Events

Afro-Caribbean Music and Global Jazz
In collaboration with the Conservatory of Music, the Department of Africana Studies, and the American Studies Program at Brooklyn College present: Spring 2016 Music in Polycultural America

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The intersection of Caribbean music and jazz usually evokes images of Afro-Cuban Latin jazz and Nuyorican salsa. But over the last century there has been an ongoing dialogue between musicians from the English and French speaking Caribbean and their North American counterparts. This presentation will focus on the blending of Caribbean folk and popular music with African American jazz, emphasizing the contributions of players and composers from Trinidad, Jamaica, and other East Caribbean Islands.
Trumpeter, band leader, percussionist and composer Etienne Charles is a graduate of the Julliard school of Music and is currently Associate Professor of Jazz Studies at Michigan State University.  A native of Trinidad, Professor Charles has been praised by Downbeat Magazine for his ability to “deliver his ebullient improvisations with the elegance of a world-class ballet dancer.” He has recorded and performed with many jazz and popular music icons including Monty Alexander, Roberta Flack, Wynton Marsalis, Marcus Roberts, Marcus Miller,  the Count Basie Orchestra, and David Rudder. His recordings. Creole Christmas (2015), Creole Soul (2013), Kaiso (2011), Folklore (2009) and Culture Shock (2006) explore the intersection of Afro-Caribbean rhythms and instrumentation with jazz and world music. Professor Charles was recently awarded the prestigious and highly selective John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in the Creative Arts.
The H. Wiley Hitchcock Institute for Studies in American Music and The Ethyle R. Wolfe Institute for the Humanities at Brooklyn College
Etienne Charles
Etienne Charles