Monday, January 6, 2014

Moyenne’s joyful mix of Caribbean and African

Published: Monday, January 6, 2014
Chantal Esdelle, a Berklee College of Music graduate, holds an important place among jazz musicians here, as she is one of the few female bandleaders, if not the only one, who is a renowned pianist in this island. She is part of a lineage that would probably include Winifred Atwell and, tangentially, Hazel Scott. 

Unlike those two artistes, Esdelle has been able to mine the musical influences of Trinidad and in a deeper sense, Africa and the African diaspora in the New World for her compositions. Further, unlike Atwell and Scott, Esdelle has a body of original compositions on her two CD releases that now place her ahead of a number of jazz luminaries in the islands who still balk at releasing original music.

At the launch of Chantal Esdelle and Moyenne’s second CD, Imbizo Moyenne, in May 2013, there was some disappointment that the CD wasn’t available at the launch. It was available digitally, but many in attendance wanted a tangible copy of the album. 

There is no denying that Esdelle, and by extension Moyenne deserve to be heard and time has allowed the disappointment of that event to be replaced with the joy in heralding this new music. 

Out now in CD format to supplement the digital version already available in limited release, this simply-packaged CD fills a yawning gap in the canon of locally-released jazz music. 

Imbizo Moyenne represents a calling together—a gathering of minds—to create and is the follow-up album to Moyenne’s first CD, New Hope, released in 2000. Containing all-original compositions by Moyenne, this album’s music is suffused with the rhythmic tropes of the French Antilles and Spanish Caribbean, as well as our familiar calypso, blues and shango rhythms.
Read more: http://www.guardian.co.tt/entertainment/2014-01-05/moyenne’s-joyful-mix-caribbean-and-african

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