Shake Keane

Ellsworth McGranahan "Shake" Keane (30 May 1927 – 11 November 1997) was a Vincentian jazz musician and poet. He is best known today for his role as a jazz trumpeter, principally his work as a member of the ground-breaking Joe Harriott Quintet (1959–65).

Early life in St Vincent Born on the Caribbean island of St Vincent into "a humble family that loved books and music", Keane attended Kingstown Methodist School and St Vincent Grammar School. He was taught to play the trumpet by his father, Charles (who died when Keane was 13), and gave his first public recital at the age of six. He worked on BBC Radio's Caribbean Voices programme, reading poetry and interviewing fellow writers and musicians. He began reading literature at London University by day, while also playing the trumpet in London nightclubs, 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. Both Harriott and Keane played with the Mike McKenzie Harlem All Stars.

During this period, Keane 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.

Family life in London During 1953, Keane met Christiane Richard, from Lyon, France, at one of his performances in London. The couple settled down together in Tufnell Park and had two sons in the early 1960s: Alan and Noel Julian.

In 1981, Keane moved to New York City, settling the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. Keane himself had selected the poems for inclusion but died before publication. The book was seen through to publication by his widow, Margaret Bynoe.

The biography Riff: The Shake Keane Story, by Philip Nanton, was published in January 2021 by Papillote Press.

Discography 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) Real Keen Reggae into Jazz (LKJ, 1991)

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) Jonny Teupen: Love and Harp A La Latin (Vogue, 1965; reissued by Sonorama Records, Berlin, Germany. Listed as Leonard Blech, a pseudonym for a well known West Indian trumpet player who worked at the BBC and in the combos of Joe Harriot, Jonny Keating and Bob Jarnon) Ambrose Campbell: High-Life Today (Columbia, 1966) Joe Harriott and John Mayer: Indo Jazz Fusions (Columbia, 1967) Kenny Clarke/Francy Boland Big Band: Swing, Waltz, Swing (Philips, 1966), Sax No End (SABA, 1967), Out of the Folk Bag (Columbia, 1967), 17 Men and Their Music (Campi, 1967), Latin Kaleidoscope (MPS, 1968)

Poetry collections L'Oubili (1950) Ixion (1952) One a Week with Water (1979) The Volcano Suite (1979) Palm and Octopus (1994) The Angel Horn – Shake Keane (1927–1997) Collected Poems (2005) Ixion & The Soufrière Suite (2025)