The Week in Jazz is your roundup of new and noteworthy stories from the jazz world. It's a one-stop destination for the music news you need to know. Let's take it from the top. Oscar-nominated and Grammy-winning trumpeter/composer Terence Blanchard is receiving the Campari Passion for Film Award at the 77th Venice International Film Festival, which runs on September 2-12 in Italy. The award, instituted two years ago, recognizes directors' closest collaborators and their contribution to artistic projects. Blanchard is a longtime Spike Lee collaborator and also scored Regina King's One Night in Miami, screening at the Venice festival. SEE JAZZIZ PAGE

Terence Blanchard, Oscar and BAFTA-nominated for Spike Lee's "BlacKkKlansman," and a Grammy winner for the "Blood and Soil" track from the film's original soundtrack, will receive the Venice Film Festival's Campari "Passion for Film" award this year. Blanchard also composed the score for Lee's Netflix film "Da 5 Bloods" and Regina King's "One Night in Miami," which is playing out of competition at Venice. The award, instituted two years ago at the 75th Venice Film Festival, seeks to highlight the contribution of the director's closest collaborators to the fulfilment of the artistic project that each film represents. The 77th Venice Film Festival runs Sept. 2-12.   READ THE FULL Variety ARTICLE

HBO's Perry Mason is a few things all at once. It's a reboot of a property that has, at one time or another, been a series of books, a TV show, or a radio show. It's a Robert Downey Jr. passion project (and one the Avengers star is still a part of as an executive producer). It's the network's latest in a series of non-True Detective shows that are nonetheless in the True Detective spirit (joining Sharp Objects and The Outsider). But more than anything else, it's safe to say that Perry Mason is a sleek, stylish show. From the sharp direction and cinematography, to the incredibly accurate and gorgeous set (including a totally recreated Los Angeles), to the leading performances from Matthew Rhys, Tatiana Maslany, and Shea Whigham, it's a show that's set in the past, but feels overwhelmingly of the present. Perry Mason's music isn't sourced from actual music of the era, but rather is made up of original compositions from jazz artist and frequent Spike Lee collaborator Terence Blanchard. Blanchard has been Lee's exclusive composer ever since 1991's Jungle Fever, and contributed to his Do The Right Thing and School Daze soundtracks even before that. Here, Blanchard's songs are the perfect fit for this new, 2020-rebooted version of Perry Mason: the songs sound just dark, hypnotic, and moody enough to fit with the show's noir-ish sensibilities, but updated and sleek enough to know definitively that this music is being made today. READ THE FULL Men'sHealth ARTICLE

Spike Lee's very new joint is an anguished, more funny, violent argument with and about the whole American history, also with an unforgettable performance from Delroy Lindo at its heart. Spike Lee's career can also be described as a lover's quarrel with American movies and with America, too. As he has demonstrated his mastery of established genres, he has also now reinvented them, pointing out the blind spots and filling the gap. His all critiques of Hollywood's long history of ignoring and distorting, the black lives have altered the way we look at the movies. His all attempts to expand the frame and also correct the record have now changed the course of the cultural mainstream. He said ‘I am tempted to say that with ‘Da Bloods', which debuts on Friday, Lee has done it again. But, when as he ever repeated himself? This whole long, anguished, funny, violent excursion into a hidden chamber of the nation's heart of the darkness is not like anything else, even if it all may put you in mind of a lot of other things. In all its anger, its humour and its exuberance in the emotional richness of the central performances and also of Terence Blanchard's score'. READ THE FULL Honk News REVIEW

Terence Blanchard is in town for his performance TONIGHT at the Rialto Center and talked to UPFRONT about his numerous TV and film projects. He'll be teaming up with Raphael Saadiq this spring to score the soundtrack for NatGeo's GENIUS: ARETHA biopic starring Oscar-nominated actress Cynthia Erivo. He is also reuniting with Spike Lee for Da 5 Bloods and a reboot of Perry Mason. Blanchard also reveals his most challenging project to date and his unfailing love for the late jazz legend Billie Holiday.  READ THE FULL 91.9WCLK: Atlanta ARTICLE

The Opera Theatre of Saint Louis (OTSL) announced the world premiere of trumpeter-composer Terence Blanchard and librettist Kasi Lemmons' Fire Shut Up in My Bones, based on the memoir of celebrated writer Charles Blow. This opera is part of OTSL's series New Works, Bold Voices, which is committed to commissioning new operas that reflect the diversity of modern American experience. Fire Shut Up in My Bones is Blanchard's second opera and has been co-commissioned with Jazz St. Louis. It will open on June 15 and run for six performances directed by OTSL artistic director James Robinson, conducted by William Long and featuring an acclaimed cast including sopranos Julia Bullock and Karen Slack, and bass-baritone Davóne Tines. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d} SEE ALL JAZZIZ ITEMS

Composer and jazz artist Terence Blanchard will be named a BMI Icon at the 35th annual Film, TV and Visual Media Awards of Broadcast Music Inc. on May 15 at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills. The five-time Grammy winner and recent Oscar nominee (for "BlacKkKlansman") has long been director Spike Lee's favorite composer, having written the scores for "Malcolm X," "Inside Man," "25th Hour," the Katrina documentary "When the Levees Broke" and a dozen other films. His scores for other directors include "Red Tails," "Eve's Bayou," "Barbershop" and others.  PHOTO: CREDIT: ERIC CHARBONNEAU/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK READ THE FULL Variety ARTICLE

With BlacKkKlansman, Spike Lee effectively crafted himself a cultural moment, as the film not only nabbed some serious critical praise but prestigious awards recognition as well. Of course, the director didn't do it alone, though, and one those key assists came from Terence Blanchard, who helmed the 2018 film's Grammy-winning score. Made with Blanchard's current band E-Collective and a 96-piece orchestra, BlacKkKlansman is a sophisticated piece of work. Kicking off with the patriotic-like military drum piece "Gone With the Wind," the soundtrack morphs into an elegant and luxurious listen, making heavy use of that orchestra, especially its wind section.  READ THE FULL exclaim!@#$ ARTICLE

Fans of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival will be treated to a half-century's worth of live performances in a very special commemorative box CD set being released in celebration of Jazz Fest's 50th anniversary. In honor of Jazz Fest's golden anniversary, Smithsonian Folkways is releasing five discs of live performances from past years' festivals. Jazz Fest: The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival will arrive on May 10 and is currently available for pre-order, here. Jazz Fest organizers, the box set focuses on "the roots of Louisiana music," placing emphasis on genres like jazz, bounce, zydeco, brass band, gospel and R&B. Some of the artists featured are Trombone Shorty, Irma Thomas, Big Freedia, Professor Longhair, The Neville Brothers, Allen Toussaint (solo and in a duet with Bonnie Raitt), Dr. John, Kermit Ruffins, Terence Blanchard, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Champion Jack Dupree, and Buckwheat Zydeco. READ THE FULL Off BEAT ARTICLE p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px}

At a time when most of the world's jazz capitals are buried under snow or suffering through sub-zero temperatures, Haiti is offering fans a week of outdoor concerts showcasing the best talents in the business in a balmy Caribbean clime, the 13th edition of the Port-au-Prince Jazz Festival, running now through January 26. Now in its thirteenth year, PaPJazz, as the Festival International de Jazz de Port-au-Prince styles itself, is aiming high. Proving that 13 isn't always an unlucky number, the festival this year has secured for the first time the talents of Cecile McLorin Salvant, currently one of the biggest singers in the world of jazz. "I feel so blessed to be in this shithole country," American trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard said at the end of his set, reprising with irony an expression reportedly used by US President Donald Trump to describe Haiti and a number of African countries. READ THE FULL FRANCE 24 ARTICLE

