Shake Keane

Who is Shake Keane?

Ellsworth McGranahan Keane, known by his stage name Shake Keane, was a Vincentian poet, jazz trumpeter, and flugelhorn player who became one of the Caribbean's most distinctive artistic voices of the twentieth century. Born in Kingstown, Saint Vincent, he trained as a teacher before moving to London in the 1950s, where he immersed himself in both the Caribbean Artists Movement and the city's jazz scene. As a trumpeter he became a key member of Joe Harriott's pioneering free-jazz quintet in the early 1960s, one of the first groups in Britain to explore free improvisation, and he later performed and recorded with numerous European jazz ensembles. As a poet he published several collections, including L'Oubli and One a Week with Water, exploring exile, identity, and Caribbean life in a style that fused oral tradition with modernist technique. He also worked as a broadcaster, journalist, and diplomat for Saint Vincent and the Grenadines later in his career. Keane died in Bridgetown, Barbados, in 1997, and he is remembered as a rare figure who achieved lasting distinction in both literature and jazz performance.

Sources: The Oxford Companion to Black British History, entry on Shake Keane · Caribbean Beat magazine, profiles of Shake Keane · Kwame Dawes (ed.), essays on Caribbean poetry referencing Shake Keane's work