Shake Keane
Encyclopedia
Ellsworth McGranahan “Shake” Keane (30 May 1927, Kingstown
, St Vincent
, West Indies – 11 November 1997, Oslo, Norway) was a jazz musician, poet
and government minister. He is most well known today for his role as a jazz trumpeter, principally his work as a member of the ground breaking Joe Harriott
Quintet (1959-1965).
in 1952. He worked on BBC Radio's Caribbean Voices, reading poetry and interviewing fellow writers and musicians. He also began playing the trumpet in London nightclubs, working in a number of styles including cabaret
, highlife
, soca
, mento
, calypso
and jazz
. From 1959 he committed more fully to jazz, spending six years as a member of pioneering alto saxophonist Joe Harriott
's band. Harriott's group was the first in Europe, and one of the first worldwide, to play free jazz
, and Keane contributed mightily to the band’s artistic success, thanks to his fleet and powerful improvisatory skills on trumpet
and flugelhorn
.
During this period he and Harriott also played extensively with English jazz pianist Michael Garrick
, often in a ‘poetry and jazz’ setting. He also made a small handful of records under his own name, but these were usually light jazz, a world away from his work with Harriott and Garrick. In 1966 Keane left Britain to settle in Germany. He became featured soloist with the Kurt Edelhagen
Radio Orchestra, and also joined the pre-eminent European jazz ensemble of the 1960s, The Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band
.
prize for poetry.
In the early 1980s, Keane moved to New York
, settling the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn
. He did not return full time to music until 1989, when he rejoined Michael Garrick and his old band mates Coleridge Goode
and Bobby Orr for a tour in honour of Joe Harriott. In 1991 he appeared in a BBC Arena
documentary with the Jamaican poet Linton Kwesi Johnson
.
In 2003, he was honoured by his country with the unveiling of a life-size bust at the Peace Memorial Hall in Kingstown.
Kingstown
Kingstown is the chief port of Saint Vincent, and the capital of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. With a population of 25,418 Kingstown is a centre for the island's agricultural industry and a port of entry for tourists...
, St Vincent
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is an island country in the Lesser Antilles chain, namely in the southern portion of the Windward Islands, which lie at the southern end of the eastern border of the Caribbean Sea where the latter meets the Atlantic Ocean....
, West Indies – 11 November 1997, Oslo, Norway) was a jazz musician, poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
and government minister. He is most well known today for his role as a jazz trumpeter, principally his work as a member of the ground breaking Joe Harriott
Joe Harriott
Joseph Arthurlin 'Joe' Harriott was a Jamaican jazz musician and composer, whose principal instrument was the alto saxophone....
Quintet (1959-1965).
Early life in St Vincent
Keane attended Kingstown Methodist School and St Vincent Grammar School. During his early adulthood in St Vincent, his principal interest was poetry and literature, not music. He had been dubbed ‘Shakespeare’ by his school friends, on account of this love of prose and poetry. This nickname was subsequently shortened to ‘Shake’, which would become the name he used throughout his adult life. He published two books of poetry, L'Oubili (1950) and Ixion (1952), while still in St Vincent.Early career in Europe
Keane emigrated to Great BritainGreat Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
in 1952. He worked on BBC Radio's Caribbean Voices, reading poetry and interviewing fellow writers and musicians. He also began playing the trumpet in London nightclubs, working in a number of styles including cabaret
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...
, highlife
Highlife
Highlife is a musical genre that originated in Ghana in the 1900s and spread to Sierra Leone, Nigeria and other West African countries by 1920...
, soca
Soca music
Soca is a style of music from Trinidad and Tobago. Soca is a musical development of traditional Trinidadian calypso, through loans from the 1960s onwards from predominantly black popular music....
, mento
Mento
Mento is a style of Jamaican folk music that predates and has greatly influenced ska and reggae music. It has its roots in calypso and other Jamaican folk music. Mento typically features acoustic instruments, such as acoustic guitar, banjo, hand drums, and the rhumba box — a large mbira in the...
, calypso
Calypso music
Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from African and European roots. The roots of the genre lay in the arrival of enslaved Africans, who, not being allowed to speak with each other, communicated through song...
and jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
. From 1959 he committed more fully to jazz, spending six years as a member of pioneering alto saxophonist Joe Harriott
Joe Harriott
Joseph Arthurlin 'Joe' Harriott was a Jamaican jazz musician and composer, whose principal instrument was the alto saxophone....
's band. Harriott's group was the first in Europe, and one of the first worldwide, to play free jazz
Free jazz
Free jazz is an approach to jazz music that was first developed in the 1950s and 1960s. Though the music produced by free jazz pioneers varied widely, the common feature was a dissatisfaction with the limitations of bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz, which had developed in the 1940s and 1950s...