This morning, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra announced a four-week schedule of concerts, performances, and happenings for the fifth annual Soluna International Music & Arts Festival, which is coming from April 4 through April 28. While anchored by DSO performances, the festival aims to draw a connection from the lofty world of classical music to modern life in Dallas. There are a lot of intriguing events heading our way this April. Among the most exciting is from Grammy Award-winning trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard, who will partake in two events during Soluna. On April 7, he'll appear at Alamo Drafthouse Cedars for a screening of Spike Lee's 25th Hour and an artist talk. Blanchard has written the music for all the director's films, including BlacKkKlansman, which got him another Grammy nomination. On April 9 at The Majestic Theatre, Blanchard will join choreographer Rennie Harris and Dallas-based visual artist Andrew Scott for the premiere of Caravan: A Revolution on the Road, an interdisciplinary performance focused on the role of art in racial healing. SEE THE FULL D Magazine ARTICLE

One of the most arresting sequences in Spike Lee's "BlacKkKlansman" - based on the true story of an African American cop who infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in 1970s Colorado - comes right at the beginning of the movie. It involves Alec Baldwin, as a fictional white supremacist academic, filming a kind of segregationist infomercial. As he delivers his increasingly hateful diatribe, images from D.W. Griffith's notorious "The Birth of a Nation" are projected onto his face, eventually obscuring Baldwin almost entirely - a powerful visual metaphor for the way racism can span generations. Yet part of why this juxtaposition plays is because the sequence employs a third element: the lush strings of Terence Blanchard's music, which lends the scene a strangely moving quality seemingly at odds with what we're seeing. Blanchard, 56, is philosophical about the lack of recognition. "You never miss something you never had," he said with a laugh over the phone this week from New York, where he had a gig as part of Winter Jazzfest with his group, E-Collective.     Photo: (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times) READ THE FULL Los Angeles Times ARTICLE

When composer Terence Blanchard first heard the plot of "BlacKkKlansman he "didn't think it was a real story. I kept thinking, wow, this is a great piece of fiction." But when director Spike Lee informed his longtime collaborator that the tale of Ron Stallworth (John David Washington), an African-American police officer who infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in the late 1970s, was indeed true, Blanchard thought, "this has to be one of the most courageous people on the planet. A rookie cop, with a high level of integrity, who decided to take on such a task, was just an amazing thing." Watch GOLDDERBY's exclusive video interview with Blanchard

BlacKkKlansman is Spike Lee's provocative film about an African-American detective who goes undercover to infiltrate the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. Based on a true story, the film has achieved global fame with a score was created by New Orleans' very own Terence Blanchard. Blanchard was surprised when Spike Lee asked him to write the score for Jungle Fever in 1991. Then Lee asked him to write the score for every film since. In the debut episode of a new interview series called "Jazz Club" on TIDAL, Hans Schuman sat down with Blanchard to discuss his career and partnership with Spike Lee. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060; min-height: 14.0px} READ THE FULL offBEAT Magazine ARTICLE & WATCH THE INTERVIEW

"People don't know how to take me," says jazz trumpeter/composer Terence Blanchard with a laugh. It's a rare rainy day in Los Angeles and the five-time Grammy Award winner is seated inside a West Hollywood hotel suite. Flanked by a piano festooned with sheet music on one side and a keyboard roosting on a granite kitchen countertop on the other, Blanchard is talking about the trio of projects he's been juggling. "There's the E-Collective electric band, my film career and an opera," he explains. "People ask, ‘How do you do all this?' Well, I have a fascination with and love for music. It's just that simple." Slowing down long enough to chat with Billboard, the indefatigable Blanchard touches on everything from living in a "weird" Twilight Zone episode under the narcissistic direction of President Trump and dispelling opera myths to nurturing the wide-eyed vision of jazz's next generation. READ THE FULL billboard ARTICLE

Terence Blanchard has always been drawn to a form of lyricism that runs burnished and bittersweet. You can track this mood throughout his career as a post-bop trumpeter, and no less in his dozens of film scores, in and beyond a long affiliation with Spike Lee. That quality of mournful uplift also rings loud and clear on Blanchard's forthcoming album LIVE. It's a showcase for the sleek young band that he calls the E-Collective, with Charles Altura on guitar, Fabian Almazan on piano and synthesizers, David Ginyard on bass and Oscar Seaton on drums. This a group with quick-flash combustion in its DNA, but also an unforced capacity for the long, low simmer. That's best embodied on the first single from the album, "Dear Jimi." Obviously, this an homage to Jimi Hendrix - but rather than assign the melody to Altura's electric guitar, Blanchard plays it on synthesizer, mournfully pitch-bending the line. (There's nary a trace of his trumpet on the track.) READ Nat Chinen's FULL ARTICLE & LISTEN TO Dear Jimi

Terence Blanchard's two-act opera "Champion," which premiered locally at the Mahalia Jackson Theater on Friday and will be reprised in a Sunday matinee by the New Orleans Opera Association, is a case study in pathos, confused identity, the joys of fame and the price that is often paid during the rise to the top. Working from a fact-based libretto by Michael Cristofer, Blanchard, a Grammy-winning New Orleans trumpeter who has performed with some of the immortals of jazz and composed dozens of film scores, has taken his varied musical experiences to a new level in this, his first opera. READ THE FULL New Orleans Advocate ARTICLE p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060; min-height: 14.0px}

Forty minutes into his own performance at the Cistern, Terence Blanchard had played trumpet for about five minutes. He'd spent most of the concert standing near the back of the stage as his four-piece supporting band jammed through a nearly non-stop segue of original songs and classics like Marcus Miller's "Hannibal." Halfway through, it felt like Blanchard was more of the musical director of the E-Collective than a member of the band, let alone its star. The band's modernist approach to jazz, both free form and intricately complex, bounced from groove to discombobulation. Drummer Oscar Seaton and bassist David Ginyard (a Winnsboro, SC, native) ensured that we never lost interest, locking in vamps and grooves while guitarist Matt Sewell and pianist Fabian Almazan took journeys on their instruments. Early on, Blanchard seemed half-engaged, stepping to the stage to lay a few notes and arpeggios over the top of it all, before retreating again to let the band do the talking. Blanchard's band looked young, but each was clearly a virtuoso, and I began to wonder if he hadn't poached the cream of the crop from some elite music program in New York or New Orleans. When he finally spoke, almost an hour into the 90-minute show, he confirmed as much, at least in part. Sewell, he explained, was his 19-year-old student at Berklee College of Music in Boston. He'd agreed to fill in for Blanchard's usual guitarist, Charles Altura, and had practiced with the band for the first time that afternoon (If he hadn't told us, we'd have never suspected it). p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial; min-height: 11.0px} Before introducing the band, Blanchard said that he was "very excited" to play Spoleto, a "multicultural festival," adding, "This is who we are as a people and as a country, and I'm happy to be a part of it."  READ THE FULL Charleston City Paper REVIEW

On The Comedian(Blue Note), Grammy-winning trumpeter/composer Terence Blanchard returns to his jazz-renaissance roots with a set steeped in the glossy hues and tones of New York City at night. Blanchard's score for the soundtrack of Robert De Niro's new film captures a late-life crisis with jaunty blues, brooding balladry and svelte modern jazz. The mood-setting themes have strong melodies and rhythmic edge, and with saxophonist Ravi Coltrane stretching out and on-form pianist Kenny Barron leading a classy rhythm section, the jazz is for real. SEE THE Financial Times PAGE p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Helvetica; min-height: 12.0px} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Helvetica} span.Apple-tab-span {white-space:pre}

