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Etienne Charles & Creole Soul

A man in a shirt with a snakeskin design plays a trumpet. His movements are blurred in flashes of light.

Master trumpeter, percussionist, and composer, Etienne Charles kicks off the 2025–26 season of jazz at the Wex with his band Creole Soul.

A former member of the SFJAZZ Collective and sideman and arranger for many of today’s jazz greats, Charles has developed a critically acclaimed body of original work often inspired by his Caribbean heritage and his homeland of Trinidad and Tobago. He and his band, Creole Soul, will explore infectious grooves from their large collection of work. As one of the most innovative and charismatic musicians in the contemporary jazz world, Charles is sure to have audiences up and dancing by the end of the night. (each performance 60 mins.)

IMAGE CAPTION
Etienne Charles, photo: Luigi Creese.

"One of jazz’s more ambitious soloists and composers."
New York Times

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More about the artist

Etienne Charles

Etienne Charles is a performer, composer, and storyteller who is constantly searching for untold tales and sounds with which to tell them. His work is actively connecting the African diaspora and drawing lines to the regions at the roots of migrations, evident in his latest release, NAACP Image Award–nominated Creole Orchestra, which was named the number one jazz album on Jazzweek’s top 100 of 2024. Charles’s dedication to music as a tool for social uplift has resulted in being named Laureate of the Arts and Letters, Anthony N. Sabga Awards, Caribbean Excellence (2025). He was conferred the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture (2024) and was awarded a Congressional Citation from the United States (2012). As a sideman he has performed with and/or arranged for Roberta Flack, Chucho Valdés, Marcus Roberts, Marcus Miller, the Count Basie Orchestra, and many others. Charles has been commissioned as a composer and arranger by Lincoln Center for the New York Philharmonic (2021), Savannah Music Festival (2017), Chamber Music America (2015, 2021), the Charleston Jazz Orchestra (2012), the Chicago Jazz Ensemble (2011), and the Danish Radio Big Band (2024). He currently serves as Professor of Studio Music and Jazz at University of Miami Frost School of Music.

Program Support

PERFORMING ARTS PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY

Doris Duke Foundation

WEXNER CENTER PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY

Greater Columbus Arts Council

The Wexner Family

Ohio Arts Council, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts

CampusParc

The Columbus Foundation

Every Page Foundation

Mellon Foundation

Axium Packaging

Nationwide Foundation

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY

Joyce Shenk

Lachelle Thigpen

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Etienne Charles & Creole Soul