Etienne Charles entered the stage wearing a plaid jacket with notes of hot pink, green, blue, and gray. Already, he was rocking a pair of bright pink boots, his face rimmed in lime green glow-in-the-dark-glasses. Even before he began to play, he radiated a well-earned confidence, more warmth than swagger.
The clothes, maybe, were just for the night. But what would last forever was how the crowd felt under the sonic, mesmerizing influence of his trumpet and the musical sway of his bandmates, who together comprise Creole Soul.
That sound blessed Milford last Saturday, as the Milford Arts Council (the MAC) unveiled its inaugural Jazz’n Downtown festival, a series of free jazz concerts and one culminating, ticketed event happening across downtown Milford over several mellifluous hours. From the town’s Lisman Landing Marina to the patios at Parson’s Plaza and the Stonebridge Restaurant, concert goers experienced some of the best in contemporary jazz music for free. A total of 13 acts performed in various locations throughout the town.
“I was like, ‘You know what? I think downtown is ready for something different,’” said MAC Executive Director Paige Miglio, crediting Stephanie Sands as the event’s primary organizer and musical curator, on a recent episode of WNHH Community Radio’s “Arts Respond.”
“Milford has so many community events and free festivals … and I’m like, ‘I want to take arts and culture from our little tiny venue, and put it front and center, in the midst of the busiest merchant and restaurant district of downtown.’ Really, soaking up the natural beauty that we all take for granted, and exposing it to the world. And what better way to do that than through live music? The genre of jazz is just really really appropriate.”
The journey to Jazz’n Downtown began several years ago, when Sands—yes, mother to the prodigiously talented musicians Ryan and Christian Sands—told Miglio that she had always wanted to open a jazz club named Penny’s. Miglio, who has worked to weave community partnerships into the MAC’s programming, suggested she use the organization’s stage to produce a jazz series. The idea grew from there.
For four seasons now, “we’ve been running with this,” Miglio said. Around 2022, she started dreaming about a jazz festival in the center of downtown. Sands helped it take flight.
Throughout the day, performers showcased the sheer breadth of jazz that exists in and across the state, from early-career drummer Anton Kot, already a musical whiz, to recent Ellington Medal awardee Jeff Fuller, to musicians Tina Fabrique and Wycliffe Gordon, who ended the day with a shimmering tribute to Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong.
Charles, who closed out the night at Stonebridge Restaurant, sealed the deal for many of the festival's listeners.
Part of that, of course, is the musicians he plays with. In addition to Charles, who plays trumpet, cajon and vocals, the band featured Antonio Vergara on alto sax, Axel Tosca on piano, Alex Wintz on guitar, Russell Hall on bass and Brian Richburg on drums.
The opening number “Green Chimneys,” a tribute to late jazz legend Thelonious Monk, began with Charles testing his horn, breathing life into a series of sharp notes. As he played, his fingers rose and fell, in a combination of soul. It was a mathematics and memory that felt light and bird-like, and at the same time imbued with deep feeling.
Neither the horn nor Charles needed to be warmed up, it seemed; it was the audience that had to prepare itself for an unpredictable and magical evening.
On the keys, Cuban-born Tosca evoked a groove that Monk himself would have been proud of. Were we in Milford or New Orleans? All that was missing were intertwined green and purple beads and beignets.
The congas, meanwhile, framed Charles, and nearby, bass thumped. Hall drew on a sublime hip-hop inflection, taking the melody into another realm on the bass. Hailing from Jamaica, he played as if he had been in the night clubs of yesteryear, at the pique of the burgeoning jazz movement. In each complex thump and thrum was a unique style, through which Hall somehow fused past and present.
While Vergara appeared to be the youngest of the group, he proved himself an old soul, wails rising from his saxophone that were as seasoned as the instrument’s oxidized brass appearance. As the night went on, feet a-tapping in the audience, Vergara added plenty of flavor to the mix.
It is one thing to hear a professional trumpeter perform, but Saturday at Stonebridge, the nuances of movement and facial expressions invited the audience into the soul of an artist. Picture Charles’ horn blaring, the band emerging as the sound simmered. Imagine a grimace that was not about disappointment, but a groove so deep it could not be denied. Watch, in your mind’s eye, as the instruments surrounded him, and the sound boiled over past the brim. It was a gift to the ears and souls of listeners.
Bop-bop-booms punctuated heavily and cymbals clanged a misty clang through the crowd. On the drums, Richburg made sure that each stroke of each drum claimed its place in time and memory, that the auditory and visual senses were equally engaged.
Seven songs spread across Milford evening sky. Had a new neighbor decided to lease a home near Stonebridge, the decision to buy would be a solid yes. A total of seven songs would have converted anyone to move to Milford—to, in Miglio’s words, “just get there”—and perhaps volunteer to wait tables at Stonebridge, if it meant getting closer to this sound.
Covering Aldwyn Roberts’ Calypso tune “Love In The Cemetery," Charles crooned of romantic evening, during which the singer is invited by a ghost to stay a while in the space. As he reached the hook, Charles invited attendees to sing along.
Run! he sang succinctly, coaching the audience, and it became a call and response. Run! Around the chorus, Charles was the ultimate storyteller. His Trinidadian roots and ear for storytelling set him apart as a stellar musician and orator.
There was, throughout the set, also a deep and affecting respect for many cultures. Expanding on the work of Charles’ album “Gulluh Roots,” Hall grounded the track with a methodical plucking as Charles gusted with confidence. There was sheet music on the stage, but no one was looking at it. Was it even necessary? Each note, though studied, seemed to come from deep within.
At one point, it became clear that this—an intergenerational sound, and the learning that accompanied it— was the point of the festival, or at least part of the point. A toddler stood before Charles transfixed, taking in all of his lime green bespectacled genius. No smile. No words. Then, a movement. First a leg. Then a rock in unison with the night’s tempo.
It all came together as a cosmic blend. Was it Alex Wintz’s silky guitar riffs? Was the Charles enchanting tapping of the cajon? No. It was all of it, all at once
Stonebridge restaurant was full of jazz enthusiasts. They dined on good food but were hungry for all that Charles and Creole Soul were offering musically.
“Milford, CT How are you feeling tonight?” Charles had offered at the beginning of his set.
Under the warm night sky and roof of Stonebridge restaurant, he had the answer. Everyone was full, from their bellies to their souls. It was the full serving of the MAC.
For more about the MAC's inaugural Jazz'n Downtown Festival, check out a special episode of "Arts Respond" with MAC Executive Director Paige Miglio and Marketing & Communications Specialist Raheem Nelson below.