Another contemporary opera following fast on the heels of Dead Man Walking, Terence Blanchard's Champion continues the fascinating conversation on today's opera. It's a great choice for two reasons. First, like Dead Man, it shows that modern opera doesn't have to be a discordant concept-piece. Like the best of traditional opera, it can tell a compelling, deeply enthralling story. But Champion is also a brilliant choice because it sits in fascinating contrast to Dead Man. It is, quite simply, a very different animal. Whereas Jake Heggie's opera is dialogue-rich and engaged in a real-time narrative, Champion (★★★★) tells its (also true) story of boxer Emile Griffith with greater flights of expressive fancy. The good news is that it's no less accessible. In a wonderful moment, for example, when we first meet the young Emile, he arrives by way of a mini-spectacle of song and dance suggesting a street festival in his home in the U.S. Virgin Islands. It tells us much of what we need to know about this young man's optimism and also his innocence. Later, scenes are often introduced by a boxing ring announcer with the words "And in this corner." This, too, works. It is our invitation to have a look, consider the contender, decide to cheer or boo, be it Emile as a young boy, young man or in old age.  Champion runs to Mar. 18 at The Kennedy Center Opera House.  READ THE FULL Metro Weekly ARTICLE p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Helvetica; min-height: 12.0px} span.s1 {font: 10.0px 'PingFang SC'}

Pop, Rock, Jazz, and Classical. These are all separate genres of music. But what happens when you put two of them together? You get "opera in jazz" rather than "jazz opera," according to jazz musician and opera composer Terence Blanchard, who is the former Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance Artistic Director. Blanchard is also a jazz trumpeter from New Orleans who has over 20 albums to his credit, won three Grammy's and written music for many of Spike Lee's films. Blanchard just premiered his first opera, (the opera's second production run), "Champion," the story of former Welterweight Boxing Champion Emile Griffith and his life-defining fight with reigning Welterweight Champion Benny "The Kid" Paret. Blanchard's Opera "Champion" is being staged by the Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center with performances from March 4-18. Be sure to attend if you are in the mood for an exciting story, complimented with some great music and a touch of soulful emotion. READ THE FULL San Diego Voice and Viewpoint ARTICLE

For Grammy Award-winning trumpeter Terence Blanchard, composing a jazz concert based on the children's novel "Bud, Not Buddy" meant more than just telling Christopher Paul Curtis's colorful Depression-era tale in musical terms. It meant writing serious music that high school kids could perform. "I'm not trying to give them a free ride," Blanchard said by phone recently from Cleveland, where he was on tour. "I want them to have to gear up to perform this. But at the same time, it should be fun for them to play." Students won't be performing the score when "Bud, Not Buddy" makes its debut this weekend in the Kennedy Center's Eisenhower Theater. That's the longer-life goal for this project. But Blanchard did get to test-drive his material with student musicians in England during a workshop as he wrote. "They got up for it," he says. Blanchard won't be playing, either, with the dozen or so professional musicians performing his score. The music helps tell Curtis's story of a plucky 10-year-old orphan (played by Justin Weaks) who is convinced that the father he never met is a cranky Michigan musician (Frankie Faison) who leads a popular jazz outfit. READ THE FULL Washington Post ARTICLE p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Helvetica; min-height: 12.0px}

Six months after an African-American gunman killed five white and Hispanic Dallas police and DART officers, Terence Blanchard and the E-Collective rolled into Dallas with a message: We had to be here." In announcing the tour last year, he stated, "This band represents the best of America's ideals. We're five very different personalities with different visions who play together for a common goal: Creating music that hopefully heals hearts and opens minds." Judging by the many audience members in tears by the final number at Wyly Theatre on Saturday night, they succeeded. The concert, presented by AT&T Performing Arts Center, was being recorded for Caravan, a sequel to Blanchard's Breathless.    READ THE FULL TheaterJones Performing Arts News REVIEW p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Helvetica; min-height: 12.0px}

New Orleans trumpeter Terence Blanchard and his band E-Collective - guitarist Charles Altura, piano/sythns player Fabian Almazan, drummer Oscar Seaton and bassist David "DJ" Ginyard - will perform two consecutive nights Wed. 1/4 & Thurs. 1/5 at the Bop Stop and record the live shows. "This band represents the best of America's ideals," says Blanchard. "We're five very different personalities with different visions who play together for a common goal: Creating music that hopefully heals hearts and opens minds." READ FULL Cool Cleveland ARTICLE p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Helvetica; min-height: 12.0px}

An icon in the jazz world, trumpet player Terence Blanchard recently announced that he will record his new album, Caravan, in cities "scarred by the escalation of tension between law enforcement and unarmed African Americans." Given Cleveland's record of police shootings and racial tension, it only makes sense that Blanchard would include the city on his itinerary. Blanchard and his backing band the E-Collective will come to the Bop Stop to record on at 8 p.m. on Jan. 4 and 5. The sessions will be open to the public, and tickets are $20. More info about the event and the many community partners involved (Tri-C Jazz Fest, Shooting Without Bullets, and SPACES) can be found here.  SEE THE Cleveland Scene Weekly PAGE p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Helvetica; min-height: 12.0px}

"A movie without music is kind of like life with color," jazz musician Terence Blanchard said. Most people don't know how much work goes into putting a film together. Pre-production and production are two beasts to take on by themselves. When the filming is done and the actors go home, then it's time to add color to the movie. The music behind the movie plays a very important role in the film making process. Terence Blanchard is not only known for his smooth jazz, but he's composed for dozens of films including Inside Man, Cadillac Records, Red Tails, Barbershop, and more. Blanchard, who's a New Orleans native, recently worked on a new film called The Comedian, starring Robert De Niro at Esplanade Studios. He told us how important it is to collaborate with the director adding - "The director will have a vision. It's my job to bring that to life."       WATCH THE WGNO New Orleans - ABC: TV SEGMENT p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Helvetica; min-height: 12.0px}

HE is a Grammy award-winning trumpeter and bandleader who has composed the music for every Spike Lee film since the 90s. But despite all his accolades, what makes Terence Blanchard more proud is helping others succeed in the world of jazz. The 54-year-old grew up in New Orleans where he was welcomed into the Louisiana city's proud music community since he was a child. So he feels like he is passing on that spirit of collaboration and unity when he works with young musicians. Terence is currently doing just that with The Inner City Ensemble, who he will be performing with at the Pyramid in Warrington on Friday. The 13-piece band was put together from scratch with the aim of uniting some of the UK's most remarkable emerging jazz artists. "The calibre of the musicians is extraordinary," said Terence. READ THE FULL Warrington Guardian INTERVIEW

The first edition of The Jazz Directors Series, produced by creative music organisation Brighter Sound in collaboration with renowned Manchester venue Band on the Wall, will see 13 young professional musicians working with composer Terence Blanchard on specially arranged material from his long career in jazz and film scores. The Multi-Grammy Award winning trumpeter and film composer is also set to pay an extended visit to the north of England when he sets out on a series of dates this September with The Inner City Ensemble, which will feature young musicians drawn from across the region. SEE FULL Jazzwise ARTICLE  

The emotional climax of Terence Blanchard's SummerStage concert on Friday night, at Clove Lakes Park on Staten Island, arrived precisely one hour in, like a timed detonation. It was the title track of his most recent album, "Breathless" - an elegy for Eric Garner, who died at the hands of police officers on Staten Island just over two years ago. Mr. Blanchard, in his trumpet solo over the plaintive theme, struck a careful tonal balance, sounding haunted but unflinching. Mr. Garner's last words, "I can't breathe," became a rallying cry soon after his death, which was caught on video and viewed by millions. The phrase served a blunt, potent role at protests and on social media, bolstering the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. It has been printed on T-shirts, signs and buttons, like the one worn on Friday by Mr. Garner's 2-year-old daughter, Legacy, as she distractedly took in Mr. Blanchard's performance near the foot of the stage. READ THE FULL New York Times ARTICLE

