mayor had taken offense to the lyrics of one of the band's songs, which he interpreted as an accusation of corruption. In a compromise, the band was allowed to perform on a flatbed truck. However, the brakes on the truck were sabotaged [evidence?] and during the procession, the truck swerved into the crowd, killing eight and forcing the members of the band to flee for their lives.
drums and rara
horns used in vodou ceremonies. Eventually, Richard Morse became so involved in the vodou religion through his music that he was initiated as a houngan
, or vodou priest, in 2002. Describing a RAM concert, Morse explains, "Yes, you might see our dancers go into a trance. Some get possessed by the loa
s, to the rhythm of the drums, but it's a natural state when it happens. You can't fake it."
Port-au-Prince
Port-au-Prince is the capital and largest city of the Caribbean nation of Haiti. The city's population was 704,776 as of the 2003 census, and was officially estimated to have reached 897,859 in 2009....
, Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
. Morse manages the Hotel Oloffson
Hotel Oloffson
The Hotel Oloffson is an inn in central Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The main structure of the hotel is a 19th century Gothic gingerbread mansion set in a lush tropical garden. The mansion was built as a residence for the powerful Sam family, including two former presidents of Haiti...
, and is the founder of a mizik rasin
Mizik rasin
Rasin is a musical movement that began in Haïti in 1987 when musicians began combining elements of traditional Haïtian vodou ceremonical and folkloric music with rock and roll. This style of modern music reaching back to the roots of vodou tradition came to be called mizik rasin in Kreyòl or...
band, RAM
RAM (band)
RAM is a mizik rasin band based in the city of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The band derives its name from the initials of its founder, songwriter, and lead male vocalist, Richard A. Morse. The band's music has been described by Morse as "Vodou rock 'n' roots", and has been one of the prominent bands...
, named after his initials. Morse is married to the band's lead female vocalist, Lunise Morse, and has two children. Morse and his band are famous in Haiti for their political songs and performances critical of the Raoul Cédras
Raoul Cédras
Raoul Cédras is a former military officer, and was de facto ruler of Haiti from 1991 to 1994.-Background:Cédras was educated in the United States and was a member of the US-trained Leopard Corps...
military junta
Military dictatorship
A military dictatorship is a form of government where in the political power resides with the military. It is similar but not identical to a stratocracy, a state ruled directly by the military....
from 1991 to 1994. In more recent years, Morse has also criticized Jean-Bertrand Aristide
Jean-Bertrand Aristide
Jean-Bertrand Aristide is a Haitian former Catholic priest and politician who served as Haiti's first democratically elected president. A proponent of liberation theology, Aristide was appointed to a parish in Port-au-Prince in 1982 after completing his studies...
and Fanmi Lavalas
Fanmi Lavalas
Fanmi Lavalas is a leftist political party in Haiti. Its leader is former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. It has been a powerful force in Haitian politics since 1991. Fanmi Lavalas governments supported a policy of "growth with equity" based on Caribbean and Western European social...
through his music. Morse is a United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
citizen. His cousin Michel Martelly is a musician and right-wing Haitian politician. Richard Morse repeatedly expressed support for Martelly in the 2010 presidential elections in Haiti.
Early life
Richard Auguste Morse was born in Puerto RicoPuerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
in 1957. His father, Richard M. Morse
Richard McGee Morse
Richard "Dick" McGee Morse, Ph.D. was a Latin Americanist scholar and professor at Columbia University, University of Puerto Rico, Yale University and Stanford University before finishing his career at the Wilson Center in Washington DC.Morse was born in Summit, New Jersey, United States, but...
, was an American academic sociologist
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
and writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, and his mother was a famous Haitian singer, Emerante de Pradine. The family did not stay in Puerto Rico for long, and Richard grew up in the town of Woodbridge, Connecticut
Woodbridge, Connecticut
Woodbridge is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 8,983 at the 2000 census. It is one of the wealthiest towns in Connecticut, ranking 16th in the state in terms of per capita income, and is home to many of the faculty of Yale University...
in the United States. Morse graduated from Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
in 1979 with a degree in anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
. While at Princeton Morse sang with a band, "The Groceries," which became sufficiently successful to play off-campus. They played New Wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
and punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
music with certain Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
musical style elements.
Move to Haiti
In 1985, Morse was dating a woman whose father strongly disapproved of his daughter dating a musician. Morse also had a falling out with his fellow band members in The Groceries over musical differences, and was struggling with the direction his life should take. A conversation with a French record producer persuaded Morse to start over and move to Port-au-Prince to better explore Haitian and Caribbean music. In 1987, he signed a 15 year lease to manage the Hotel OloffsonHotel Oloffson
The Hotel Oloffson is an inn in central Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The main structure of the hotel is a 19th century Gothic gingerbread mansion set in a lush tropical garden. The mansion was built as a residence for the powerful Sam family, including two former presidents of Haiti...
, then in near ruins and the inspiration for the fictional Hotel Trianon in Graham Greene
Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene, OM, CH was an English author, playwright and literary critic. His works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world...
's famous 1966 novel The Comedians
The Comedians (novel)
The Comedians is a novel by Graham Greene, first published in 1966. Set in Haiti under the rule of François "Papa Doc" Duvalier and his secret police, the Tontons Macoute, The Comedians tells the story of a tired hotel owner, Brown, and his increasing fatalism as he watches Haiti descend into...
. In restoring the hotel business, Morse hired a local folkloric dance troupe and slowly converted it into a band. Morse fell in love with one of the performers, Lunise, whom he married.
