ETIENNE CHARLES & KAISO
Born in Trinidad in 1983, Charles comes from a rich legacy of folk musical tradition that goes back four generations. By the time he was sixteen, Charles was attending the summer performance program at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Three years later, and after receiving a scholarship, he went on to attend Florida State University where he graduated as the Brautlecht Scholar of the College of Music. The next step in his musical education was in New York City where he earned a Master’s Degree and was awarded the William Schuman Prize from The Juilliard School while touring extensively with the Juilliard Jazz Orchestra and freelancing around New York gaining valuable experience. Charles is now Assistant Professor of Jazz Trumpet at Michigan State University. Each step along this journey has provided him with an extraordinary chance to cultivate the ideas that have begun to bare wonderful musical fruit with his initial recordings as a leader, especially with Kaiso.
KAISO is the third recording as a leader for talented trumpeter Etienne Charles, following his two well-received projects, Culture Shock, and Folklore. It continues a theme that he has embraced from the outset of his recording career: an immersion in, and a respect for the music, and by extension, the culture, of his native Trinidad: the sound of calypso. Whereas his first two recordings consisted, for the most part, of original compositions inspired by the music he grew up with, this time the inspiration is of a different sort: specific, classic calypso songs by some of the music’s most renowned and popular performers. Three of them, Lord Kitchener, Mighty Sparrow, and Roaring Lion, have particular significance to Etienne. “Kitch, Sparrow and Lion were the first Calypsonians whose songs I began learning and studying at an early age. Each of these masters has their own catchy trait. Kitch for his melodies and his bouncy phrases; Sparrow for his voice and portrayal of his characters in his songs, and Lion for his wit and his way of turning lyrics, and fusing African, French creole, Venezuelan, and European sounds into his calypsos.”
“Etienne Charles, a 28-year-old jazz trumpeter and percussionist from Trinidad, isn’t the first to merge calypso and jazz… But he’s one of the more ambitious soloists and composers to do it.” - Ben Ratliff, NY Times
Etienne Charles stands at the vanguard of a new generation of musicians who are from the Caribbean but are not totally of it, in terms of a fresh and broad-ranging artistic vision, and myriad influences encompassed in their soundscape.
www.etiennecharles.com
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CLINICIANS/HIGH SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY CATEGORIES ADJUDICATORS
Tom Miller's vast experience as a performing percussionist, steel drummer, composer, arranger and educator has made him one of the most respected and sought after soloists and clinicians today. Tom has performed worldwide with his own popular group, Pan Ramajay, as well as notable pan masters, Andy Narell, Ray Holman, Othello Molineaux and the Our Boys Steel Orchestra.
He has added his unique style of percussive touch to numerous recordings covering a variety of musical styles with artists such as Grammy award winners, Allison Krause and the late John Denver, banjoist, Allison Brown and Venezuelan songstress, Maria Marquez. Tom's playing has also been featured on film scores for the movies Commando, Nina Takes a Lover, and The Mystic Masseur as well as ads for Minute Maid, Sony, Brodia.com, the SIMs computer games and many others. His arrangements and compositions are also featured on Menus and Music's , "Pleasures of the Caribbean," recipe book's accompanying CD.
Miller is equally as comfortable in the studio as a producer having produced and mixed several critically acclaimed steel band recordings for his own group, Pan Ramajay, as well as master pannist, Ray Holman, The Chabot Panhandlers Steel Orchestra, the Miami University Steel Band and the Lamont Steel Drum Ensemble, "Roundabout Ways," CD. Tom is the founder of the new chamber steel drum ensemble, Pan Nation, steeldrum octet performing original compositions composed by the group's members.
Tom's composing talents have earned him grants from the prestigious "Meet the Composer Foundation" five times, fostering creation, performance and education of audiences through his compositions featuring steeldrums and percussion. Tom currently is the director of Steel Drum Ensembles at the University of Denver, Lamont School of Music as well as the founder and director of the annual Pan Ramajay Summer Steel Drum Festival, in Denver, CO, occurring annually in July. He has also served on the faculty of the JAZZ School in Berkley, CA, the Mannette Steel Drum Workshop in Morgantown, WV, and the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival.
Tom is the founder and president of one of the foremost steel drum music publishing companies, Pan Ramajay Productions (www.ramajay.com). Pan Ramajay Productions features Tom's own compositions and recordings as well as those of other prominent steel drum composers worldwide.
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Maureen Clement, composer, arranger, conductor, teacher, musician - is the founder of the Entertainers Music School and the Trinity Choir, Trinidad and Tobago, and is one of the first female pan players to bring international recognition to the steel pan as a solo instrument in the classical music category. Ms. Clement has over 27 years of general teaching experience and private music instruction in theory, steelpan, recorder, voice and piano.