New Orleans trumpet player and composer Terence Blanchard has performed his latest album, "Breathless," on both sides of the Atlantic, but his concert this week in New York with E-Collective, part of the annual SummerStage series in city parks, has a special resonance. The multi-Grammy-winning jazz musician is playing on Staten Island, the home of Eric Garner, the unarmed African-American whose words during a fatal 2014 confrontation with police-"I can't breathe"-inspired the title track. In "Breathless," Mr. Blanchard's cool, muted trumpet floats above a spoken-word meditation by his son, T. Oliver Blanchard Jr. "Am I wrong for believing that one day black and blue would not equal pain?" the junior Blanchard asks in a weary voice. "These black roses grow from cracked pavements freshly watered with the tears of the voiceless / As we'll emit a muted scream to the heavens / We / Can't / Breathe." READ THE FULL Wall Street Journal ARTICLE READ THE silive ARTICLE

Jazz trumpet player and composer Terence Blanchard has worn many hats. As a kid growing up in New Orleans, he played alongside childhood friend Wynton Marsalis. In the 1980s he performed alongside jazz great Art Blakey, and in the 1990s, Blanchard began scoring films for director Spike Lee. Today he continues to develop his jazz style with his band The E-Collective.  Blanchard performs with The E-Collective at 8 p.m. Friday, May 6 at The Carolina Theatre in Durham as a part of the Art of Cool Fest.  WUNC: Chapel Hill NC Host Frank Stasio talks with Blanchard about his years in the music industry and his latest album "Breathless.

"If you give these kids the tools to handle the stuff where they can look at something else and really appreciate it, but know that what they have is of worth too, then you stand a better chance for them developing and becoming stronger within their own musical personality," says Terence Blanchard of his students at the Berklee College of Music. Since the fall of 2015, Blanchard has been a visiting scholar at the nationally renowned college. In a small, jam-packed classroom this past February, nearly 17 musicians were in rehearsals for their Jazz Composition class before the Grammy Award-winning musician and Eric Gould, chair of Berklee's Jazz Composition Department. Blanchard was back on campus during that final week in February visiting classes, holding rehearsals and giving private lessons. READ THE FULL Bay State Banner ARTICLE

When you're a world-class jazz performer and composer and your best friend is a world heavyweight champion boxer, you might learn a few things in unexpected ways. "I was sparring with Michael Bentt one day, and he kept knocking down my jab hand," relates trumpeter Terence Blanchard, from his home in New Orleans. His buddy Bentt, born in England but raised in the U.S, won the World Boxing Organization's heavyweight title in 1993 before becoming a film actor. Blanchard had been a long-time fan of boxing. But, "It was frustrating," he continues about his friendly fight with Bentt. "And then Michael said, ‘Hey man, you gotta learn how to adjust!' And I went, ‘Wow, it's like music. You play with a band that jumps off to another key, and you gotta adapt. Like Michael always tells me, ‘Trust your training!'" It was also Bentt who shared with his friend the story of Emile Griffith, a boxer who'd claimed welterweight and middleweight world championships in the 1960s, but was best known for putting Benny "The Kid" Paret in a coma in 1961. Paret had impugned his opponent's sexuality during the weigh-in for the welterweight match, inflaming the bisexual Griffith. After winning the bout and later learning that the coma had been fatal, Griffith remained haunted for the rest of his life. Blanchard was haunted in a positive sense by Griffith's story, but never imagined he'd turn it into an opera, Champion, receiving its West Coast premiere this week at the SFJAZZ Center. Blanchard, now 54, benefitted from the top-notch musical training available in New Orleans schools, some of it at the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts, under Ellis Marsalis, whose son Wynton was a childhood friend. The Center's Roger Dickerson mentored Blanchard's composition of his first piano concerto when he was 16. And at home, Blanchard was encouraged by his father, Joseph Oliver Blanchard, an insurance company manager and part-time opera singer.  Blanchard's 'Champion' Comes to Opera Parallèle         READ FULL San Francisco Classical Voice ARTICLE

Terence Blanchard has one of the great charged tones in modern jazz. His protean trumpet can come off sleek or soulful, invigorated or exasperated, often all those at once. Blanchard's horn is listenable but never easy, seemingly living in a higher, more pitched emotional register. It's no wonder that he's become a go-to film score composer. The man can make a mood.   All of which explains how that horn keeps its power when it's not playing jazz. On Blanchard's new album, Breathless, he's assembled a muscular quintet, the E-Collective, and hung a hard left into a bracing mix of rock, electronica and funk. "Compared to What" makes a fitting and blistering opener, Blanchard's trumpet blaring like a clarion over Oscar Seaton's tough drums and Fabian Almazan's synth power surges. On "Confident Selflessness," Donald Ramsey's ferocious funk bass sets the pace, daring the jazz lines to keep up - and they do, escorted out of the comfort zone by Charles Altura's scalding guitar. It turns out Blanchard had been mulling this stylistic shift for years.     "I've been listening to electronic music since I was a kid," he says. "We initially came up with that concept for the band about eight years ago. [Seaton] and myself were working on a film, Talk to Me, and we just had a lot of fun playing some groove-based music. We wanted to inspire some young kid playing electronic music ... to do it on a higher level." READ THE FULL bestofneworleans ARTICLE

Trumpeter, composer and multiple Grammy-winner, Terence Blanchard, has got a brand new bag-and a brand new album. The album is ‘Breathless' and it features Blanchard's new, electric, groove-based band, The E-Collective.  In this KPLU studio session the group gives us three songs from the new release; Soldiers, Breathless and Confident Selflessness.  Along the way Terence talks to host, Abe Beeson, about the band's formation, ‘groove philosophy' and his goal of reaching out to younger musicians with his new music. Blanchard's E-Collective on this tour is Charles Altura - Guitar, Taylor Eigsti - Piano and Synth, Donald Ramsey - Bass, Chris Baily - Drums.    LISTEN TO THE KPLU: Tacoma WA Session SEE THE Jazz24.org PAGE

Blue Note recording artist Terence Blanchard and the E-Collective's new release is titled Breathless. The very first cut sets the tone for the groups masterful work,  Terence opens with Compared To What, the Les McCann & Eddie Harris classic and vocalist PJ Morton adds a soulful touch to the lyrics. I love this band. The E-Collective features Oscar Seaton on drums, Donald Ramsey on bass, Fabian Almazan on keyboards and Charles Altura on guitar. Terence's offering of Talk To Mefeaturing Dr. Cornell West, speaks to the times we live in today. WCLK has this track in rotation along with Samadhi, Confidentselflessness, Compared To What, See Me As I Am, and of course the title track Breathless. You can hear more great music like this on WCLK Monday-Friday 10p-2a on Serenade To The City. Every cut on Breathless is actually is a work of art and this is another piece that should be in every Jazz Collection. You can order Breathless from Amazon and a portion of the proceeds will help support Jazz Public Radio on WCLK: Atlanta. SEE THE PAGE

Professionally, Terence Blanchard has moved on from "A Tale of God's Will (A Requiem for Katrina)." The jazz trumpeter rarely performs material from his Grammy-winning 2007 meditation on the hurricane, preferring to showcase newer works created with other collaborators. But occasionally, he'll front an orchestra for a special showcase of "A Tale of God's Will." Each time, he's reminded that, a decade later, the emotions that initially inspired the album still simmer just below the surface. "I'm an emotional wreck when we get to the end of it," he says. "It brings back all those memories. It's a rough thing to talk about. It still is." With its solemn dignity and quiet strength, "A Tale of God's Will" is arguably the most evocative album inspired by Hurricane Katrina. Much of it is based on themes Blanchard initially composed for the soundtrack of Spike Lee's first Katrina documentary, "When the Levees Broke."  READ THE FULL Times Picayune ARTICLE

WATCH THE PERFORMANCE by PATRICK JARENWATTANANON • When he started to make the music that appears on his new album, trumpeter Terence Blanchard wasn't thinking of Eric Garner, Michael Brown or any of the other recent high-profile police killings of African-Americans. He was thinking of desired collaborators: Donald Ramsey, a bassist and high-school classmate; Oscar Seaton, a drummer with whom he'd worked on film projects; Fabian Almazan, the pianist of his other band; and Charles Altura, a guitarist he'd encountered online. And he was thinking about a sound different from the left-center jazz quintet he leads: something overtly funky, with electric bass and guitar and processing and human voices and dance grooves.As the E-Collective came together - both as a band and in terms of its repertoire - it took on another guiding light. Blanchard, no stranger to political statements, saw the music as an opportunity to speak out on current events he was unable to ignore, especially as a black man. The eventual recording came to be a commentary on the treatment of minorities by American law enforcement, in the vein of the #blacklivesmatter movement. The album's title references Eric Garner's last words, "I can't breathe"; it's called Breathless.The heavy and the party recently came together for a week-long run at a jazz club in D.C., though the mood was much more on the party side when the E-Collective stopped at NPR headquarters. The mood was relaxed and jovial from the time the group stepped into the lobby, with Englishman Chris Bailey supplying plenty of backbeats on our house drum set - though there was a moment toward the end of the set when Blanchard casually explained the project, setting up a lyrical, almost elegiac solo. This music was a modern update on jazz fusion, sure, but also one where we dance to ward off despair.

