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JC Sanford
trombonist/composer/conductor
About Me
JC Sanford has been recognized in the prestigious DownBeat Magazine Critic’s Poll over the past ten years, in the trombone, big band and arranger categories.
While he originally built a reputation through big band writing, Sanford has forayed into many other areas, including composing for solo piano, wind and brass
formations, and various mixed chamber ensembles, and often his original works defy labels such as “jazz” or “classical”. A founding member of the composers'
federation Pulse (with Darcy James Argue and Joseph C. Phillips, Jr.), Sanford was a member of the BMI Jazz Composer’s Workshop led by Jim McNeely and Mike
Abene for five years. His works have been performed by John Abercrombie, Lew Soloff, Dave Liebman, Danilo Perez, and a number of universities and high schools
across the United States.
His 2014 debut recording with the JC Sanford Orchestra entitled Views From The Inside yielded international acclaim and was awarded a 2014 Aaron Copland
Fund Recording Grant alongside organizations and ensembles such as the Seattle Symphony, Nonesuch Records, and American Composers Forum. He is also the
leader of several small groups: the JC Sanford Quartet, the Imminent Standards Trio, the chamber jazz trio, Triocracy, the NEW PAST trio with pianist Michael Cain
and bassist Anthony Cox, and EQ (Electric Quartet) featuring drummer Satoshi Takeishi.
Sanford is in high demand as a conductor of new original music. He conducts the Grammy-nominated John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble, the Alan Ferber Nonet
with Strings, the Frank Carlberg Large Ensemble, and the Alice Coltrane Orchestra, featuring Ravi Coltrane and Jack DeJohnette. He recently was guest conductor
for the North German Radio Big Band (NDR), and Quinsin Nachoff’s new “Patterns in Nature” multimedia project. He was also the curator for the “Size Matters”
large ensemble series in Brooklyn for four and a half years.
Since returning to Minnesota with his family in 2016, Sanford has performed as a trombonist in the Twin Cities area with JT Bates, Chris Bates, Davu Seru,
Anthony Cox, Babatunde Lea, Zacc Harris, Dave Hagedorn, and Laura Caviani. In 2017, he co-founded the Twin Cities Jazz Composers’ Workshop alongside his
wife, Asuka Kakitani, trumpeter Adam Meckler, and saxophonist Aaron Hedenstrom. Sanford received a 2018 McKnight Composer Fellowship, a 2019 MN State
Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant to record his quartet, 2021 and 2022 Creative Support Grants to record his Imminent Standards Trio, 2023 to record his NEW
PAST Trio, and a Creative Individuals Grant in 2025 to record EQ. He also is the monthly blog curator for the International Society of Jazz Arrangers and Composers
(ISJAC), and is currently teaching jazz, Western music theory, and trombone at Gustavus Adolphus College.
