Etienne Charles traverses an underexplored corner of the African American diaspora on Gullah Roots, set for a June 20 release on his own Culture Shock imprint. Helming an extraordinary sextet that includes alto saxophonist Godwin Louis, pianist Christian Sands, guitarist Alex Wintz, bassist Russell Hall, and drummer Harvel Nakundi (plus special guests), trumpeter/composer Charles immerses himself in the history, culture, and music of the Black ethnic group centered in the Lowcountry region of the southeastern United States.
Best known for his work in the rhythmic traditions of the Caribbean—especially those of his native Trinidad & Tobago—Charles might seem to be in unfamiliar territory with a project rooted in the U.S. But then, jazz is also rooted in the U.S., and Charles has never struggled to connect with that musical lineage.
“People ask me how I think about the difference between jazz and Caribbean music, but jazz is Caribbean music,” Charles says. And indeed, jazz’s New Orleans birthplace is a port that has long been a gateway to the Caribbean islands, creating the cultural mix that was inherent in jazz from its beginnings.
“With each project, when I start it, I don’t know what connections I’m going to be seeing. And then, they just kind of find themselves,” he explains. “When I started working on Gullah Roots, I only sensed there was a connection between the Lowcountry and the Caribbean.”
Yet there they are, as clear as if Charles had been playing this music all along. The connection is perhaps most apparent in “Gullypso,” in whose sumptuous grooves the flavors of both island and Lowcountry are instantly recognizable. They also intertwine deeply in the two-part “Watch Night,” his rendering of a Gullah prayer ritual. From the coruscating choral beauty of part I (“Prayer”) to the joyous interlocking rhythms and washboard percussion (courtesy of percussionist and co-producer Quentin E. Baxter) of part II (“Ring Shout”), the piece serves as evidence of Charles’s firmly held belief that “the diaspora is one.” Then, of course, there’s the exalted treatment (with a choir led by Mykal Kilgore) of “Kumbaya,” the Gullah artifact that will be best known to most listeners, which serves as the serene release that closes the album.
But the diasporic connections Charles finds on the album are more complex still. “Bilali,” featuring the sounds of Samir Langus’s guembri and krakeb (Moroccan castanets) and Alex Wintz’s slide guitar, anchors these New World Black traditions in those of North and West Africa. “Igbo Landing,” another two-part epic, also evokes the darkness and tragedy of the Middle Passage in its depiction of the 1803 mass suicide of captured Africans off the coast of Georgia. Gullah Roots offers up a whole world for listeners to reexamine.
Etienne Charles was born July 24, 1983, in Port-of-Spain, the capital city of the island nation of Trinidad & Tobago. Carrying the torch of Caribbean musical traditions in all their eclectic facets is, itself, a family tradition for the Charleses. Etienne’s father, Francis, was both a member of the Trinidadian steel band Phase II Pan Groove and the owner of a colossal record collection, and Etienne thus grew up soaking in music. He learned to play trumpet as a boy, and by high school, he, too, was a member of Phase II Pan Groove.
But jazz had gotten Etienne’s attention, and he moved to the United States in 2002 to matriculate at Florida State University—where he found his way to the celebrated pianist and educator Marcus Roberts, who became his mentor. He quickly gained not only a mastery of the jazz tradition but the recognition to prove it. Charles placed second at the 2005 International Trumpet Guild Jazz Competition in Bangkok, Thailand, then took first place a year later at the U.S. National Trumpet Competition in Fairfax, Virginia. He was also awarded a full scholarship to the Juilliard School of Music, where he earned both a master’s degree and an entrée into the cutthroat New York jazz scene.
Charles not only survived but thrived in that scene, recording and touring with artists ranging from Maria Schneider to Wynton Marsalis to Rene Marie. He also made a striking impression as a leader, injecting his encyclopedic knowledge of Caribbean music and rhythms into an improvised jazz context. He recorded his debut album Culture Shock in 2006. Coming nearly 20 years later, Gullah Roots is the eleventh of Charles’s multihued, cross-cultural musical explorations.
Etienne Charles’s 2025 tour schedule includes the following:
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6/4: Gullah Roots performance, Spoleto USA Festival, Charleston, SC
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6/7: ANSA Caribbean Awards, Trinidad
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6/14: Lincoln Center Summer for the City Fest, Damrosch Park, Lincoln Center, NYC
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6/20-21: JazzArts Charlotte, NC
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6/26-28: Jon Batiste’s Jazz Club at Baha Mar, Nassau, Bahamas
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8/3: Newport (RI) Jazz Festival
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8/7: Aspen (CO) Art Museum
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8/21: Cooperstown (NY) Music Festival
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9/18: Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH
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9/19: Blue Llama, Ann Arbor, MI
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9/20: Pittsburgh (PA) Jazz Festival
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9/25-28: Dizzy’s, NYC
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10/10: University of Texas, Austin
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10/13: Jazz for All Ages Festival, Hilton Head, SC (with Rene Marie)
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10/25: Barclay Theater, Irvine, CA (with Rene Marie)
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11/12-16: Jazz St. Louis, MO