Set List
"Soldiers"
"Confident Selflessness"
"Breathless" Credits - Producers: Patrick Jarenwattananon, Morgan Walker; Audio Engineer: Brian Jarboe; Videographers: Morgan Walker, Adam Wolffbrandt, Lani Milton; Assistant Producer: Elena Saavedra Buckley; photo by Lani Milton/NPR

Fifty-three year-old New Orleans-born trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard is a heavyweight among his musical peers, and not only for his passion as an amateur boxer. As a bandleader, he has released 20 albums over the past three decades. A prolific composer for film and television-he created the soundtracks for every Spike Lee film since Jungle Fever-Blanchard has a gift for constructing narrative and nuanced mood in his music. His new album Breathless, released this past May, is his first with the electric E-Collective band and features vocal contributions from Maroon 5's PJ Morton and Blanchard's son JRei Oliver.   "It's hard with my background to turn a blind eye to what's been happening." With the new band and the thematic connection to Eric Garner's death, you'd think the album would be full of raw nerves and anger.  But instead, Blanchard has created a suite of instrumentals, songs, and spoken word meditations that invite reflection on finding the strength and peace to heal and move forward. He challenges listeners to be "breathless from exerting your free will, breathless from doing good, breathless from blowing your own sweet solo." Mother Jones spoke with Blanchard at the Jazz Standard in New York, and later on the phone from his home in New Orleans. READ THE INTERVIEW.

Grammy-winning jazz musician Terence Blanchard is no stranger to composing music inspired by social injustice. He wrote an album about New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.  He wrote the opera "Champion," which dealt with race and sexuality issues in boxing and debuted at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis last year. And he just released a new work inspired by the death of Eric Garner and the #BlackLivesMatter social media campaign that's taken root in St. Louis since the shooting death of Michael Brown. While in town to teach at UMSL's Jazz Camp and Jazz St. Louis' Emerson Jazz in Schools program, and perform at Jazz at the Bistro, Blanchard took a few minutes to speal with St. Louis Public Radio about the influence of social justice on his music. READ THE FULL St. Louis Public Radio INTERVIEW

The sounds of jazz trumpeter Terence Blanchard have provided the sonic backdrop to nearly thirty years of American cinema. He joins Melissa Harris-Perry to discuss how his social consciousness informs his art and gives a special performance of his song "See Me As I Am" from his new album "Breathless."  WATCH THE MSNBC INTERVIEW 

More than 1,000 miles separate Detroit and New Orleans, but the two towns are close in spirit.The Detroit Symphony Orchestra will explore the cities' kinship in a three-day event June 2-4 at The Max called "A Musical Tale of Two Cities: Motown Meets the Big Easy." It kicks off with a Bourbon Street Party featuring Big Sam's Funky Nation and continues with a master class and performances by youth groups from the Motor City and the Crescent City. Then comes a free screening (with reserved tickets) of Spike Lee's 2006 HBO film about the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts," complete with a panel discussion. On the last night is a performance by members of the DSO and trumpeter/composer Terence Blanchard's quintet of "A Tale of God's Will (A Requiem for Katrina)," music that Blanchard wrote for Lee's film. But he and his quintet added additional music to the score to create a 13-part performance piece, which was released on CD in 2007.  READ THE FULL Detroit News ARTICLE READ THE Detroit Free Press ARTICLE

New Orleanian Terence Blanchard, a Grammy-winning trumpeter, composer and bandleader, has been named a visiting scholar at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Blanchard will serve as a visiting scholar in the Jazz Composition department beginning this fall, the college announced Monday. Blanchard will also work in the Film Scoring and Brass departments, and for the Berklee Global Jazz Institute. "Coming to Berklee feels like I'm coming home. Even though I never went to Berklee, I hang out there a great deal and learn a lot from my friends who went there," said Blanchard in a news release. "Recently, I was guest teaching and was amazed at how much the school has grown and created new avenues for expression. I am really looking forward to joining the faculty and will do my best to add to an already great team of educators."  READ THE FULL WWL-TV 4 New Orleans ARTICLE READ THE Daily Journal ARTICLE READ THE Bay State Banner ARTICLE

Terence Blanchard wanted to make a statement with his latest album. The Grammy-winning jazz trumpeter and composer wanted to use the opportunity to recognize what's been happening around the country - incident after incident of unarmed black men dying after encounters with police. His daughter suggested the title "Breathless" - a reference to the "I Can't Breathe" campaign that followed the death of New Yorker Eric Garner. In a phone interview, Blanchard said he was particularly disturbed when he saw the Missouri National Guard had used the phrase "enemy forces" in reference to protesters in Ferguson, Missouri, following the shooting death of Michael Brown. "Enemy," Blanchard said. "I mean, ‘the enemy.' To use that word is amazing." Blanchard didn't title his album "Breathless" to start a dialogue. There's enough talk as it is, he said. The title is a show of protest. It's the musician's own way of calling for policy changes around the country.  READ THE FULL Omaha World-Herald ARTICLE READ THE FOLLOW-UP 

What happens when a top-tier jazz trumpeter and composer with more than 50 soundtracks of musical storytelling experience is inspired by the "I Can't Breathe" campaign? You get Terence Blanchard's upcoming album "Breathless." Blanchard is already touring with the music from this project and his new band, The E-Collective. Ahead of the album's release on May 26, the Celebrity Series of Boston is bringing the musicians to the Berklee Performance Center on April 25 to give Bostonians a taste, sharing the bill with the Ravi Coltrane Quartet. In a recent phone interview, Blanchard explained to WBUR: Boston The Artery that the idea for this ensemble started during a film scoring project with drummer Oscar Seaton. "We had so much fun doing it," he says, "we kept saying we should put a band together." Blanchard recruited fellow New Orleans musician Donald Ramsey for bass and the pianist from "Magnetic" (his last album), Fabian Almazan. This is the first time Blanchard has collaborated with guitarist Charles Altura, who he reached out to on Facebook. "Charles was someone I met online. I heard him play and thought he was amazing."  READ THE FULL WBUR: Boston ARTICLE

Detroit and New Orleans, two gritty cities defined by their landmark contributions to American musical culture and recent struggles with natural and economic disasters, will come together in a three-day festival June 2-4 under the umbrella of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. The centerpiece of A Musical Tale of Two Cities: Motown Meets the Big Easy will be a performance of Terence Blanchard's "A Tale of God's Will (A Requiem for Katrina)" to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. The concert will find the New Orleans-born jazz trumpeter and composer performing with his quintet and the DSO, led by music director Leonard Slatkin. READ THE FULL Detroit Free Press ARTICLE

