Island Jazz Chat

'Two Left' to his friends, Rudy talks about his 50-plus years pioneering panjazz career in Trinidad, and his musical journey into Europe, and ulitmately to Scandinavia.

'Ming' is the architect of the new calypso jazz in the 21st century in Trinidad and Tobago. This is his story.

Clive Zanda, one of the innovators of kaisojazz, recounts his story and songs, and defines a philosophy for Caribbean jazz in the future.

Elan Trotman, contemporary jazz saxophonist from Barbados discusses the business of jazz, his new album Dear Marvin, and his Barbados Jazz Excursion.

Reginald Cyntje, jazz trombonist from St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands discusses the evolution of his six albums including his latest Healing, and his development as a Caribbean jazz musician.

Michael Boothman, pioneering Caribbean jazz musician on the Trinidad and Tobago scene, who innovated kysofusion, chats about his 50-year career.

John Arnold is the pioneering musician, recording artist and jazz festival coordinator on the island of Tobago, and we discuss his roles in preserving a unique Tobago jazz identity and sustaining jazz festivals there.

Trinidadian guitarist Clifford Charles transforms the music of Carnival, the popular sound of Trinidad, into a contemporary jazz setting to set him apart from other Caribbean jazz guitarists. He talks about his life, his music, his recording career, the future.

Reticent. Diffident. Two words to describe the personality of guitarist Theron Shaw of Trinidad and Tobago. Another pair of apt adjectives would be determined and inventive. A conversation on what made Shaw the popular choice for the islands' premier jazz guitarist.

Guitarist Cameron Pierre has come full circle returning to his native Dominica after a multi-decade recording and performing career in the UK. After establishing an important Caribbean jazz presence there, with six albums produced, he reflects on the journey to this point.

Important steelpan musician and recording artist from Trinidad and Tobago, Annise 'Halfers' Hadeed, now resident in the U.K., has been blazing a trail in the jazz scene there, as well as contributing significantly to the Caribbean presence there.

Victor Provost, from St John, US Virgin Islands, has been variously described as a "rising steelpan master...whose refreshing melodic approach to soloing on the pan is wholly steeped in the jazz tradition," and "living proof of the nuance and versatility of the [steelpan]."

Andy Narell, globe-trotting and pioneering steelpan jazz musician, composer and arranger chats about his beginnings in the world of steelpan in the 1960s, and the evolution of the sound that he is leading in the 2020s with a new sample library of steelpan instruments created by the legendary master tuner Ellie Mannette.

Trinidadian composer and educator Chantal Esdelle, a Berklee College of Music graduate, holds an important place among jazz musicians in the islands, as she is one of, if not the only female band leader who is a renowned pianist there.

Richard Bailey, born in Guyana (then British Guiana), raised in Trinidad, and long resident in England, is the go-to drummer for major recording and touring artists in the UK since the 1970s evolving kaisojazz and Caribbean jazz towards a universal recognition at the turn of the century.

Contemporary steelpan jazz musician, composer, and Caribbean Jazz researcher now based in the UK, Leon Foster Thomas from Trinidad chats on his career and the continuing journey to move the steelpan to the front of the jazz bandstand with his recordings and performances.

Jacques Schwarz-Bart from Guadeloupe can be considered a Caribbean jazz explorer who is mining musical histories and creating new experiences based on tradition, heritage, spirituality, and a full understanding of the Caribbean legacy of being at the centre of many cultural moments in the Americas.

Etienne Charles... From Trinidad, with a trumpet in his hand and a rhythm in his veins, over an 18-year recording career, has observed and composed music that "re-charts the ruins," excavates supressed histories, and elevates island ideas over metropolitan ideals.

Garvin Blake, pan jazz musician and recording artist, based in New York, has re-discovered his intention to preserve and promote the idea of steelpan and jazz as global music.