By Fred Jung

Terence Blanchard has been the premier African-American film composer of his time. His close association with Spike Lee is just one of the things we touched on in between sets at his performance at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. He spoke of his new album “Jazz in Film” and his film composing in a candid one on one, unedited and in his own words.

AAJ: Let's start from the beginning.

TB: Well, I started playing piano when I was five years old and picked up the trumpet in elementary school, studied with teachers and stuff, went to college and then started playing with Lionel Hampton.

AAJ: And what was it like playing with Lionel Hampton?

TB: It was great because I got a chance to meet some great musicians like Curtis Fuller and Frankie Dunlop and Hamp. I got a chance to play with some great guys. I went from that to playing with Art Blakey. I played with him for four years and that was just awesome. I really got a chance to learn a lot about myself and a lot about the music. I learned a lot about life. Then I co-lead a band with Donald Harrison for a while. I left that band, formed my own band and started working on this film thing as a session player. I ended up doing film scores and here I am.

AAJ: And your influences at that time?

TB: I always looked up to Miles Davis. Miles Davis and Clifford Brown were the guys for me.

AAJ: What was it about Miles's playing?

TB: Well, when I first heard Miles, I was just in awe of the simplicity that he played with and how powerful it was. Clifford, I was in awe of him for totally the opposite reason. He had amazing technical facility and an amazing rhythmic concept and just a huge sound. Those were the two guys that I really admired and started patterning myself after.

AAJ: What was your first Miles Davis album?

TB: It was called "Four & More" (which has been re-issued as "The Complete Concert: 1964"). Actually, that was the first album. You see, I had some tapes. What was album? "Someday My Prince Will Come," "E. S. P.," and I had an old Miles Davis album that somebody gave me with Bags.

AAJ: "Bags Groove" on OJC.

TB: Right. I used to listen to that all the time.

AAJ: Let's talk about the film work that you've done. It's a pretty extensive resume.

TB: I've been really lucky. I been lucky in terms of my relationship with Spike Lee. It happened totally by accident. I was just called in as a session player on "School Daze" and it just progressed from there. From that to actually having a song being used as one of the allotted tunes in "Mo' Better Blues," he asked me to score or to arrange an orchestral arrangement, to do a string arrangement for it. That led to my whole film career. I've been working with him for a while, since "Jungle Fever." That was the first film that I had done with him.

AAJ: How many films of Spike's films have you scored?

TB: Of Spikes, I've done "Jungle Fever," "Malcolm X," "Crooklyn," "Clockers," "Get On The Bus," "4 Little Girls."

AAJ: How is scoring a film and composing for your band different?

TB: What makes the difference is the intent behind the music. The music that I write for my band, the intention is to really tell a story that I want to tell. When you write for films, you are enhancing the director's story or the writer's story. When you write for television and for films, it is mostly the director's vision. That's the biggest difference. There are also subtle differences when you are scoring. Sometimes the music takes precedence, but it still has to stay within the context of a story. When I'm writing for my albums, I start off telling a story and then move the music where you want to.

AAJ: There are moments in "Clockers" and "Malcolm X" where the music drives the emotional texture of the film itself. It there pressure when it is through your voice that story is being presented to the audience?

TB: Actually, no. The pressure really comes when you are trying to write music behind dialogue. When you have open canvases, that's really the easier part because you don't have any toes that you're going to step on. In dialogue, there are certain words, depending on the type of scene. I did this one movie for television about West Point, Johnson Whittaker.

AAJ: "Assault at West Point," the HBO film starring Samuel L. Jackson.

TB: Right. There's a scene in the courtroom where the director thought that some of the dialogue given by the judge or the judges, well, this one judge in particular were dispensable. He wanted to hear certain words. He didn't think you needed to hear everything. So the music could really take precedence, but he gave me the direction. Some other directors, they may not give you that much direction, but you know watching the film, you have your own sensibilities about where the story is going. And that can be tricky. It can be really tricky, because you don't want one phrase to stick out that may turn the meaning of the dialogue.

AAJ: Is it disappointing to you that film composers are not given the same credible recognition and praise as classical composers? Take for example, John Williams, who is not even considered by most as being on an equal level with that of a classical composer, when his music has dominated most of what is modern American pop culture for the past two decades.

TB: That is a great point. Yes, definitely. A lot of times, people think that when you write film music it is just background. And some of that is true. I can't take that away from the directors or whatever, but the other side of it is music is a very important component of any film. You watch "Saving Private Ryan," I think one of the things that is brilliant, a lot of people, there was a lot of debate about that movie, in terms of the music, in terms of how John Williams didn't write that much music. The music is, kind of, boring. And to me, I thought it was brilliant, how they took a non-traditional approach to scoring that film. Usually, in most films, when you see that battle scene, you hear big, moving, powerful scores and I thought it was brilliant how Steven Spielberg just let those actors have their moments, which I thought made it powerful. It made it real. Music dealt with the aftermath, the emotions after the fact, which I thought, to me, was very powerful. Music can play a very important role in the process, but at the same time, the composer is always confined to the story. I think that's probably where, I don't want to say resentment, but the reluctance to give those composers the respect that they're due. Now, the other side of that is, even with that, I think John Williams is a great composer. I think Thomas Newman (the composer for "The Shawshank Redemption" and "Meet Joe Black") is a great composer. I love his work.

AAJ: Let's touch on your new album on Sony Classical, "Jazz in Film" (cast includes Joe Henderson on tenor, Donald Harrison on alto, Steve Turre on trombone, Kenny Kirkland on piano, Reginald Veal on bass, and Carl Allen on drums).

