Exile One

Exile One is a cadence musical group of the 1970s from Dominica based in Guadeloupe that was influential in the development of Caribbean music.

History

In 1969, Gordon Henderson (the "creole father of soul" and "Godfather of Cadence-lypso") decided that the French Overseas Department of Guadeloupe had everything he needed to begin a career in Creole music. From there, lead singer Gordon Henderson went on to found a kadans fusion band, the Vikings of Guadeloupe – of which Kassav' co-founder Pierre-Eduard Decimus was a member. At some point he felt that he should start his own group and asked a former school friend Fitzroy Williams to recruit a few Dominicans to complete those he had already selected. The group was named Exile One. During the early 1970s, they initiated a fusion of cadence and calypso "Cadence-lypso" that would later influence the creation of soca music.

The full-horn section kadans band Exile One led by Gordon Henderson introduced the newly arrived synthesizers to their music that other young cadence or compas bands from Dominica, Haiti (mini-jazz) and the French Antilles emulated in the 1970s. In the early 1980s, Lead guitarist Julie Mourillon of Exile One formed a new group called Roots of Exile. Together, they launched a new beat dubbed "Island Boogie", a fusion of cadence-lypso and North American funk and soul music and toured Africa and Europe.