Kaseko is the Afro-Surinamese dance-band tradition established in 1930s Paramaribo, in what was then Dutch Guiana. Its structural insight was to carry Winti (Afro-Surinamese possession-ritual) polyrhythms underneath a Western brass-band exterior — saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and drum kit — producing a bright 2/4 dance groove close in surface to calypso or ska. Lyrics are in Sranan Tongo (Suriname's main Creole language) or Dutch, tempo runs 120–160 BPM. The Winti-inherited rhythmic layer and the Sranan-Tongo lyrics distinguish kaseko from Anglo-Caribbean forms. After 1975 independence, migration to the Netherlands transplanted the scene to Amsterdam Zuidoost's Bijlmermeer neighbourhood.

After Suriname's 1863 emancipation, urban Paramaribo Afro-Surinamese communities kept Winti ritual practice alive, but Dutch colonial ordinances outlawed Winti performance for public — the ban runs formally 1874 to 1971, but was effectively in place from 1774. Under that pressure, the strategy of dressing Winti rhythms in Western brass-band clothing to bring them into public spaces produced kaseko in 1930s Paramaribo. Lieve Hugo (1934–1975, born Julius Theodoor Uiterloo), the 'King of Kaseko,' recorded through the 1960s–70s and set the genre's template. His death in 1975 — the year of Surinamese independence — turned him into the founding-father figure of independent Suriname's musical history.

Follow the brass riffs first. The horn parts are not straight Western march writing — they carry Winti's 3-against-2 syncopation into a marching-band exterior. Then the drum kit: it superficially resembles Caribbean ska or calypso, but the pattern is actually a flattened representation of Winti apinti drum polyrhythms. Lieve Hugo's 'Bigi Poku' (1969) is the clearest structural example. Trafassi's 'Wasmasjien' (1988) captures the moment when electrified kaseko broke into Dutch pop charts. Kenny B's 'Parijs' (2015) shows how modern Sranan-Tongo pop still inherits the kaseko vocabulary.

Lieve Hugo's 'Bigi Poku' (1969) is the canonical structural document. Trafassi's 'Wasmasjien' (1988) is the historic Dutch-chart moment. Kenny B's 'Parijs' (2015) shows the tradition's twenty-first-century vernacular pop form. Naks's 1970s–80s Paramaribo live recordings archive the intermediate space between kaseko and Winti — invaluable for hearing how the two related.

The name's origin is disputed: candidates include French casser le corps ('breaking the body,' as in dancing hard) and Sranan-Tongo kaseki (strongly). Kaseko bands historically toured in the kaset koro (weekend-tour) format, doing street parades and dance-hall sets across a single night. The Surinamese-Dutch community numbers roughly 350,000 in the Netherlands, more than half the population of Suriname itself, and forms kaseko's current primary audience. In Suriname, the annual Owru Yari (New Year's Eve) kaseko parade through Paramaribo streets remains a fixed tradition.