jazz musician; trumpet player
Personal Information
Born on March 13, 1962, in New Orleans, LA; son of Joseph Oliver Blanchard
Education: Rutgers, classical music major, 1980-82.
Career
New Orleans Civic Orchestra, trumpet player, late 1970s; Blue Room night club, trumpet player, late 1970s; Lionel Hampton's Band, trumpet player, 1980-82; Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, trumpet player, 1982-86; Quintet featuring Donald Harrison, co-leader and trumpeter, 1986-90; Terence Blanchard Quintet, founder, leader, and trumpeter, 1990-; Movie soundtrack scorer, 1991-; Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance, artistic director, 2000-.
Life's Work
Terence Blanchard is a musician of many talents. His skill as a trumpeter made him one of the leading jazz voices of the last 20 years, but he has also developed as a writer, composing scores for Spike Lee's Bamboozled and Malcolm X. Although Blanchard would be "one of the first 'Young Lions,'" noted Scott Yanow in All Music Guide, "to develop his own sound ...," some critics have opined that writing scores has distracted him from his commitment to jazz. Blanchard, however, inherited a strong work ethic from his father, allowing him to devote ample time to each of his talents. "I could easily make more money just writing films, but I'm still out on the road," he told Ted Panken in Down Beat. "I love playing music, I love playing jazz and it will never be my choice to give that up."
Blanchard was born on March 13, 1962, in New Orleans, Louisiana. His father, Joseph Oliver Blanchard, was an insurance salesman who loved opera, and sang part-time in the 1930s and 1940s. Joseph Blanchard idolized early jazz greats like Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines, and encouraged his son to become a musician. Terence Blanchard began playing piano at five. He enjoyed clowning around, and learned to play television theme songs like Batman, but his father pushed him to take the music seriously. "'If you're going to do this music thing,'" Blanchard later recalled his father saying in Essence, "'you're going to do it right and take some lessons.'" Blanchard decided to change instruments, however, after a jazz band visited his grade school: he loved the sound of the trumpet.
In the early 1970s Blanchard attended St. Augustine, a black Catholic school, and played in the marching band. He grew disappointed in the music program, however, and quit to enroll in public school. Although the abrupt change put his future music career at risk, he signed up at a public school that allowed him to attend the New Orleans Center of Creative Arts (NOCCA). Blanchard studied with Ellis Marsalis, the father of Wynton and Bradford Marsalis, at NOCCA. He immersed himself in the music of Miles Davis, Clifford Brown, and John Coltrane, and met a number of future musical partners including Donald Harrison. In addition to his studies at NOCCA, Blanchard expanded his musical palette playing Dixieland on Sunday afternoons, and playing with the New Orleans Civic Orchestra.
In 1980 Blanchard enrolled in Rutgers and studied classical and jazz trumpet with William Fielder and band instruction with Paul Jeffrey. Thanks to Jeffrey, the young trumpeter began performing with veteran vibes player Lionel Hampton, a gig that extended a year and a half. In February of 1982, Wynton Marsalis recommended Blanchard to take his place with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, leading the young trumpeter to drop out of Rutgers to go on the road. His new education, however, was just beginning. Blakey encouraged the young trumpeter to abandon his imitative style and search for a distinctive approach. "I grew so much in just the first month...," he told Panken. "Art made me understand that as long as I set my goals and worked toward them, I could do anything I wanted."
Blanchard's first foray into film came in 1988 when he was hired as a session musician on Spike Lee's School Daze. Despite his skill as both a composer and a player, he had no immediate plans to start a career in scoring films. "I thought I'd be in my sixties by the time that happened to me," Blanchard told Jazz Improv Magazine, "after I had two hundred recordings, and was on my death bed." He returned to the set of Lee's next film, Mo' Better Blues, and impressed the director by composing and scoring a piece for the movie. This led Lee to choose the trumpeter to score Jungle Fever in 1991, but Blanchard worried that he lacked the experience necessary to write the soundtrack by himself. "I was scared to death," he told Lisa Leigh Parney in the Christian Science Monitor. Not knowing where to turn, he called a mentor for advice. "Trust your ears," his friend told him. "You know how to write. Do your job." Blanchard relaxed, and soon found himself in great demand. He collaborated with Lee on eight other films including Malcolm X and 25th Hour, and also scored a number of other films including Sugar Hill, Eve's Bayou, and Barber Shop.
Following Blanchard's work with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, he reached a crisis in his growth as an artist. Although he believed that his interpretive skills were growing emotionally and musically, he discovered that his method of playing was preventing him from growing technically. "I kept hearing ideas in my head that I wanted to play but couldn't execute, and that was very frustrating" he told Panken. "My bottom lip was rolled over my teeth and I was cutting my lip." Determined to improve his embouchure, Blanchard took a two-year hiatus from playing, allowing time for his lip to heal and re-learning his technique. "Terence was willing to undergo two years of absolute misery for long-term gain," Bradford Marsalis told Panken. "For a professional working musician to decide to take a hit like that shows an enormous level of personal honesty."
Blanchard remains one of the most creative musicians currently working on the contemporary jazz and film scenes, and has frequently been nominated for Golden Globe and Grammy awards. "Over the last five years," wrote Jazz Improv Magazine, "Blanchard has matured from a vigorous young lion into an established artist ..." In 2000 Downbeat readers chose him as the Jazz Artist and Trumpeter of the Year, while also choosing Wandering Moon as the Jazz Album of the Year. Similar praise greeted Bounce in 2003. "...Blanchard proves that he is the trumpet player, composer, and bandleader who is moving jazz...," wrote Thom Jurek in All Music Guide, "in new directions that encompass both a new look at Western musical systems and never leave the human heart out of the equation." Besides his film and studio work, Blanchard is the artistic director of the Thelonious Monk Institute's Master's program and tours regularly. "Nothing," he told Jazz Improv Magazine, "can beat being a jazz musician, playing a club, playing a concert."
Awards
Selected: Artist of the Year, Jazz Album of the Year, Jazz Trumpeter of the Year, Downbeat Magazine, 2000; Nominee, Best Original Score for 25th Hour, Golden Globes, 2002; numerous Grammy nominations.
Works
Selected works
- New York Second Line, Concord, 1983.
- Black Pearl, Columbia, 1988.
- Malcolm X Jazz Suite, Columbia, 1992.
- The Billie Holiday Songbook, Sony, 1993.
- Wandering Moon, Columbia, 2000.
- Bounce, Blue Note, 2003.
- Jungle Fever, 1991.
- Malcolm X, 1992.
- Housesitter, 1992.
- Sugar Hill, 1994.
- Trial By Jury, 1994.
- The Inkwell, 1994.
- Backbeat, 1994.
- Eve's Bayou, 1997.
- Barber Shop, 2002.
- 25th Hour, 2002.
Further Reading
Periodicals
- Christian Science Monitor, June 15, 2001, p. 20.
- Down Beat, December 3, 2000.
- Essence, April 1, 2001, p. 76.
- "Terence Blanchard," All Music Guide, www.allmusic.com (December 15, 2003).
- "Terence Blanchard," Biography Resource Center, www.galenet.com/servlet/BioRC (December 15, 2003).
- "The Heart Speaks," Jazz Improv, www.jazzimprov.com (December 15, 2003).
— Ronnie D. Lankford Jr
