Shake KeaneEllsworth McGranahan "Shake" Keane was born on May 30, 1927, in St. Vincent, Caribbean. In the 1940s, the teenage Keane joined one of the island's leading bands, Ted Lawrence and His Silvertone Orchestra. The distinctive horn-playing of Keane became feature of the annual Vincentian carnival, long before he would be called one of the best flugel horn players in Europe and became known in international jazz circles during the 1950s and 1960s. Keane's first two books were L'Oubli (1950, self-published) and Ixion (1952). In 1979, St. Vincent, along with eight closely grouped sister islands, emerged from centuries of British colonial rule to become the independent country of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. In that historic year, Keane self-published The Volcano Suite, and he won what is still the most prestigious pan-Caribbean literary prize, Cuba's Premio Casa De Las Americas 1979 Poetry. The winning collection, One A Week With Water, was published concurrently in Havana by Casa and remains an essential work of Keane. His poems have appeared in the literary journals Bim, Kyk-over-al, Savacou, and Caribbean Quarterly and have been anthologized in Caribbean Voices, Caribbean Verse, and You Better Believe It. THE ANGEL HORN--SHAKE KEANE (1927-1997) COLLECTED POEMS, an anthology of six unpublished manuscripts, is the fifth and most comprehensive book of Shake Keane's poetic range and vision from the late 1940s to his last poem written in 1997. Keane died in Oslo, Norway, in 1997--at the start of a jazz tour. In 2003, the poet, musician, educator, raconteur, and "the grand egalitarian" was honored by his country with the unveiling of a life-size bust at the Peace Memorial Hall in Kingstown. Read More Read Less