“Haiti was the first free Black republic,” says Melanie Charles, a Haitian-American singer-songwriter, flutist and producer. “So our resilience is at the center of what makes us really a beautiful people. And I think that is the piece that we can hold on to within all the struggle, the hunger, all of that: we are resilient, and we do show up.”
Charles offered this attestation on a panel with Nubya Garcia, a London-born saxophonist of Guyanese and Trinidadian descent. I’d organized the talk as part of North Sea Jazz in Rotterdam, calling it “Diaspora Sounds” — a nod to the legacies of homeland and migration that both artists so deftly engage in their music.
I’ve been holding on to this deep, inspiring conversation for a couple of years now, waiting for the right moment to share it. In recent days — as a United States senator willfully demonized and endangered the Haitian community in his own state, for the cynical gain of a presidential ticket — I became convinced that the moment is now. Hear what Melanie and Nubya each have to say about heritage, and how it flows through their creative practice like a river. I think it’s the message we all need.
Field Notes
Melanie Charles is, as I’m sure you’ve gathered, the ultimate multi-hyphenate. You should know about Make Jazz Trill Again, a podcast she co-hosts with Yunie Mojica. Jazz is their lens, but not always their subject: the two most recent episodes have focused, respectively, on Kendrick Lamar and Meredith Monk.
At the time of our panel, Nubya Garcia was touring behind a thematically apt album, Source. Her follow-up, Odyssey, drops on Friday. If you missed the conversation we had about it on The Late Set podcast, catch up here:
If you started following The Gig sometime within the last two years, you may have missed my original report from North Sea Jazz, which touches on both the talk series and the music I heard. I think it holds up; have a look.
And while we’re on a festive note: later this week I’ll be boarding the “Jazz Train” for a trek to the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival. This’ll be my first visit to Pittsburgh, and I’m really looking forward to it. More on that soon.
Diaspora Sounds: Melanie Charles + Nubya Garcia