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PODCAST · music

Island Jazz Chat

by Nigel A. Campbell

A podcast featuring conversations with Caribbean jazz and steelpan jazz musicians based in the islands and the diaspora.

Publisher-supplied feed metadata · PodParley refreshed Apr 13, 2026 · Source feed

Episodes

  1. Episode 22: Island Jazz Chat with Anthony Pierre

    Anthony Pierre represents a pioneering effort of a Caribbean musician to establish a sustained island jazz presence in the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. That multi-decade journey has resulted, by the 1990s, in the formation of the Caribbean jazz sextet Kalabash, which focused on "using the...

  2. Episode 21: Island Jazz Chat with Vaughnette Bigford

    Vaughnette Bigford is the Creole Chanteuse, the island songbird who "has made the local [Trinidad and Tobago, and the Caribbean] songbook the new jazz standard in the Caribbean...the premier jazz song stylist in these islands whose palette knows no boundaries. Tone, beauty, presence: the…

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  3. Episode 20: Island Jazz Chat with Garvin Blake

    Garvin Blake, pan jazz musician based in New York has re-discovered his intention to preserve and promote the idea of steelpan and jazz as global music. After a pair of significant albums in 1999, Belle Eau Road Blues, and 2015, Parallel Overtones, Blake is now in a place in his life to continue…

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  4. Episode 19: Creole Christmas Chat with Etienne Charles

    Island Jazz Chat host, Nigel Campbell chats with globe-trotting Trinidadian musician and Guggenheim Fellow Etienne Charles about his upcoming performance in Trinidad and Tobago, A Creole Christmas Gift: Concert and Cocktails presented by HADCO Experiences. This event will showcase the…

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  5. Episode 18: Island Jazz Chat with Etienne Charles

    Etienne Charles is a creole soul. A Caribbean intellectual and sublime musician who positions the "native gaze" to reflect a new perspective on the wider Americas beyond a boundary. From Trinidad, with a trumpet in his hand and a rhythm in his veins, he has, over an 18-year recording career,...

  6. Episode 17: Island Jazz Chat with Jacques Schwarz-Bart

    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…

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  7. Episode 16: Island Jazz Chat with Leon 'Foster' Thomas

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

  8. Episode 15: Island Jazz Chat with Richard Bailey

    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. Jamming and recording with the likes of Jeff Beck and Bob Marley as a teenager, Bailey was a pivotal…

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  9. Episode 14: Island Jazz Chat with Chantal Esdelle

    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. A multifaceted individual — performer, producer, promoter —…

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  10. Episode 13: Island Jazz Chat with Andy Narell

    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…

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  11. Episode 12: Island Jazz Chat with Victor Provost

    Victor Provost, from St John, USVI, 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]." In this chat, Victor discusses his...

  12. Episode 11: Island Jazz Chat with Annise Hadeed

    Panman, steelpan virtuoso, steeldrum musician. Just don't call Annise 'Halfers' Hadeed a "pannist". He is more than that! This important musician and recording artist from Trinidad and Tobago, now resident in the U.K., has been blazing a trail in the jazz scene there, as well as contributing...

  13. Episode 10: Island Jazz Chat with Cameron Pierre

    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. Beginning in the reggae...

  14. Episode 9: Island Jazz Chat with Theron Shaw

    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. In a revealing conversation, we get into what made Shaw the popular choice for the islands' premier jazz guitarist. Three...

  15. Episode 8: Island Jazz Chat with Clifford Charles

    Trinidadian guitarist Clifford Charles describes his music as "smooth soca jazz." Grounded in the sounds and language of Trinidad, his liking for transforming the music of Carnival, the popular sound of Trinidad, into a contemporary jazz idiom sets him apart from other Caribbean jazz guitarists....

  16. Episode 5: Island Jazz Chat with Reginald Cyntje

    Jazz trombonist, Reginald Cyntje is the ultimate Caribbean jazz musician. Born in Dominica, raised in St Thomas, US Virgin Islands, of Curaçaoan heritage, he is the epitome of a Caribbean musician making it in the United States. With the release of his sixth album, Healing, Reginald chats with us...

  17. Episode 7: Island Jazz Chat with John Arnold

    John Arnold is the pioneering musician, recording artist and jazz festival coordinator on the island of Tobago. As a recording artist, he has helmed half a dozen albums that play with the idea of Caribbean jazz as original music, including his latest, Jazz Standards in the Tambrin Sauce, which...

  18. Episode 6: Island Jazz Chat with Michael Boothman

    Michael Boothman is the personification of excellence in the arts in Trinidad and Tobago. Pioneering, innovative and consistently successful as a performer, composer, arranger and recording artist, Boothman continues his 50-plus year career that showcases a number of firsts and milestones in the...

  19. Episode 4: Island Jazz Chat with Elan Trotman

    Elan Trotman, Boston-based contemporary jazz saxophonist from Barbados discusses the business of jazz with Jazz in the Islands. In 2019, he released his new album Dear Marvin, a saxophone tribute to the late great Marvin Gaye on the Woodward Avenue label. We get the Caribbean-American perspective...

  20. Episode 3: Island Jazz Chat with Clive Zanda

    The father of modern kaisojazz, Trinidadian pianist Clive Zanda recounts a career spanning from his days in England in the 1960s innovating with the fusion of calypso in the language of jazz, to his return to Trinidad and his collaboration with Scofield Pilgrim, Bajan-born kaisojazz theorist and...

  21. Episode 2: Island Jazz Chat with Élan Parlē

    Composer, producer and recording artist, Michael 'Ming' Low Chew Tung is called by Jazz in the Islands, "the architect of the new calypso jazz in the 21st century in Trinidad and Tobago" for his band/brand Élan Parlē. In this in-depth and revealing chat, 'Ming' gives an oral autobiography that...

  22. Episode 1: Island Jazz Chat with Rudy Smith

    Pioneering steelpan jazz musician, Rudy "Two Left" Smith chats with Jazz in the Islands editor, Nigel A. Campbell, about his career. His beginnings in Trinidad, his sojourn into Europe to perform and ultimately record are discussed. Landmark albums like his Otinku with the Modern Sound Quintet…

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ABOUT THIS SHOW

A podcast featuring conversations with Caribbean jazz and steelpan jazz musicians based in the islands and the diaspora.

HOSTED BY

Nigel A. Campbell

Frequently Asked Questions

How many episodes does Island Jazz Chat have?

Island Jazz Chat currently has 22 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.

What is Island Jazz Chat about?

A podcast featuring conversations with Caribbean jazz and steelpan jazz musicians based in the islands and the diaspora.

How often does Island Jazz Chat release new episodes?

Island Jazz Chat has 22 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.

Where can I listen to Island Jazz Chat?

You can listen to Island Jazz Chat on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.

Who hosts Island Jazz Chat?

Island Jazz Chat is created and hosted by Nigel A. Campbell.
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