A singer and accomplished musician on several instruments, she has worked with countless musical groups and has toured several US states and the Caribbean islands, playing pan and singing; her musical journeys reaching as far as Senegal in West Africa and Europe. She is a well known conductor both for Steelpan and choirs and her arrangements and compositions have been played and sung by many of her students. In fact, she was twice champion of the Composition Class at Trinidad and Tobago's (T&T) National Music Festival and has adjudicated many competitions, including Junior Panorama, for over 15 years. She has been the recipient of many other awards including a citation from the Governor of Maryland and Woman of the Year in Arima, Trinidad.
Ms. Clement has worked exclusively with young persons, arranging and conducting for school steelbands, choirs, ensembles and soloists at National Festivals in T&T. Her specialty has been arranging for and tutoring her many soloists who have been champions on the pan, piano, recorder and voice at many local competitions. As an educator Ms. Clement is known for her dedication and commitment to providing lower income children with affordable music education for life enrichment opportunities. She has been extremely successful at accomplishing her goals as many of her students are currently pursuing higher education at universities in North America and the Caribbean, and some are continuing the tradition as music teachers at home and abroad. For the past 3 years she has been teaching music to inmates at the Maximum Security Prison in Trinidad, some of whom are now at the grade 6 Royal School of Music theory level.
Yet for her, music has only been a hobby as she majored in the sciences where she has also left her legacy. She currently coordinates the BG Trinidad and Tobago Science Bus Project. Ms. Clement's motto is "It is learned for the benefit of all" and she truly is the embodiment of her belief.
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Dr. Lennard V Moses, Associate Professor of Music is Director of Percussion in World Music Studies at Central State University, Ohio. He holds degrees from The Ohio State University, Northern Illinois University and Central State University. At an early age he toured with the Desperados Steel Band of Trinidad and Tobago as drummer and percussionist.
Dr. Moses is one of the founders, and Music Consultant for Mound Street Academies' Steel band in Dayton, Ohio, which also serves as a mentorship program for student teachers in World Music. His invitations include serving as guest artist, composer, clinician, workshop and master class facilitator, and adjudicator with percussion and world music ensembles and steel bands throughout the United States, Canada, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago and England. He has been invited to perform/present at: the Percussive Arts Society International Convention (twice), the Midwest Chapter of the Society for Ethnomusicology Conference, the Ohio Music Education Association Professional Development Conference and in numerous schools and universities. He collaborates in interdisciplinary learning and teaching in performance for students and teacher in-service workshops.
As a composer, Moses wrote four pieces for the album No Exit, and the theme music for a WHIO television special “Alex Haley: An American Hero.” Ludwig Music Publishing Company has published several of his compositions. He has also published works in the journal Percussive Notes Research Edition. He was interviewed for and included in the book Unheard Voices -The Rise of Steelband and Calypso in the Caribbean and North America by Myrna Nurse, PhD.
Dr. Moses' thesis is entitled: A Cultural Analysis of Afro-Caribbean Rhythm, Strumming and Movement for The North American School Steel Band. His performance and research interests include the connection between African, African-American, Latin American and Caribbean Music, as well as the thread that links music with other disciplines. He endorses Steel Island steel drum sticks.
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ELEMENTARY/MIDDLE SCHOOL ADJUDICATORS
Kenneth Joseph, Graduate of the University of the West Indies (UWI) and Northern Illinois University (NIU) with Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees, in music, respectively. Kenneth Joseph has been playing the Steelpan for twenty years and had the pleasure of studying with renowned musicians and educators including: Liam Teague, Satanand Sharma, and Dr. Ronnie Wooten to name a few. During his time at NIU, Joseph directed the School of Music’s All University Steelband and Concert Band. Former first runner up of the World Steelband Music Festival soloist competition (2004), Joseph is a virtuoso steelpan player. He has performed and toured with renowned ensembles including Trinidad and Tobago’s Exodus Steel Orchestra and the NIU Steelband. In 2006, Joseph served as a part of the team pioneering the development of the Barbados Youth Steel Orchestra. Joseph has also made his name as an arranger collaborating Anthony Rose and Earl Brooks Jr. to lead Exodus to the second place spot in Pantrinbago’s Pan in the 21st Century competition in 2007.
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Jonathan Scales, graduate of Appalachian State University and leader of jazz fusion quartet The Jonathan Scales Fourchestra has since 2006 offered a unique style of music to the Steelpan community. The steel pan, an amazing musical discovery, is often times associated with sandy beaches, tropical climates, and cruise ships: that's not exactly what you get at a show by the jazz-fusion quartet, Jonathan Scales Fourchestra. Modern Drummer Magazine recognizes, "... Jonathan Scales makes the pans fit in unconventional musical spaces..." and Jazz Times goes on to state that Scales' brings forth a "new vitality to the traditional Caribbean instrument... picking up where Othello Molineaux left off 20 years ago with Jaco Pastorius." Since 2006, Scales has produced three albums as band leader: One Track Mind (2007), Plot/Scheme (2008), and Character Farm and Other Short Stories (2011).
In addition to adjudicating the Elementary/Middle School category, Scales will also perform with his band at the 10th Annual PANorama Caribbean Music Fest.
www.jonscales.com
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