TB: The original concept was to do an album that would bring together both worlds of mine. I've been having this dual career and they were both, kind of, separate. Do one album over here and do another album over there. I felt like a clown in a circus. Go over here and do this and take off that uniform and then you go here and you put on another suit and you go over and do another job. This was the first time I got a chance to bring both things together under my terms. Of course, I've written some jazz scores for films, but that's a whole other thing. Laraine Perri, who is the executive producer, sat down with me and we talked about it. We came up with the concept and we tried to come up with the most influential pieces that changed the tide, turned things around. Then when it came to players, she said, "Who do you want to play with?" "Joe Henderson." It was the first name out of my mouth. I knew that I wanted to use him. I had been a fan of his for years. Then when it came to the other musicians, we tried to get some of my contemporaries. Guys who I thought were great players and who had given a lot to this business. And Steve Turre was one of those guys who I remember meeting when I first got to New York. He would pull me aside and talk to me very honestly, which was the thing that I needed to hear at the time.

AAJ: That's Steve.

TB: Yes, you know Steve (laughing). Of course, Donald Harrison, we played together. Kenny Kirkland, which was a guy that I've wanted to work with for a number of years and tried to get him on a bunch of albums, but he's one of those guys who was always working. When he was available, I said, "OK, lock in the date. Do the contract. Sign it. Make sure he's there. Give him his ticket now." Reginald Veal and Carl Allen, we were both in New Orleans bands together with Donald, so we were old friends and I thought it would be fun to bring everybody back together. We had a great time.

AAJ: And your tour band (Mark Turner on tenor, Aaron Fletcher on alto, Eric Harland on drums, Edward Simon on piano, and David Pulpus on bass).

TB: Well, I'm really excited about this band because I think given time, this band is really going to grow into something special. The guys are very talented. Mark Turner has just joined the band. He's a very interesting player, a very introspective kind of guy, and very thoughtful. He brings a lot to the table in terms of keeping everybody else on their toes and not falling into ruts, which is a great thing. Everybody brings something different. Ed brings this light, rhythmic, very sophisticated harmonic sense to the band, which really adds for some great contrasts in all the things that we do. David has a big beat, swings hard, big sound, you know, a very stable bottom. Eric is young. He's twenty-two years old. He's immensely talented, plays great piano by the way. He has an extremely, a depth awareness of rhythm. He's just assimilating everything now. He's young so he's just assimilating everything and I think, given a little time, he puts it all together, he's really going to, he's already playing great now, but he's really going to come into his own in a little while. Aaron is a young guy who is just learning his way. He's really talented and I expect great things from him, but right now he's just a kid (nineteen years old), a wide-eyed, little kid. He'll say, "Wow! Look at Mark play that!" And it's fun to watch. It's fun to watch that and watch this guy come into this business. I just hope that we can give him things that set him up and are going to be helpful.

AAJ: How is living in New Orleans different from the hustle of New York?

TB: Calm. Calm. That's the thing that I think of. I miss what New York has to offer in terms of the music and in terms of being able to hear people nightly. I do miss that. I don't miss the hustle and bustle. I just never thought of myself as a city boy in those terms. I've always wanted to live a quiet life. I'm a family guy. I like staying home. I like playing with my kids. I do boring shit. Living in New Orleans is great for me because I go home and I'm not surrounded by that. I don't have to get away from it, which is good for me now, at this stage in my career. I can focus on what it is that I want to do and develop my own style and work on my own music.

AAJ: Future projects?

TB: There are a couple things that we have in mind that we've been mulling over and talking about. We'll see. Some of them, they are some really great ideas. The next thing we're going to do is a jazz record, a small ensemble thing, probably a quintet or a sextet. I think Dave Holland has committed already and we're talking to Branford (Marsalis).

AAJ: And your musical goal?

TB: I think any jazz musicians musical goal is to really develop his own language to the point where he's really saying what he is feeling at the time. And that's a hard thing to get to because first of all, like I said, you are assimilating a lot of information first of all, because you've studied all the records. You've learned all the things that you need to learn to learn how to play this music. And that's just to help you to understand the language, but then when you understand the language, you've got to decide what it is you want to play. And that's hard. That's the hard part because anybody can learn Spanish, but when you get over there, what are you saying? Where is the bathroom?

AAJ: Everybody knows that.

TB: Right (laughing). You have to really think about what it is that you are feeling in your heart and what it is you want to say and that's always a struggle. That's what Art Blakey used to say. "Jazz's a struggle. Jazz is a struggle between your heart and your mind." I find that to be true, the older I get because I'm throwing away the whole notion of playing those Freddie Hubbard licks or Clifford or Miles licks, which I was playing when I was younger. Now, I'm just playing exactly what I hear. I was telling the guys earlier, that's a scary thing because you can fuck up big time, you know, doing that because you don't know where it's going to go or how it's going to be. But that the fun of it.

AAJ: You made a football reference to the audience, who's going to go first in the draft next week?

TB: I don't know. I thought Ricky Williams was going to go, but everybody's talking about his stock has gone down. I think the reason is because they don't like the fact that he signed with Master P's management. He's made a couple of racy statements himself about wanting to be the Dennis Rodman of the NFL. I don't know what that means, but hey, you know, more power to him. I don't know how high he's going to go, but I know the Saints are really trying to go for him. We'll see.

AAJ: That's a cool tie.

TB: Oh, I just bought this. There's a guy in D.C.. He makes clothing for athletes. He designed this. He makes a lot of stuff for basketball players. He doesn't do too much of this anymore, but you used to walk into his shop and all the shit was tall and long. You'd walk in there and you'd go, "Who the hell is this shit for? Do you have anything in my size?"

AAJ: Who is your favorite Spice Girl?

TB: No, Spice Girl (laughing). No.

Photo: Hans Neleman