, and Keane contributed mightily to the band’s artistic success, thanks to his fleet and powerful improvisatory skills on trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
and flugelhorn
Flugelhorn
The flugelhorn is a brass instrument resembling a trumpet but with a wider, conical bore. Some consider it to be a member of the saxhorn family developed by Adolphe Sax ; however, other historians assert that it derives from the valve bugle designed by Michael Saurle , Munich 1832 , thus...
.
During this period he and Harriott also played extensively with English jazz pianist Michael Garrick
Michael Garrick
Michael Garrick MBE was an English jazz pianist and composer, and a pioneer in mixing jazz with poetry recitations.-Biography:...
, often in a ‘poetry and jazz’ setting. He also made a small handful of records under his own name, but these were usually light jazz, a world away from his work with Harriott and Garrick. In 1966 Keane left Britain to settle in Germany. He became featured soloist with the Kurt Edelhagen
Kurt Edelhagen
Kurt Edelhagen, born 5 June 1920 in Herne, died 8 February 1982 in Köln, was a major European big band leader throughout the 1950s.After having studied clarinet and piano in Essen, he set up his multicultural big band, which over the years would include many big names in jazz in Europe, including...
Radio Orchestra, and also joined the pre-eminent European jazz ensemble of the 1960s, The Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band
The Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band
The Kenny Clarke–Francy Boland Big Band was one of the most noteworthy jazz big bands formed outside the United States.It was formed in 1961, when, with the help of producer Gigi Campi, the US drummer Kenny Clarke and Belgian pianist and composer Francy Boland and ex-Ellington bassist Jimmy Woode...
.
Later career
His musical career was set aside in the early 1970s, as he returned to St Vincent in 1972 to take up a government position as director of culture, remaining in the post until 1975. Afterwards, he turned to teaching as his main profession, while continuing to write poetry. His collection One a Week with Water (1979) won the prestigious Cuban Casa de las AméricasCasa de las Américas
Casa de las Américas is an organization that was founded by the Cuban Government in April 1959, four months after the Cuban Revolution, for the purpose of developing and extending the socio-cultural relations with the countries of Latin America, the Caribbean and the rest of the world...
prize for poetry.
In the early 1980s, Keane moved to New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, settling the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
. He did not return full time to music until 1989, when he rejoined Michael Garrick and his old band mates Coleridge Goode
Coleridge Goode
Coleridge George Emerson Goode is a former British Jamaican-born jazz bassist most noteworthy for his long collaboration with alto saxophonist Joe Harriott. Goode was a key figure in Harriott's innovatory jazz quintet throughout its eight year existence as a regular unit...
and Bobby Orr for a tour in honour of Joe Harriott. In 1991 he appeared in a BBC Arena
Arena (TV series)
Arena is a British television documentary series, made and broadcast by the BBC. It has run since 1 October 1975, and over five hundred episodes have been made. Arena covers all manner of subjects, from profiles of notable people such as Bob Dylan to the Ford Cortina car...
documentary with the Jamaican poet Linton Kwesi Johnson
Linton Kwesi Johnson
Linton Kwesi Johnson is a UK-based dub poet. He became the second living poet, and the only black poet, to be published in the Penguin Classics series. His poetry involves the recitation of his own verse in Jamaican Patois over dub-reggae, usually written in collaboration with renowned British...
.
Death and legacy
In the 1990s, he remained based in Brooklyn, but found a second home in Norway, where he worked most extensively. He contributed music to Norwegian television and stage productions for the next few years, also touring the country playing jazz. It was while preparing for one such tour that he became ill, subsequently dying from stomach cancer on 11 November 1997 in Oslo, aged 70.In 2003, he was honoured by his country with the unveiling of a life-size bust at the Peace Memorial Hall in Kingstown.
As bandleader
- In My Condition (Columbia, 1961)
- Bossa Negra (Columbia, 1962)
- That’s The Noise (Decca, 1965)
- With The Keating Sound (Decca, 1966)
- The Big Fat Horn Of Shake Keane (Decca, 1966)
- Dig It (Phase 4, 1968)
- Rising Stars At Evening Time (Economy, 1971)
As sideman
- Joe Harriott: Southern Horizons (Jazzland, 1960)
- Joe Harriott: Free Form (Jazzland, 1960)
- Wilton ‘Bogey’ Gaynair: Africa Calling (Candid, 1960)
- Joe Harriott: Abstract (Columbia, 1962)
- Joe Harriott: Movement (Columbia, 1963)
- Joe Harriott: High Spirits (Columbia, 1964)
- David Mack: New Directions (Columbia, 1964)
- Michael Garrick: Poetry & Jazz In Concert (Argo, 1964)
- Michael Garrick: October Woman (Argo, 1965)
- Ambrose Campbell: High-Life Today (Columbia, 1966)
- Joe Harriott and John Mayer: Indo Jazz Fusions (Columbia, 1967)
- Clarke-Boland Band: Sax No End (Saba, 1967)
Poetry collections
- L'Oubili (1950)
- Ixion (1952)
- One a Week with Water (1979)
- The Volcano Suite (1979)
- Palm and Octopus (1994)