Jazz Articles about Terence Blanchard

Terence Blanchard: Flow

by Mark F. Turner
June 11, 2005

Flow may be Terence Blanchard's most adventurous recording to date, and that's saying a lot for the prolific trumpeter, composer, and bandleader whose career has covered membership with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, producing top jazz recordings, and scoring music for many films. Though he's been highly successful, the inner fire of discovery still burns brightly on his latest release with newness and imagination.

On his second release with Blue Note, things shift into a higher gear, continuing where 2003's Bounce ...

Terence Blanchard: Flow

by Paul Olson
June 6, 2005

Flow is trumpeter Terence Blanchard's first album since Bounce (2003), and it features most of the same players from that album: Brice Winston on tenor and soprano sax, Lionel Loueke on guitar and vocals, and Aaron Parks on piano. This recording includes drummer Kendrick Scott and bassist Derrick Hodge, two new additions to the sextet--and what a difference they make in this group. Blanchard's got an energetic young band with frightening chops and considerable compositional skills (everyone contributes at least ...

Terence Blanchard: Bounce

by Joel Roberts
April 24, 2004

Although he’s spent much of the past 15 years scoring films for Spike Lee and others, trumpeter Terence Blanchard certainly hasn’t forgotten about jazz, as his impressive Blue Note debut makes clear. Bounce finds the former Jazz Messenger having grown well past his early days as part of the “young lions” phenomenon of the ‘80s into a mature, individual artist exploring a wide palette of jazz colors. Like the best jazz artists working today, Blanchard has an awareness ...

Terence Blanchard: Bounce

by Eddie Becton
August 25, 2003

Bounce is a collage of swinging, soulful, and artistic cuts that are bound to strike the fancy of Terence Blanchard fans. The band's vast range covers territory from bop to African beats to traditional New Orleans marching band music, as demonstrated on the cuts “Transform," “Azania," and “Bounce/Let's Go Off" respectively.

Blanchard calls on the services of Brice Winston, Lionel Loueke, Robert Glasper, Aaron Parks, Brandon Owens, and Eric Harland for Bounce. Interestingly, none of the band members (save Blanchard) ...

A Fireside Chat with Terence Blanchard

by AAJ Staff
March 24, 2003

The biggest faux pas of this year's Golden Globes and their governing body, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (of which I am not a member, yet oddly foreign), was giving that hump Richard Gere an award for anything, much less prancing around in a Miramax hyped Chicago. A close second was not giving the “Best Original Score - Motion Picture" award to Terence Blanchard for his haunting 25th Hour score. Elliot Goldenthal won the award for Frida, yet another Miramax ...

Terrence Blanchard: Let's Get Lost

by John Sharpe
August 1, 2001

Sub-titled “The Songs of Jimmy McHugh”, Let’s Get Lost features 11 original tunes by one of America's great popular tunesmiths. Ironically, while most listeners will be familiar with the songs, few would be able to identify McHugh (1894-1969) as the composer. Aiding trumpeter Terrence Blanchard are four of the hottest female vocalists in jazz today--Dianna Krall, Jane Monheit, Dianne Reeves and Cassandra Wilson. Backed by Blanchard’s working group, Canada’s own Dianna Krall gets things underway with a typically smoky, understated ...

Terence Blanchard: Let's Get Lost

by AAJ Staff
July 1, 2001

As a follow-up to his previous album, Wandering Moon, Terence Blanchard has chosen to de-emphasize his compositional skills and to honor the often-overlooked popular songs written by Jimmy McHugh. That would be a fine project for a jazz musician were he or she to reinterpret the tunes, and some of that does occur on Let's Get Lost. However, many of its arrangements are straightforward, perhaps with the underlying addition of bass lines to elevate the tunes, as pianist Edward Simon ...