“He plays the most coolly expressive trumpet in jazz, transmuting the instrument’s repertoire of smears, growls, peeps, and blasts into an astonishingly fluid language both luxurious and controlled.” -- Vanity Fair  Terence Blanchard © Jenny Bagert Born in New Orleans 45 years ago, Terence Blanchard began playing piano at age 5, adding trumpet a few years later after hearing a band visiting his elementary school. His father, a part-time opera singer, encouraged his son “to practice the piano every day, right next to the window, while the other kids were outside playing ball,'' he called in a recent interview for the New York Times. In high school at the New Orleans Center of Creative Arts, Terence studied with Ellis Marsalis and Roger Dickerson, and was a classmate of saxophonist Donald Harrison. After graduation, he enrolled at Rutger’s University on a music scholarship, and soon was booked on a tour with Lionel Hampton. His big break came in 1983 when Wynton Marsalis recommended him as his replacement in Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. Known for his mentoring and shaping of young talents, Blakey not only gave Blanchard his big start as a performer but served as a role model as bandleader and mentor, roles that Blanchard champions today.
 Terence Blanchard © Jenny Bagert
After two years with Blakey, Terence and former classmate/fellow Messenger Donald Harrison moved on to form their own quintet, earning the prestigious French Grand Prix du Disque for their 1984 recording, New York Second Line. A few years later, Blanchard set off on his solo career. Living in New York until 1996, Blanchard had become acquainted with Spike Lee, for whom he would ultimately score a long list of films. “All those guys were living in my neighborhood,” said Spike Lee. “They had all moved up from New Orleans to Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Wynton was there, Branford was there, Terence was there, Donald Harrison. So my father, Bill Lee, managed to give these young jazz musicians some experience working on a film score.” The 1990 Grammy-nominated film was Mo’ Better Blues, starring Denzel Washington as a trumpeter. Blanchard played the trumpet parts as well as scoring the theme. “Terence has been doing my scores ever since,” said the younger Lee. In addition to Mo’ Better Blues, Blanchard earned a 1996 Grammy nomination (Latin Jazz) for his CD, The Heart Speaks, on Columbia/Sony Classical. In the late 90s, Blanchard’s recording career mushroomed as composer of film and television soundtracks (including the Grammy-nominated Wandering Moon and “Lost in a Fog” from Let’s Get Lost, and Golden Globe nomination for scoring Spike Lee’s The 25th Hour). His work with Lee included scores for Jungle Fever, Malcolm X, Clockers, Summer of Sam, Bamboozled, the Academy Award-nominated 1997 documentary Four Little Girls, and the documentary Jim Brown: All American. He also earned an Emmy in 1995 for his original documentary score for The Promised Land. Moving to Blue Note in 2003, Terence scored Grammy nominations for Bounce (2003) and Flow (2005). Performing and composing are not the only passions that Terence Blanchard brings to music. A devoted educator, he has served as Artistic Director of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, until this summer housed at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and now affiliated with Loyola University in Blanchard’s New Orleans. “It’s a means for us to give back to the community, and to have this continuing love affair with the city,” he said of the move. “…We’re taking something that has already worked, and bringing it here. It’s like putting a beautiful orchid in some seriously fertilized soil.” Further, his affinity for gathering and nurturing the hottest young talents harkens back to his residency with Art Blakey, although some cite the “Miles Davis School” as a more apt analogy. Of Blanchard’s current ensemble (bassist Derrick Hodge, tenor saxophonist Brice Winston, drummer Kendrick Scott and pianist Fabian Almazan, a recent replacement for Aaron Parks), Herbie Hancock notes, ''They're able to take these compositions and immediately translate them into the particular sound of Terence's band, which in many ways reminds me of what used to happen with Miles.'' Blanchard’s latest project for Blue Note, A Tale of God’s Will (Requiem for Katrina), was released in early August 2007, a follow-up to his score for Spike Lee’s Emmy-nominated 2006 HBO documentary, When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts. “That started me to make some musical statements for this moment in time,” Blanchard says. “It’s part of the grieving process. Once I wrote some of the music for Spike’s film, I knew I could take it and expand upon it… This is what we are called to do as artists. We document our social surroundings and give our impressions of events…” The Terence Blanchard Quintet will give their impression of the events surrounding Hurricane Katrina on stage at Jazz Standard, 2 shows per night (additional late set on Friday and Saturday), September 11-16. “I was so frustrated and in rage. I wanted the trumpet to scream on every track, but I feel that God is using me to speak for all the souls in New Orleans.” –Terence Blanchard Jazz Standard is located at 116 E. 27th Street in Manhattan; www.jazzstandard.com. For complete discography and touring information, visit Terence Blanchard’s website at www.terenceblanchard.com Additional Tour Dates:
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New York 
Thursday, 08 January 2009
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