Etienne Charles
This Brazilian cultural matrix positions Etienne Charles globally...
Curation
CURATION
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from this page:
by Matrix
The Integrated Global Creative Economy
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Name:
Etienne Charles
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City/Place:
East Lansing, Michigan
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Country:
United States
Life & Work
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Bio:
Over its century-plus history, jazz has forged its shape-shifting identity by encompassing a rainbow of musical dialects in an improvisation-infused setting. While jazz's potency launched into popular appeal based on the integration of the European classical music sensibility and the grassroots of African-American cultural heritage, it has not remained a static idiom. Indeed, jazz has become organically enlarged, expanded and revitalized by cultivating new influences into the tradition, from the Afro-Cuban movement of the '40s to today's artists embracing their ethnic heritage.
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. Joining the leader for the Creole music adventure is Charles' band, comprised of tenor saxophonist Jacques Schwarz-Bart, alto saxophonist Brian Hogans, Kris Bowers on piano and Fender Rhodes, bassist Ben Williams and drummer Obed Calvaire. Guests include vocalist Erol Josué, guitarist Alex Wintz and percussionist/vocalists Daniel Sadownick and D'Achee.
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.
More
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Quotes, Notes & Etc.
“..Etienne Charles exhibits both an authentic preservation of the music of his native culture of Trinidad as a composer and bandleader, while broadening our scope of understanding through the collaborative sound of American jazz as it meets new colors, new textures, and new motifs across the world. It will certainly bring more of our public into the jazz audience” - Marcus Roberts
“An amazing Trumpet player, and Steel Drum player, and Cuatro player...young Trinidadian who has held onto his heritage” - Monty Alexander
“A daring improviser, Charles also delivers with heart-wrenching lyricism” - Jazz Times
“…had strength and a clear, almost classical sense of thematic organization.” - New York Times
“The music was not simply reworked….Charles seemed to dissect the music studying every note and then proceeded to weave elements of Dixieland, Francesca, modal, bebop and modern styles into his arrangements, all while maintaining the integrity of the original compositions. “ – Trinidad Express
Clips (more may be added)
There are certain countries, the names of which fire the popular imagination. Brazil is one of them; an amalgam of primitive and sophisticated, jungle and elegance, luscious jazz harmonics — there’s no other place like it in the world. And while Rio de Janeiro, or its fame anyway, tends toward the sophisticated end of the spectrum, Bahia bends toward the atavistic…
It’s like a trick of the mind’s light (I suppose), but standing on beach or escarpment in Salvador and looking out across the Baía de Todos os Santos to the great Recôncavo, and mindful of what happened there (and here; the Bahian Recôncavo was final port-of-call for more enslaved human beings than any other place throughout the entirety of mankind’s existence on this planet, and in the past it extended into what is now urban Salvador), one must be led to the inevitable conclusion that one is in a place unique to history, and to the present:
Brazil absorbed over ten times the number of enslaved Africans taken to the United States of America, and is a repository of African deities (and their music) now largely forgotten in their lands of origin.
Brazil was a refuge (of sorts) for Sephardim fleeing an Inquisition which followed them across the Atlantic (that unofficial symbol of Brazil’s national music — the pandeiro — was almost certainly brought to Brazil by these people).
Across the parched savannas of the interior of Brazil’s culturally fecund nordeste/northeast (where wizard Hermeto Pascoal was born in Lagoa da Canoa — Lagoon of the Canoe — and raised in Olho d’Águia — Eye of the Eagle), much of Brazil’s aboriginal population was absorbed into a caboclo/quilombola culture punctuated by the Star of David.
Three cultures — from three continents — running for their lives, their confluence forming an unprecedented fourth. Pandeirista on the roof.
That's where this Matrix begins:
Wolfram MathWorld
The idea is simple, powerful, and egalitarian: To propagate for them, the Matrix must propagate for all. Most in the world are within six degrees of us. The concept of a "small world" network (see Wolfram above) applies here, placing artists from the Recôncavo and the sertão, from Salvador... from Brooklyn, Berlin and Mombassa... musicians, writers, filmmakers... clicks (recommendations) away from their peers all over the planet.
This Integrated Global Creative Economy (we invented the concept) uncoils from Brazil's sprawling Indigenous, African, Sephardic and then Ashkenazic, Arabic, European, Asian cultural matrix... expanding like the canopy of a rainforest tree rooted in Bahia, branches spreading to embrace the entire world...
Recent Visitors Map
Great culture is great power.
And in a small world great things are possible.
Alicia Svigals
"Thanks, this is a brilliant idea!!"
