Etienne Charles
Performs At
South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center
As Part Of The
Miami Nice Jazz Festival
Saturday, November 1, 2014
South Miami-Dade
Cultural Arts Center
presents Etienne Charles as part of the Miami Nice Jazz Festival on Saturday, November 1 at 8pm. Tickets are $35 and can be purchased through the Box Office by calling 786-573-5300 or online at
SMDCAC.org. The Center
is located at 10950 SW 211 Street, Cutler
Bay.
Trinidadian
trumpet player Etienne Charles performs in Miami for the first time at the
South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center as part of the Miami Nice Jazz Festival.
Perhaps more than any other musician of his generation, Charles brings a
careful study of myriad rhythms from the French, Spanish, English and Dutch
speaking Caribbean to the table. He is hailed by Jazz Times as “A daring
improviser who delivers with heart wrenching lyricism.” Charles plays from his
latest recording Creole Soul which received worldwide critical acclaim for its
fusion of root grooves from the Afro-Caribbean.
The band
includes: Etienne Charles trumpet; Brian Hogans, alto sax; Victor Gould
piano; Alex Wintz, guitar; Ben Williams, bass; Obed Calvaire, drums; special
guests Leon Foster Thomas, percussion and steelpan; Keith ‘Designer' Prescott,
vocals; and Roger George, vocals. Opening act will be the University of Miami
Frost School of Music Jazz Sextet. For more information and video about this
performance visit http://www.smdcac.org/events/etienne-charles.
About Etienne Charles
One of
the most compelling and exciting young jazz artists ushering the genre into
groundbreaking new territory is trumpeter/bandleader Etienne Charles, who,
still in his 20s, has already recorded three impressive and well-received
albums for his own Culture Shock Music imprint. His new album, Creole Soul, is
a captivating journey of new jazz expression. It buoyantly taps into a myriad
of styles rooted in his Afro-Caribbean background and plumbs the musical depths
of the islands, from calypso to Haitian voodoo music. Also in the jazz amalgam
mix are rock steady, reggae, belair, kongo and rock as well as the influence of
Motown and R&B music Charles listened to on his parents' record player when
he was growing up.
"Jazz
is Creole music," says Charles who was born in Trinidad, relocated first
to Florida and then New York to further his jazz studies (graduating,
respectively, from Florida State's and Juilliard's jazz programs) and today
teaches jazz trumpet at Michigan State University. "As a person in the new
world, I've been influenced by so much music. And my family has a mixed
background, with French Caribbean, Spanish and African roots as well as
Venezuelan influences. I come from a fusion of rhythms, a fusion of cultures.
That's what this album is all about: focusing on soul music that is Creole at
heart."
As
befitting an artist who excels with such a diversity of musical styles, Charles
has performed with a range of musicians, from Roberta Flack, Rene Marie and
David Rudder to Wynton Marsalis, Johnny Mandel, the Count Basie Orchestra and
Maria Schneider. He also worked with steel pan all-star Len "Boogsie"
Sharpe as well as jazz masters Frank Foster and Benny Golson.
Charles
was taught by one of his mentors, primo jazz pianist and Florida State professor
Marcus Roberts, that "going backwards is the only way to go forward."
So, while the 10-song Creole Soul is steeped in the jazz tradition, the spirit
of the Caribbean also drives it. The young trumpeter, in addition to composing
six originals, delivers his unique spin on Creole-oriented tunes from past
masters, ranging from Bob Marley to Thelonious Monk. The album—at turns,
rootsy, spicy and grooving—features at its core Charles' crisp trumpet
intonation and his lucid melodic lines.
Creole
Soul opens with voodoo priest Erol Josué's distinctive voice delivering a chant
in the Haitian Creole language, Kweyol. "To me there is nothing more
Creole than Haiti," says Charles. "What Erol sings here is something
like ‘take a break, I'm bringing news,' but he's also speaking in code like in
the slave days, so it's not really translatable."
Erol's
welcome segues into the leadoff track, "Creole," a fast-paced romp
fueled by the kongo groove from northern Haiti, with a bridge that moves from a
minor key to a major. "This tune was inspired by a trip to Haiti,"
Charles says. "It's about a struggle that turns into empowerment. When we
return to the groove after the middle part of the tune, it's the release from
the struggle." He adds that a key influence to the tune is the song
"Je Vous Aime Kongo."
Quieter
and just as soulful, "The Folks" is another Charles groove-charged
tune with Bowers' Fender Rhodes colors and a fine trading solo run by the
trumpeter and tenor saxist Schwarz-Bart. It's a song that celebrates Charles'
parents who, he says, exemplify Creole soul. His mother was the Trinidadian
High Commissioner to Nigeria, where he visited and began to discover firsthand
with his family where the African diaspora first took place along the Slave
Coast of Nigeria and in Ghana.
