Etienne Charles - Creole Soul (2013)

Creole Soul is an exploration of Charles musical roots featuring sounds from the French, Spanish and English speaking Caribbean as well as North America, Creole Soul highlights myriad inspirations from Haitian Creole chants and blues to bebop and R&B while drawing on an array of rhythms including Rocksteady, Reggae, Bel Air, Kongo and Calypso.

Charles has been hailed as a daring improviser by Jazz Times while Ben Ratliff of The New York Times called him one of the more ambitious soloists and composers. A musician and professor at Michigan State University, Charles studied under piano virtuoso Marcus Roberts at Florida State University and Mark Gould, former principal trumpeter of the Metropolitan Opera, at Juilliard. He was also mentored by Jamaican reggae and jazz luminary Monty Alexander and the late multiple Grammy Award-winning Trinidadian-American percussionist/songwriter Ralph MacDonald.

Tracklist:

1. Creole (Intro) 0:19
2. Creole 6:05
3. The Folks 5:21
4. You Don't Love Me (Penn) 6:03
5. Roots 6:33
6. Memories (Devine) 6:06
7. Green Chimneys (Monk) 5:46
8. Turn Your Lights Down Low (Marley) 5:29
9. Midnight 6:53
10. Close Your Eyes 4:51
11. Doing the Thing 3:40

Personnel:

Etienne Charles (trumpet, flugelhorn & percussion);
Brian Hogans (alto sax);
Jacques Schwarz-Bart (tenor sax);
Kris Bowers (piano & fender rhodes);
Ben Williams (bass);
Obed Calvaire (drums);

with special guests:
Erol Josué (vocals 1, 2);
Daniel Sadownick (percussion & vocals 5);
D'Achee (percussion (2, 3, 7, 11) vocals 5);
Alex Wintz (guitar 2, 5, 6).