Grammy Award-winning trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard once said, "If you are hung up on maintaining the tradition, you're never going to be yourself. This is music about breaking the tradition." In two very different concerts one last week at LA's Disney Hall and one at the Playboy Jazz Festival in June, Blanchard will be celebrating the past of jazz as well as its future.  On Thursday night, Blanchard will celebrate the collaborations of jazz legend Miles Davis and arranger Gil Evans at Walt Disney Concert Hall in a show called Still Ahead. Their albums: Miles Ahead, Porgy and Bess and Sketches of Spain are considered masterpieces. "It's one of those things where you had a perfect meeting of minds," says Blanchard of the duo's work. "Gil's arrangements were perfectly suited for Miles' expression. You can't manufacture that. You have to appreciate it and be thankful those guys found each other. When you look at Miles from Birth of the Cool, you can tell he was trying to simplify. Couple that with Gil Evans' harmonic arranging you can tell he was opening up that harmonic sense and that really suited what Miles was doing at the same time."  READ THE FULL Los Angeles Magazine ARTICLE

The latest movie score by New Orleans composer, trumpeter and Grammy-winning recording artist Terence Blanchard graces the drama "Black or White." Opening Friday, the New Orleans-filmed "Black or White" stars Kevin Costner and Octavia Spencer. The two Oscar winners play maternal and paternal grandparents engaged in a custody fight for their granddaughter. Blanchard's dozens of feature film and documentary scores include the 2012 military drama "Red Tails," 2008's "Cadillac Records," 2002's "Barber Shop" and, one of the 15 Spike Lee movies he's scored, 2006's "When The Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts." Blanchard and local jazz and classical musicians recorded the "Black or White" soundtrack at Esplanade Studios. Principal photography for the film took place in New Orleans in the summer of 2013. "Black or White" reunites Costner with Mike Binder, writer-director of the 2005 Costner-starring drama, "The Upside of Anger." "They cover a lot of ground," five-time Grammy winner Blanchard said of the new Costner-Binder collaboration.  READ THE FULL Advocate ARTICLE

Trumpeter Terence Blanchard and pianist Fabian Almazán play Ivan Lins's "Nocturne" and the blues live at WBGO and talk with Bill Daughtry about their collaborations, which include Blanchard's 2013 album Magnetic.  he says "I've always believed that in life, what you keep in your mind is what you draw to yourself" when explaining the title of his 20th album. Magnetic, finds a stunning variety of sounds and styles pulled together by the irresistible force of Blanchard's vision.   That credo stems directly from Blanchard's personal faith; raised in the Christian church, he has turned in recent years to Buddhism after meditating with Herbie Hancock while on the road with the legendary pianist. The idea of a spiritual magnetism "is a basic concept in any type of religion," he says. "Both Christianity and Buddhism have forms of meditation - one's called prayer and one's called chanting. But it's all about drawing on those things to help you attain enlightenment in your life at the same time that you're trying to give back to the community." LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW

As part of the Blue Note 75th anniversary, Terence Blanchard's Flow has been re-mastered to vinyl. Blanchard seems intent on establishing a personal statement with an eclectic group of songs with inventive arrangements. Drawing on New Orleans soulfulness and African roots, he collaborates with his fellow musicians to create unpredictable, harmonic music. The title cut (written by West African guitarist Lionel Loueke) is actually three tracks spread over different album sides. It starts with a trio (bass, drums and trumpet) approach that injects a moody, blues resonance. Blanchard nurses the melody with wandering hypnotic vibe. "Flow, Part II" is edgy in an avant-garde way with strange guitar tones and synthesizers. The electronic effects are prevalent on the final part. The African influence infuses Side One on "Wadagbe" (including "Wadagbe Intro"). Brice Winston's soprano saxophone adds an exotic shading and counterpoint to the trumpet runs. There is a variety of chanting and vocalese throughout the album. READ THE FULL Audiophile Audition REVIEW

Terence Blanchard will be the 21th recipient of the Miles Davis Award. Established by the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal on the occasion of its 15th anniversary, each year the Miles Davis Award recognizes the entire works of an internationally renowned jazz musician and his or her contribution to continuing the tradition of jazz. Named "the most brilliant new trumpeter" by Miles Davis, Louisiana's Terence Blanchard has established himself as one of the most talented musicians in jazz, winning over fans and critics for a coolly expressive trumpet style as masterful as it is relaxed, equally voluptuous and controlled. With 20 albums out under his own name as a co-leader, winner of 5 Grammy Awards and artistic director of the Henri Mancini Institute at the University of Miami and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra's jazz series, Blanchard has also written music for film (Jungle Fever, Malcolm X, 25th Hour), Broadway and even a jazz opera, Champion, a musical treatment of the life of boxer Emile Griffith released last year. Terence Blanchard is the latest in a series of Miles Davis prizewinners. He follows Charles Lloyd (2013), Ron Carter (2012), Stanley Clarke (2011), Sonny Rollins (2010), Ornette Coleman (2009), McCoy Tyner (2008), Mike Stern (2007), Brad Mehldau (2006), Dave Holland (2005), Keith Jarrett (2004), Joe Zawinul (2003), Chick Corea (2002), Michael Brecker (2001), Charlie Haden (2000), Cassandra Wilson (1999), John Scofield (1998), Herbie Hancock (1997), Wayne Shorter (1996), Pat Metheny (1995) and John McLaughlin (1994).

Four-time Grammy Award-winning jazz trumpeter Terence Blanchard closed this year's New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, accompanying him Sunday will be two young artists hoping to glean a bit of insider information from a veteran performer who's allowing them a rare glimpse of what their lives could look like. Geoffrey Saunders, who plays the upright bass, and pianist Tal Cohen are students at the Henry Mancini Institute at the University of Miami's Frost School of Music, where Blanchard has taught for the past three years. READ THE FULL Associated Press ARTICLE

Congratulations to the winners of the 18th annual Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Awards for Music and Recording and congratulations to Crossover Media Artist - Terence Blanchard winning for ‘Trumpeter of the Year.'

Terence Blanchard is a finalist nominees for the 2014 JJA Jazz Awards. 

