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From the siesta to the fiesta, the lifeblood of the Caribbean is its music, the infectious rhythms of salsa, calypso, and zouk, with their mellifluous vocals and brilliant brass. Henry Shukman, with the rare attributes of being both a professional writer and an ace trombone player, left London for Trinidad to tap some of this bravura by joining a calypso band - the very heartbeat of the islands.
Caught in the exhilaration of carnival in Port of Spain, jamming with a police band in Grenada, witness to the thunderous drumming of the invocation of the god Shango in Trinidad, and learning the unfamiliar style of zouk for a one-night stand in Dominica, Shukman's quest to share the musical roots of the people of the islands uncovered a world of powerful eroticism, ritual, and mysticism. And on the mainland, the then travel hardened Shukman was hurled into another kaleidoscopic world of prostitutes and carnival in the Colombian salsa capital Cali, sang the revered vallenato in the plaza of the northern town of La Gloria, and was awoken in Cartagena to the nightmare of being falsely arrested by soldiers as a suspected drug trafficker.
Travels with My Trombone is the extraordinary pilgrimage of a young man whose journey to the Caribbean to fulfill his dreams as a musician was eventually outstripped by the helter-skelter of the bewitching salsa and wild magic of carnival. It is a powerful, mesmerizing, compulsive tale, driven by the sexual and musical passion of a world that, as Shukman soon discovered, can never be tamed.
