Paula Lindo – Our histories, stories, present, future.

Fusion jazz pianist Adan Hagley will be making his first appearance with his own band, the Adan Hagley Quintet, with a concert titled “Break Out.”

The concert will take place at Fiesta Plaza, MovieTowne, Port of Spain on November 5.
Hagley began learning music at the age of eight at the Stafford Duncan School of Music in Point Fortin, and formed a jazz band with some friends at Presentation College, while also playing in church. “I wanted to be a performer. For my first gig, the band played at a Petrotrin dinner at the Hilton and I just really enjoyed it, I thought it was really enjoyable, and from there on, I was like yes I want to do music. So we formed our own band and started to do little dinners here and there, and that was my first introduction to performing and playing music for people.”
He continued to perform throughout secondary school, but began studying engineering at the behest of his parents. Hagley heard about the Berklee College of Music through two friends who were applying there and convinced his parents to let him apply. “I went to Boston, auditioned and got in. I was accepted before I did my final CAPE exams, which was really tough, because the exams didn’t matter for me getting into the school, which is based totally on audition, so they don’t really care about CAPE. It was tough knowing that this exam really did not matter and my mom was like, you have to pass these exams or we’re not sending you anywhere” Hagley went to Berkelee in 2009 and graduated in 2013 with a Bachelors of Music in Contemporary Writing and Production.
Since his return to Trinidad, he’s been freelancing with different bands and singers, including Vaughnette Bigford, the Dean Williams quartet, the Dayo Bejide Jazz Project, violinist Inge Schlüer and Richarde Bereaux and the Lutionaires. He has also composed the score for two local films: Flying the Coup by Ryan Lee, and Concerning Junaid by Maryam Safiyyah Mohammed.
Hagley said it’s hard to survive only making music in T&T and so in addition to performing, he has also been teaching music to children of all ages and doing private lessons. He has also been doing arrangements and producing music. His most popular piece to date is a live arrangement of Voices “Cheers to Life,” which can be found on YouTube. “I try to keep my music as dynamic and exciting as possible, because jazz is already something that not everybody is into. The song is fusion, mostly Latin with some other funk elements in it, and then I put a horn section in the back of it, so it’s interesting. People are intrigued by it, because they know the song and they say they never thought about it like that, because they just know it as the original version, and then now they listen to this and it’s pretty and you can move to it. My goal is to have something that people can sing and relate to.”
This is Hagley’s first concert with his band, which is composed of Hagley on keyboards, Rodney Alexander on bass, Dareem Chandler on drums, Daniel Ryan on Tenor Sax and Aviel Scanterbury on Tenor Pan.
The concert begins at 8:30 pm and admission is free. For more information, go to Adan Hagley Music on Facebook and YouTube.