Nominees in most categories were chosen by the votes of the Professional Journalist Members of the Jazz Journalists Association. Nominations were made on the basis of work done in calendar year 2013, with the exception of Lifetime Achievement Awards categories, in which nominations are for a lifetime body of work. Members and others were able to submit their own work for consideration in the Photo of the Year and Best Shortform Video of the Year categories; committees of JJA Members chose the nominees in those categories from among the submissions. NOMINEES FOR JAZZ MUSIC AWARDS 1) LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT IN JAZZ Muhal Richard Abrams Herbie Hancock Phil Woods Randy Weston    2) MUSICIAN OF THE YEAR Craig Taborn Dave Douglas Gregory Porter Matt Wilson Wadada Leo Smith Wayne Shorter
  3) UP AND COMING ARTIST OF THE YEAR Cecile McLorin Salvant Jonathan Finlayson Warren Wolf Matt Mitchell   4) COMPOSER OF THE YEAR Darcy James Argue Maria Schneider Wayne Shorter
  5) ARRANGER OF THE YEAR Darcy James Argue Gil Goldstein Maria Schneider   6) RECORD OF THE YEAR Without a Net (Blue Note) Wayne Shorter Quartet WomanChild (Mack Avenue) Cecile McLorin Salvant Chants (ECM) Craig Taborn Trio   7) HISTORICAL RECORD OF THE YEAR Jack DeJohnette Special Edition Boxed Set (ECM) Miles Live in Europe 1969 (Columbia Legacy) Clifford Jordan Complete Strata East Recordings (Mosaic)   8) RECORD LABEL/PLATFORM OF THE YEAR ECM Mack Avenue Motema Music Pi Recordings   9) LARGE ENSEMBLE OF THE YEAR  Darcy James Argue Secret Society Maria Schneider Orchestra Mingus Big Band   10) MIDSIZE ENSEMBLE  Jamie Baum Septet Steve Coleman & Five Elements Wayne Shorter Quartet   11) TRIO OR DUO Craig Taborn Trio Randy Weston-Billy Harper Vijay Iyer Trio   12) MALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR Andy Bey Gregory Porter Kurt Elling   13) FEMALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR Cecile McLorin Salvant  DeeDee Bridgewater Tierney Sutton   14) TRUMPETER OF THE YEAR  Dave Douglas Kirk Knuffke Terence Blanchard Wynton Marsalis   15) TROMBONIST OF THE YEAR  Roswell Rudd Steve Turre Wycliffe Gordon   16) MULTI-REEDS PLAYER OF THE YEAR Anthony Braxton James Carter Joe Lovano Scott Robinson    17) ALTO SAXOPHONIST OF THE YEAR Lee Konitz Miguel Zenon Rudresh Mahanthappa Tim Berne   18) TENOR SAXOPHONIST OF THE YEAR (Sonny Rollins named Emeritus, Beyond Voting in 2013) Chris Potter Joe Lovano Wayne Shorter   19) BARITONE SAXOPHONIST OF THE YEAR Gary Smulyan Mats Gustafsson  Ronnie Cuber
  20) SOPRANO SAXOPHONIST OF THE YEAR Dave Liebman Jane Ira Bloom Wayne Shorter   21) FLUTIST OF THE YEAR Charles Lloyd Jamie Baum Nicole Mitchell   22) CLARINETIST OF THE YEAR Anat Cohen Ben Goldberg Ken Peplowski   23) GUITARIST OF THE YEAR Bill Frisell Mary Halvorson Pat Metheny   24) PIANIST OF THE YEAR Craig Taborn Keith Jarrett Matthew Shipp   25) KEYBOARDS PLAYER OF THE YEAR Dr. Lonnie Smith Gary Versace Joey DeFrancesco    26) BASSIST OF THE YEAR Christian McBride Dave Holland William Parker   27) VIOLINIST/VIOLIST/CELLIST OF THE YEAR Eric Friedlander Jenny Scheinman Regina Carter   28) PERCUSSIONIST OF THE YEAR Adam Rudolph Dan Weiss Kahil El'Zabar Pedrito Martinez   29) MALLETS INSTRUMENTALIST OF THE YEAR Gary Burton Jason Adasiewicz Warren Wolf   30) TRAPS DRUMMER OF THE YEAR Eric Harland Jack DeJohnette Matt Wilson   31) PLAYER OF INSTRUMENTS RARE IN JAZZ Bela Fleck (banjo) Gary Versace (accordion) Gregoire Maret (harmonica) Scott Robinson (winds, reeds, Theremin)   32) ELECTRONICS PLAYER DJ Logic George E. Lewis Jason Lindner Rob Mazurek

Herbie Hancock, Billy Joel, Shirley MacLaine, Martina Arroyo; and Carlos Santana received Kennedy Center honors for 2013. Composer Terence Blanchard  produced the evenings tribute to Herbie Hancock. Tune in to CBS TONIGHT!! Sunday, Dec. 29@9p to watch.

"overflowing with inspiration,"  - Los Angeles Times 

Bandleader, composer, writer, educator:  Terence Blanchard opens SFJazz season TONIGHT!!  September 5 with a sextet taken from his new Blue Note album Magnetic. Players include: Ravi Coltrane, Lionel Loueke, Fabian Almazan, 21 year old Joshua Crumbly, and Kendrick Scott, who made his SFJAZZ debut as bandleader last June.  Residency will run through September 8.

   

Strong themes establish setting and mood and each musician's personality becomes as tangible as a character in a play. Terence Blanchard's absorbing showcase for his muscular and sensitive working quintet unfolds like the atmospheric film scores the trumpeter crafts for Spike Lee. Strong themes establish setting and mood and, as the action unfolds, each musician's personality becomes as tangible as a character in a play. Even keyboardist Fabian Almazan's solo spot is a genre-crossing panorama. "Don't Run" builds tension over walking bass – a masterclass appearance from Ron Carter – and guest saxophonist Ravi Coltrane and guitarist Lionel Loueke add new dimensions without interrupting the flow.  SEE THE Financial Times PAGE

From his days blowing trumpet for Art Blakey to his film scores for Spike Lee, Terence Blanchard has honed a signature sound as one of today's foremost composers of jazz. Last year brought a new challenge: He was commissioned to compose an opera, and jumped at the chance to tell a powerful tale. Champion is the true story of a gay boxer in the 1960s, welterweight world champion Emile Griffith, and his fateful fights with rival Benny Paret. SEE THE FULL NPR WEEKEND ALL THINGS CONSIDERED PAGE.

LISTEN TO THE SEGMENT READ THE New York Times PIECE

The crucible of catastrophe impels creative expression. Since the turn of the century, this has taken shape in manifold ways, from artistic responses to the 9/11 terrorist attacks to the war in Iraq to the pummeling of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. It is this latter calamity that informs Crescent City native son Terence Blanchard's impassioned song cycle, A Tale of God's Will (A Requiem for Katrina), a 13-track emotional tour de force of anger, rage, compassion, melancholy and beauty. A Tale of God's Will, which features Blanchard's quintet-pianist Aaron Parks, saxophonist Brice Winston, bassist Derrick Hodge, drummer Kendrick Scott-as well as a 40-member string orchestra, is his third album for Blue Note Records. (Since signing with the label in 2003, Blanchard has released two other critically acclaimed albums, Bounce and Flow, the latter of which was nominated for two Grammys in 2006.) "This is what we are called to do as artists," says the trumpeter, bandleader, arranger and film-score composer. "We document our social surroundings and give our impressions of events. The problem with Katrina is that the devastation is so vast that there's only been a trickle of art so far. We're all still digesting what went on and what continues to happen. It's like an unending story. For me, like so many others, it's taken me a moment to get my mind around all of this. I knew I needed to express this musically to keep the story alive, but so many important things-the safety of family members, figuring out how to rebuild my mother's house-never allowed me the time to breathe for a minute." An important jumpstart for A Tale of God's Will was director Spike Lee's decision to document the aftermath of Katrina on film, in what turned out to be the four-hour HBO documentary, When The Levees Broke, which aired last year. Lee, who has enlisted Blanchard on numerous occasions to score his films, such as Mo' Better Blues, Malcolm X, The 25th Hour and Inside Man, tapped him once again for his documentary. "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. Meanwhile, guys in my band were writing music that reflected on what happened in the aftermath of Katrina. This provided me with the perfect opportunity to bring the band all together." Four of the Levees tracks-"Levees," "Wading Through," "The Water" and "Funeral Dirge"-formed a nucleus of material for A Tale of God's Will. "Melodically and structurally, the tunes are the same, but the arrangements are different," says Blanchard, who cites as an example the dramatic piece "Levees" with its lyrical trumpeted woe. In that case, there's a long orchestral opening and interlude. "Spike had limited resources in filming the documentary, which means there was no money for orchestration," says Blanchard. He adds, "The whole idea for this piece was to show the calm before the storm that you can hear in the string arrangement and the interlude is when the storm comes and the levees break. The second section is when people are on their roofs waiting for help, so the trumpet cries." Recording this album challenged Blanchard, who says that he had to "contain myself, but 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. We're all still tired, but it's almost as if things have gone back to normal for people outside while our lives here don't matter." Another tune from Levees, "Water," features a full orchestral plunge with Blanchard's wailing trumpet emerging. Blanchard explains that with all the floodwaters still high, it looked as if the city was cast away in an ocean. "The water was omnipresent," says Blanchard who was out of the city when disaster struck yet was watching CNN nonstop. "I was in disbelief seeing how 80 percent of the city was under water and that my old neighborhood had 12 feet of water. I remember when I was a kid and Hurricane Betsy hit New Orleans and there were a few feet of water. That scared me then and actually made me fear water." The other Lee-related tracks are the slowly loping melodic gem, "Wading Through" (also used in Lee's film Inside Man) and the march-beat "Funeral Dirge," a tune Blanchard says "was one of the hardest pieces for me to write. To see your city on TV with dead bodies in neighborhoods you knew was deep. It was as if it were Baghdad. This was my attempt to pay homage to the people who lost their lives, to give people a proper burial. It was intense working on these pieces that sometimes I had to take a breath, go outside and play with the kids, and then come back at it." Other Blanchard tunes on A Tale of God's Will include "Dear Mom," his personal tribute to his mother who lost her home (her emotional first return to see the remains was documented by Lee in Levees) and a series of "ghost" tunes interspersed throughout the album: the African beat-drenched "Ghost of Congo Square," the trumpet-bass dance "Ghost of Betsy" (about the aforementioned Hurricane Betsy) and the plaintive tune sketched by saxophone and drums, "Ghost of 1927" (another flood that ravaged New Orleans). The ghost pieces were unplanned at the onset of the recording sessions, which took place in Los Angeles and Seattle. "They just came to me throughout the recording," Blanchard says. "The ghosts represent the warnings of the past. In the first one, we added in handclaps and percussion as well as the chant, 'This is the tale of God's will.' That's what this story is about: God's will be done. We can't understand why things happened, but we can trust that we can learn something from it." The band member contributions prove to be just as potent and reflective as Blanchard's music. Park's "Ash?," which translated from the Yoruban language means "and so it shall be." He explains that the beautiful melody "acts as a benediction: an acceptance of-and release from-past troubles and an ushering in of something new, determined and optimistic." Blanchard notes, "The emotion and melody set the tone for the album in capturing the exhaustion a lot of people felt after the storm and flood." Winston's melancholic "In Time of Need," is buoyed by Blanchard and Scott's wordless vocals. "This tune marks a shift in Brice's artistic career," Blanchard says. "He wanted it to feature my trumpet, so I said, sure, but slowly I took myself out of the piece so that it became his feature." Winston, who spent his entire adult life in New Orleans, says he was compelled to write the tune "to express, through music, my sadness and frustration for my own family's tumultuous existence as well as for the countless people affected as a result of human ineptitude." Scott's epic piece, "Mantra," begins with a bass feature with tablas in the mix that opens into a pensive and then dramatic soundscape. Scott says, "Our obligation is to help those who survived rebuild their lives and to rebuild their communities safer than they were before. The word mantra...is characterized as a statement that is repeated frequently. My greatest hope is that this recording and this song will serve as a mantra for healing and renewal, for reflection and progression, and as an offering to touch peoples' lives for the better." Hodge says that his ultimately hopeful tune, "Over There," is about the "constant search in life" for something better. He notes, "Our present circumstances can make it difficult for us at times to see better for ourselves. Sometimes that 'Over There' may be just a song that can help us through." Blanchard explains that the song was captured on tape when the band was sound checking the mikes. After subsequent takes, all agreed that the first run through was the keeper. Blanchard adds that the entire project, like Hodge's song, is about gratitude. "Requiem tells the story," he says, "that needs to heard so that people will continue to talk about what happened after Katrina."