—Alicia Svigals (NEW YORK CITY): Apotheosis of klezmer violinists
"Dear Sparrow: I am thrilled to receive your email! Thank you for including me in this wonderful matrix."
—Susan Rogers (BOSTON): Director of the Berklee Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory ... Former personal recording engineer for Prince; "Purple Rain", "Sign o' the Times", "Around the World in a Day"
"Dear Sparrow, Many thanks for this – I am touched!"
—Julian Lloyd Webber (LONDON): Premier cellist in UK; brother of Andrew (Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, Cats, Phantom of the Opera...)
"This is super impressive work ! Congratulations ! Thanks for including me :)))"
—Clarice Assad (RIO DE JANEIRO/CHICAGO): Pianist and composer with works performed by Yo Yo Ma and orchestras around the world
"We appreciate you including Kamasi in the matrix, Sparrow."
—Banch Abegaze (LOS ANGELES): manager, Kamasi Washington
"Thanks! It looks great!....I didn't write 'Cantaloupe Island' though...Herbie Hancock did! Great Page though, well done! best, Randy"
"Very nice! Thank you for this. Warmest regards and wishing much success for the project! Matt"
—Son of Jimmy Garrison (bass for John Coltrane, Bill Evans...); plays with Herbie Hancock and other greats...
I opened the shop in Salvador, Bahia in 2005 in order to create an outlet to the wider world for magnificent Brazilian musicians.
David Dye & Kim Junod for NPR found us (above), and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (he's a huge jazz fan), David Byrne, Oscar Castro-Neves... Spike Lee walked past the place while I was sitting on the stoop across the street drinking beer and listening to samba from the speaker in the window...
But we weren't exactly easy for the world-at-large to get to. So in order to extend the place's ethos I transformed the site associated with it into a network wherein Brazilian musicians I knew would recommend other Brazilian musicians, who would recommend others...
And as I anticipated, the chalky hand of God-as-mathematician intervened: In human society — per the small-world phenomenon — most of the billions of us on earth are within some 6 or fewer degrees of each other. Likewise, within a network of interlinked artists as I've described above, most of these artists will in the same manner be at most a handful of steps away from each other.
So then, all that's necessary to put the Brazilians within possible purview of the wide wide world is to include them among a wide wide range of artists around that world.
If, for example, Quincy Jones is inside the matrix, then anybody on his page — whether they be accessing from a campus in L.A., a pub in Dublin, a shebeen in Cape Town, a tent in Mongolia — will be close, transitable steps away from Raymundo Sodré, even if they know nothing of Brazil and are unaware that Sodré sings/dances upon this planet. Sodré, having been knocked from the perch of fame and ground into anonymity by Brazil's dictatorship, has now the alternative of access to the world-at-large via recourse to the vast potential of network theory.
...to the degree that other artists et al — writers, researchers, filmmakers, painters, choreographers...everywhere — do also. Artificial intelligence not required. Real intelligence, yes.
Years ago in NYC (I've lived here in Brazil for 32 years now) I "rescued" unpaid royalties (performance & mechanical) for artists/composers including Barbra Streisand, Aretha Franklin, Mongo Santamaria, Jim Hall, Clement "Coxsone" Dodd (for his rights in Bob Marley compositions; Clement was Bob's first producer), Led Zeppelin, Ray Barretto, Philip Glass and many others. Aretha called me out of the blue vis-à-vis money owed by Atlantic Records. Allen Klein (managed The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Ray Charles) called about money due the estate of Sam Cooke. Jerry Ragovoy (Time Is On My Side, Piece of My Heart) called just to see if he had any unpaid money floating around out there (the royalty world was a shark-filled jungle, to mangle metaphors, and I doubt it's changed).
But the pertinent client (and friend) in the present context is Earl "Speedo" Carroll, of The Cadillacs. Earl went from doo-wopping on Harlem streetcorners to chart-topping success to working as a custodian at PS 87 elementary school on the west side of Manhattan. Through all of this he never lost what made him great.
Greatness and fame are too often conflated. The former should be accessible independently of the latter.
Yeah this is Bob's first record contract, made with Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd of Studio One and co-signed by his aunt because he was under 21. I took it to Black Rock to argue with CBS' lawyers about the royalties they didn't want to pay (they paid).
Matrix founding creators are behind "one of 10 of the best (radios) around the world", per The Guardian.
Across the creative universe... For another list, reload page.
This list is random, and incomplete. Reload the page for another list.
For a complete list of everybody inside, tap TOTAL below:
TOTAL
Ex Terra Brasilis
Susan Rogers
Julian Lloyd Webber
Clarice Assad
Kamasi Washington
Randy Brecker
Matt Garrison
RÁDIO MATRIX