RAM was formally created in 1990. Morse would become the songwriter and lead male vocalist, Lunise became the lead female vocalist, and the name of band, RAM, comes from Richard's initials. RAM was a rasin band. One of the most important musical movements that swept Haiti in the years following the exile of dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier
Jean-Claude Duvalier
Jean-Claude Duvalier, nicknamed "Bébé Doc" or "Baby Doc" was the President of Haiti from 1971 until his overthrow by a popular uprising in 1986. He succeeded his father, François "Papa Doc" Duvalier, as the ruler of Haiti upon his father's death in 1971...
, mizik rasin combines elements of traditional vodou ceremonical and folkloric music with rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
. The ancient drum rhythms of former African slaves combined with the beat of American rock and roll was a perfect combination for the musical background of Morse. The Hotel Oloffson was also a perfect venue for rehearsals and performances. When not on tour elsewhere in the country, RAM began playing a regular performance every Thursday night at the hotel.
Political protest through music
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the first elected president of Haiti after the exile of dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier, was overthrown in a coup d'etatCoup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
in 1991. RAM and other rasin bands were strongly identified with Aristide and his political party, Lavalas
Lavalas
Lavalas, the Kréyòl word for "avalanche", may refer to:* The Lavalas Political Organization in Haiti, founded in 1991 by Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his supporters, later part of the Struggling People's Party...
. When other performers, such as Boukman Eksperyans
Boukman Eksperyans
Boukman Eksperyans is a mizik rasin band from the city of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The band derives its name from Dutty Boukman, a vodou priest who led a religious ceremony in 1791 that is widely considered the start of the Haitian Revolution...
and Manno Charlemagne
Manno Charlemagne
Manno Charlemagne, born 1948, is a Haitian political folk singer, songwriter and acoustic guitarist, lifelong political activist and former politician. He recorded his political chansons in both French and in Creole. He lived abroad in exile twice, both during the 1980s and again during the years...
, left the country in exile, Morse and his band chose to stay in Port-au-Prince. The music that Morse wrote and RAM performed was often laced with political messages critical of the military junta led by Raoul Cédras. Richard, Lunise, and other members of the band were threatened or harassed. In 1992, Morse adapted a traditional vodou folk song, "Fèy
Fèy
"Fèy" is a traditional vodou folk song in Haïti. In Kréyòl, "fèy" means "leaf", and the lyrics of the song describe a leaf falling from a tree. Like many traditional songs in vodou folklore, the lyrics of "Fèy" can hold many meanings, both religious and political. At least two mizik rasin bands...
", to a rasin rhythm and instrumentation. Despite no overt references to the political situation, it was widely played on the radio and immediately taken up throughout the country as an unofficial anthem of support for Aristide. By the summer of 1992, playing or singing the song was banned
Censorship of music
Censorship of music is the practice of restricting free access to musical works. This censorship may stem from a wide variety of motivations, including moral, political, military or religious reasons. Censorship can range from the complete government-enforced legal prohibition of a musical work, to...
under military authority, and Morse was subjected to death threats from the regime. In one particular instance, Morse was summoned before Evans François, the brother of Colonel Michel François
Michel François
Joseph-Michel François was a colonel in the Haitian army. As Haiti Chief of National Police he participated in the 1991 Haitian coup d'état, which overthrew Haiti's elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The Haitian Presidential candidate Michel "Sweet Mickey" Martelly is known to have...
, who told Morse that any number of assassins
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
would be willing to kill him for as little as fifty cents in payment.
In September, 1994, U.S. military troops arrived to oust the Cédras regime, and Morse and his band were finally able to release some of their music in their own albums. Over time, Morse, like many other Haitians, had become disillusioned with Aristide and his new political party, Fanmi Lavalas. In 1998, Manno Charlemagne, the newly-elected Fanmi Lavalas mayor of Port-au-Prince, sent armed men to the Oloffson to dismantle the float on which RAM was scheduled to perform in the upcoming annual Carnival
Carnival
Carnaval is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February. Carnaval typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party...
. The mayor had taken offense to the lyrics of one of the band's songs, which he interpreted as an accusation of corruption. In a compromise, the band was allowed to perform on a flatbed truck. However, the brakes on the truck were sabotaged [evidence?] and during the procession, the truck swerved into the crowd, killing eight and forcing the members of the band to flee for their lives.
Vodou
Since moving the Haiti in 1985, Morse has been involved in the vodou community. The music he writes and performs is inspired by traditional vodou folk music, and incorporates the petwoPetwo
The Petwo are a family of loa in Haitian Vodou religion. The story is that they originated in Haiti, under the harsh conditions of slavery. The term petwo can also refer to a drum used in the music of Haiti...
drums and rara
Rara
Originating in Haïti, rara is a form of festival music used for street processions, typically during Easter Week. The music centers on a set of cylindrical bamboo trumpets called vaksen , but also features drums, maracas, güiras or güiros , and metal bells, as well as sometimes also cylindrical...
horns used in vodou ceremonies. Eventually, Richard Morse became so involved in the vodou religion through his music that he was initiated as a houngan
Houngan
Houngan is the term for a male priest in the voodoo religion in Haiti . The term is derived from the Fon word "hùn gan". There are two ranks of houngan, houngan asogwe and houngan sur pwen...
, or vodou priest, in 2002. Describing a RAM concert, Morse explains, "Yes, you might see our dancers go into a trance. Some get possessed by the loa
Loa
The Loa are the spirits of the voodoo religion practiced in Louisiana, Haiti, Benin, and other parts of the world. They are also referred to as Mystères and the Invisibles, in which are intermediaries between Bondye —the Creator, who is distant from the world—and humanity...
s, to the rhythm of the drums, but it's a natural state when it happens. You can't fake it."