"What makes people happy and glad to be alive?" To paraphrase Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, author of Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, "Everyone experiences flowfrom time to time and will recognize its characteristics: People typically feel strong, alert, in effortless control, unselfconscious, and at the peak of their abilities. Both sense of time and emotional problems seem to disappear, and there is an exhilarating feeling of transcendence. All of these optimal experiences add up to mastery, or better yet, a sense of participation in life, thus the meaning of life." The flow of music.

Two years ago, Blue Note released Terrance Blanchard's critically acclaimed album Bounce. This June, the trumpeter-composer's second label release hits the shops. Produced by the artist and four-time Grammy winner Herbie Hancock, Flow heralds nothing less than the brilliant second act of Blanchard's already extraordinary career. Flowis TB's rambunctiously heated answer to those unenlightened few who doubted that this chill master of the urbane film score (Mo' Better Blues, Malcolm X, Barbershop) could get down. Indeed, Flow not only showcases Blanchard's prodigious instrumental and composing skills; it reveals him to be both a shrewd judge of young talent and a bandleader of Milesian dimension and magnitude as well.  Mixing-blending-elevating-dancing their way through Flow's ten compositions are six cats you may not know today but will most certainly be remembering tomorrow-Brice Winston on saxophone & Yamaha WX5; Lionel Loueke on guitar and vocals; Aaron Parks on piano; Derrick Hodge on bass; Kendrick Scott on drums; Howard Drossin on synth programming. "It's essentially the same band as on Bounce except for Derrick and Kendrick," muses Terence. "Kendrick understands the concept; he's the perfect fit. Derrick makes a huge difference. At the beginning of most of the solos, he'll lay down some kind of idea that will just change the direction of where we're gonna go. And he plays so many things between the phrases. Lionel is a visionary. Aaron's a very easy young man and he also has a lot of different ideas about what he wants to do with his...with our music.  Brice is probably one of the most underrated guys in this business. His brain is always working, always questioning stuff and thinking about what he wants to do next. Having a guy like that around is a great inspiration, a great motivation for me." "Flow Parts I, II and III" are interspersed throughout the CD-alternatively passionate, fulminous and mournful-sounding, this tonal triptych is the album's serendipitous dominant theme. "We were sitting in the studio and I said, "Man, we need another tune. Derrick started playing that rhythm on his bass and we just followed up on it. I played my solo, then when it got to Lionel it became a whole 'nother thing, y'know? At the end, Herbie suggested that this piece be broken up into three separate movements and spread across the record." "Wadagabe" is a mini-suite at 16-plus minutes. The Intro is filled with billowing winds of synthesizer, congas, kora-like guitar plucking/fretting, disembodied voices and Lionel speaking in African tongues that evaporate into the main piece's swirling, ever-rising congress of thunder 'n' lightning drums/cymbals, pithy guitar-keyboard chordal counterpoint; with Brice's Yamaha WX5 (an electronic wind instrument) throwing tart soprano/wood flute spirals, feverish shamanic chants and Terence's fiery runs. "Benny's Tune" and "The Source" feature Herbie's trademark pianism. The former is a darkly melodic, shimmering ballad sounding straight out of Herbie's early-'70s Mwandishi period; the latter, a rhythmically roiling yet harmonically soothing jazz waltz. The Latin-tinged "Wandering Wonder" gives each member a chance to shine brightly. "It fits into the concept of what this band has been doing but I wrote it back in the '80s," muses Mr. B. "I'm not trying to be disrespectful, but the band I had back then couldn't play it the way this band is playing it. The way these guys tackled the stuff, man, they play it like they're playing "Mary Had A Little Lamb!" Like second nature. "Over There" is a heartbreakingly plaintive lullaby that is caressed, stroked and soothed to a poignant sweetness by TB's sumptuously emotive trumpeting. The ruminative "Child's Play" tastes of '60s-era Miles and '80s Woody Shaw yet feels totally modern-Terence Blanchard circa 2005. The indigo, mood-swinging blend of Iberian-evoking, quiet-to-loud-to-quiet-again modal dynamics, soulfully ethereal keyboards and spine-shivering guitar extrapolations of "Harvest Dance" ends Flow on a triumphant note. "What you hear on this record is the way we play live," opines Terence. "That's the thing about this band. What we're talking about is their musicianship. They find spaces to put things in spots that make sense. With this band, I just feel born-again! [laughs] It's because it's given me new life and just piqued my curiosity to work hard again and really try to grow and develop and just be an artist. I'm really having so much fun with this band." "Flow is just a logical extension of Bounce, really. You see, that's just a tribute to Blue Note. Now, I just feel like I'm back on track, like I'm back in the groove being a jazz artist. Exploring new territory-that's really what we're supposed to do as artists. So I'm very happy about that."