Jazz Articles about Etienne Charles

About Etienne Charles

Extended Analysis

With his simple declaration, “sound is my art...I just try to create," Trinidadian jazz trumpeter Etienne Charles puts into context his role of creator and producer in relation to his latest recording. This new album, previewed earlier this year in Tobago at Jazz on the Beach at Mt Irvine, reveals an evolution of his art that parallels the jazz idiom's most eclectic trumpeter and influence. The fourth studio album from this US-based musician and teacher bristles with a ...

Interview

Etienne Charles: Trumpet's First Chantwell

by DanMichael Reyes
July 29, 2013

Trinidadian-born trumpeter Etienne Charles has made it a point to share the culture of his native homeland with the world through music, whether it is writing songs on cuatro or steel pan, incorporating Kweyol chants on the opening track to his latest album Creole Soul (Culture Shock, 2013), or playing with an undeniable Caribbean bounce that caused the audience of Dizzy's Club Coca Cola to form a conga line through the venue during his album release show for Kaiso (Culture ...

Album Review

Etienne Charles: Kaiso

Read "Kaiso" reviewed by AAJ Italy Staff

by AAJ Italy Staff
October 22, 2012

Kaiso è un espressione nigeriana, sopravvissuta nelle Antille e impiegata per indicare entusiasmo e approvazione durante un concerto di calypso. In inglese si può tradurre con go on, il cui senso di movimento in avanti indica bene l'evoluzione di Etienne Charles, giovane trombettista di Trinidad, che nel suo terzo disco offre una prova di maturità notevole. Culture Shock e Folklore lo avevano imposto come la voce più rilevante nell'ambito del jazz antillano, con l'accorta miscela di bop, modalità, una scrittura ...

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Album Review

Etienne Charles: Kaiso

Read "Kaiso" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello

by Nicholas F. Mondello
September 10, 2011

With Kaiso, trumpeter Etienne Charles revisits his robust Trinidad-Tobago roots, brilliantly exposing their beauty, mystery and fascinating flavors. The fruits of Charles and crew's labor blossom from multiple Caribbean grooves into a highly energized performance, with more jazz-tinged interpretations than his prior outing, the highly acclaimed Folklore (Self-Produced, 2009). The title tune, from an African word loosely defined as “proceed" (as in “play on"), is dark and hard. With the frontline boiling hot over a pulsing harmonic ...

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Album Review

Etienne Charles: Kaiso

by Dan Bilawsky
August 25, 2011

The names Aldwyn Roberts and Slinger Francisco might not ring a bell in jazz circles, but trumpeter Etienne Charles' Kaiso helps to rectify that issue. Charles pays tribute to these two giants of calypso music, better known respectively as Lord Kitchener and Mighty Sparrow, and explores the fusion of Caribbean music, Latin rhythms, the sounds of New Orleans, and modern jazz, throughout this ambitious program of music. While Charles may be guilty of trying to cover too ...

Album Review

Etienne Charles: Folklore

Read "Folklore" reviewed by AAJ Italy Staff

by AAJ Italy Staff
June 21, 2010

Etienne Charles è un giovane trombettista di Trinidad, che già col suo primo lavoro (Culture Shock) offriva un'identità in grado di fondere in modo convincente la cultura del jazz statunitense e il ricco apparato ritmico, timbrico e melodico delle sue Antille. Con Folkore l'operazione raggiunge un nuovo e brillante livello di riuscita, presentando un'opera che è devoto omaggio alla propria cultura nativa, nella piena comprensione dei valori che artisti come Freddie Hubbard, Horace Silver e tanti altri hanno costruito a ...

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Album Review

Etienne Charles: Folklore

Read "Folklore" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello

by Nicholas F. Mondello
May 27, 2009

There appears to be a trend developing--and a positive one, whereby young jazz artists drive the future of their--and ultimately our--music by reviving the musical heritage of the past. And, by exploring and leveraging the fundamental power and beauty of that music, they create new and vibrant musical art. Certainly the most widely known of these retro-explorers is Wynton Marsalis. With Folklore, an offering of both compositional and instrumental brilliance, trumpeter/composer Etienne Charles admirably solidifies his place as an explorer, ...