Monday, July 30, 2012

Terence Blanchard



Born Terencee Oliver Blanchard on March 13, 1962, in New Orleans, Louisiana, is a jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, arranger, and film score composer. At an early age Terance was destine to be a musician. When he was five he began playing the piano. At the age of eight he started playing the trumpet after hearing Alvin Alcom play. Terance played alongside his childhood friend Wynton Marsalis in summer music camps. When he was in high school, he started studying at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) under Roger Dickerson and Ellis Marsalis, Jr... Terance studied under jazz saxophonist Paul Jeffrey and trumpeter Bill Fielder, at Rutgers University from 1980 to 1982 while touring with Lionel Hampton. Wynton Marsalis recommended Terance to replace him in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers in 1982. Terance was the band’s trumpeter and musical director. The quintet consisted of Blakey as co-leader, saxophonist Donald Harrison and pianist Mulgrew Miller. In the 1980’s Terance became a provident figure in the Jazz Resurgence movement. Terance went solo in 1990 and he recorded his self-titled debut for Columbia Records. This album reached number three on the Billboard Jazz Charts. Terance also composes film scores. He has worked a lot with Spike Lee. His music has been on some of Spike Lee’s classic movies, Do the Right Thing, Mo' Better Blues, Jungle Fever, Malcolm X, Clockers, Summer of Sam, 25th Hour and Inside Man. Spike Lee is not the only director Terance has composed for. He has composed for Leon Ichaso, Ron Shelton and Kasi Lemmons. Entertainment Weekly proclaimed Blanchard "central to a general resurgence of jazz composition for film." Blanchard was quoted as saying in a 1994 interview, "Writing for film is fun, but nothing can beat being a jazz musician, playing a club, playing a concert". I really started listening to Terance Blanchard in 1994. When he came out with the album “In My Solitude: The Billie Holiday Songbook”. Since then I have been a fan. Some of the songs I really like are, Harvesting Dance, Child's Play, Dos Sperm, Avgo, Bounce/Let's Go Off, Sleeping Is Naturelle and Footprints, Levees. Terance Blanchard is going to be playing the San Jose Jazz Festival in August 12, 2012 at 2pm on the main stage. The San Jose Jazz Festival is going on August 10th to 12th. If you have no plans the second of August come week out to the San Jose Jazz Festival. You can listen to songs from Terance Blanchard on Streetwise Radio. You can also listen to Streetwise Radio on ITunes, live365.com, Athena365.com and MyGen365.com.
LM



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