Esdelle has been the leader of a Caribbean Jazz group called Chantal Esdelle and Moyenne since its conception in 1998. Together they’ve played regional and international jazz festivals such as the Havana International Jazz Festival, Grenada Spice, the Tobago Jazz Experience and the T&T Steel Pan Jazz Festival and Jazz on the Greens. Most of the time, however, the group plays smaller, more intimate events, and, once or twice a year, major events at UWI, Queen’s Hall or The Little Carib Theatre. Though she’s best known now as a pianist, she will be remembered by hard-core jazz aficionados as a steel pan player. She was the joint winner of the 1992 Pan Soloist competition at Pan is Beautiful VI, tying with Liam Teague. Her love affair with music began quite by accident, at age four, when her father took her to the home of well-known old-school music teacher, Louise McIntosh, founder of the Pan Pipers. “I told him I wanted to stay,” she recalls. She studied under her for the next 14 years, doing what she calls “the usual stuff”: practical piano and singing. Jocleyn Sealey later became her vocal coach, and before she was out of her teens, Esdelle had earned herself distinctions and merits all the way up to Grade 8 in voice and piano.
For Esdelle, the next step was obvious: she went on to achieve her tertiary education... but not exactly in the field she was most passionate about. She wanted to study sound engineering, and Berklee College of Music in Boston, USA, offered it. “When I was younger I wanted to be either a sound engineer or the Vice President...I don’t know why, but it was always the VICE President... of a recording company. But when I got there I found I preferred writing and playing.” She received a scholarship and chose instead to study for a Bachelor of Arts in Jazz Composition. Since then she has also completed a Master’s degree in ethnomusicology from York University in Toronto. Why jazz? Esdelle credits her early exposure to her parents’ impressive library of records, brought back from their sojourns in the US and Europe. “I also liked the things Earl Rodney and Clive Bradley were doing on calypso recordings. I decided I didn’t want to continue studying classical music.” “Life in the arts is not easy," she says, “but the musicians in my group and my colleagues from school have chosen to make a living through their music.” And the satisfaction of creating and connecting is always enough to keep her going. “You have to hold on to that despite the pressures of capitalism. People have different ideas about what they want to get in life. You have to decide what you want.” Esdelle’s other music projects include the composition and recording of music for the local documentary, The Solitary Alchemist, by local filmmaker, Mariel Brown, a three-year run of the weekly jazz programme, “The Chantal Esdelle Caribbean Jazz Hour” on 100.5 WMJX, a two-year lecture stint at UWI, a teaching gig at Bishop Anstey High School East, and the establishment of a music performance programme in Tobago with the Ministry of Tobago Affairs.
Faithful to her Caribbean heritage and experience enhanced by her time spent playing with Andre Tanker, SeĖor Ruiz, Wayne Bruno, Desperadoes and many other steelbands, she shies away from playing what she calls “straight-ahead” or standard jazz, preferring to celebrate her origins by using Caribbean and South American musical forms like calypso, son, zouk, samba and bossa in her music. “Where I live and who I am informs Her two albums, entitled Imbizo Moyenne and New Hope, feature original material from her and from fellow band members. New Hope features music from Glenford “Kevin” Sobers and Imbizo Moyenne features music from Douglas Redon. New Hope lists Glenford Sobers, Donald Noel, Moses Auguste, Sean Thomas, Michelle Marfan and Theron Shaw as its musicians and is available at trinidadtunes.com. Cuts from both albums may be heard at myspace.com/chantalesdelle. Within the next year, she’s looking forward to further embracing her heritage by organising a regional tour in the near future, although the difficulty of moving from island to island can prove a hindrance. She plans to launch her album, Imbizo Moyenne, with part proceeds going to social projects in Haiti. The emotions that swell up in Chantal Esdelle when she’s performing are hard to describe. “It’s a blessing to be able to do what you love. I feel connected and appreciative. It feels good that when I am finished, people almost always express that they got something out of hearing us (Moyenne) perform. It’s nurturing to use your gift daily, and not sell yourself short. I feel privileged.”