Introduced
with a belair groove, the uptempo "Roots" pays homage to Charles'
Martinique roots and his family's long association with the French-speaking
island. "This is about me discovering things about my ancestors after so
many years," Charles says. The beat clips and the improvisations are like
conversations, especially the trumpet-guitar talk. Williams' bass lines are
funky, Calvaire's drums are slamming, and the band participates in a compelling
vocal chant.
The four
covers are scattered throughout the disc. The catchy, bluesy "You Don't
Love Me (no no no)" was a rock steady hit in the '60s by reggae singer
Dawn Penn. Originally a Mississippi blues tune by Bo Diddley and a number that
Willie Cobbs reinterpreted, the song is given a swing by Charles as well as
full-horn harmony gusto.
The
tender ballad "Memories," a rearranged old calypso by Winsford
Devine, pays tribute to people Charles has known who have passed away. Made
famous by the great Trinidadian calypso singer, the Mighty Sparrow,
"Memories" is dedicated to another of the trumpeter's teachers, the
steel pan/percussionist Ralph MacDonald (whose father was from Trinidad). He
had played on Charles' previous albums but died of cancer at the age of 67 in
2011. "Ralph was one of my biggest mentors," Charles says. "He
was like an uncle to me. We recorded and did gigs together. I remember visiting
him when he was flat in bed, feeding him ice cream. It was a very emotional
session for me because he wasn't a part of it."
Charles
originally arranged the lyrical and bright interpretation of Monk's "Green
Chimney" when he recorded with pianist Eric Reed on his 2012 The Baddest
Monk album. While Monk was not from the Caribbean, Charles assumes the
influence was there given that when the pianist moved from North Carolina to
New York, he lived in the Caribbean neighborhood, San Juan Hill. Veteran jazz
pianist Monty Alexander, who has also been a major influence on Charles'
career, seconded this. "The melody is a calypso," says Charles.
The next
track features Charles romancing on the Marley classic, "Turn Your Lights
Down Low," that's played with a slight reggae beat. "It's one of my
favorite Marley tunes," Charles says. "We play it a lot at gigs. We
slow it down and even sing it. It's another great example of Creole soul
because reggae has its roots in calypso, blues, doo-wop and New Orleans funk."
The last
three songs on Creole Soul are Charles' compositions, beginning with
"Midnight," which features classic trumpet/tenor sax harmonies and
exhilarating solo runs by the leader, Bowers and Schwarz-Bart. "It's about
the stillness of the night when nothing and everything is going on," he
says. "It's when I get my most creative ideas. The song has calypso with
Haitian Mascaron dance grooves. The melody itself actually came from playing a
wrong chord when I was teaching one day."
The
quiet, radiant ballad "Close Your Eyes" is delivered as a duet with
Bowers on piano. "I wrote the tune, but never played it," Charles
says. "We ran it through and just played together—solo and background—just
playing off each other." The album ends playfully with the spirited
"Doin' the Thing," which Charles says is a "rhythm tune that's
still jazz." At the heart of the song: calypso. "My rule is that I
end with a jam that'll be straight up calypso," he says. "I don't
want to get away from that. I'm proud and connected. It actually reminds me of
what I heard the house rent parties in New York were all about. They always
played calypso at those."
The New
York Times calls Charles an auteur who is "one of [jazz's] more ambitious
soloists and composers," JazzTimes applauds him as a "daring
improviser" and DownBeat celebrates his tone as "melodically
captivating" and "rhythmically agile" that makes his music
"immediately pleasing." After three albums, released on Culture
Shock, Charles has garnered a welcomed response to his Caribbean roots-informed
jazz. Creole Soul, his most accomplished recording so far in his young career,
holds great promise to a future of more ebullient and intimate artistry.
The
South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center, designed by an internationally-acclaimed
design team that includes Arquitectonica International, Inc. (architects),
Fisher Dachs Associates, Inc. (theater design), Artec Consultants, Inc.
(acoustics), and AMS Planning & Research Corp. (theater management),
provides, for the first time, a state-of-the-art cultural venue and community
gathering place in the southern part of Miami-Dade County. Located at 10950 SW
211th Street in Cutler Bay, the Center is an integral part of the economic and
cultural development of the area, offering quality artistic programming and
community accessibility. The Center features prominent works of art created by
Miami artist Robert Chambers who was commissioned by Miami-Dade County’s Art in
Public Places program to design a kinetic light wall and sculptures for the
theater.
The
South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center is managed by the Miami-Dade County
Department of Cultural Affairs, with funding support from the Office of the
Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners. The Center is
dedicated to presenting and supporting arts and culture and providing access to
the arts to the entire Miami-Dade County community. More information about the
Center and its programs can be found at www.smdcac.org.
