Wycliffe Gordon

Wycliffe Gordon enjoys an extraordinary career as a performer, conductor, composer, arranger, and educator, receiving high praise from audiences and critics alike. Gordon tours the world performing hard-swinging, straight-ahead jazz for audiences ranging from heads of state to elementary school students. His trombone playing, hailed as "mixing powerful, intricate runs with sweet notes extended over clean melodies," has been universally hailed by jazz critics. Gordon received the Jazz Journalists Association 2002 and 2001 Award for Trombonist of the Year, the Jazz Journalists Association 2000 Critics' Choice Award for Best Trombone and has been nominated for the Jazzpar Award.

In addition to a thriving solo career, he tours regularly leading the Wycliffe Gordon Quartet, headlining at legendary jazz venues throughout the world. Gordon is a former veteran member of the Wynton Marsalis Septet, The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, and The Gully Low Jazz Band, and has been a featured guest artist on Billy Taylor's "Jazz at The Kennedy Center" Series. Gordon's extensive performance experience includes work with many of the most renowned jazz performers of the past and present.

Gordon's musical prowess has been captured on numerous recordings, including nine solo CDs and three co-leader CDs. His latest solo effort, “Cone's Coup,” is scheduled for release in May 2006. Gordon is featured on numerous recordings with The Wynton Marsalis Septet, The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, and numerous others as evidenced in his extensive discography.

Wycliffe Gordon is also a gifted composer and arranger. He was commissioned to compose a vibrant new score for the 1925 classic silent film "Body and Soul" (notable as the screen debut of Paul Robeson), which was premiered at the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra's 2000-01 season opening night performance at Avery Fisher Hall. Gordon's "I Saw The Light," a musical tribute to Muhammad Ali, was commissioned and premiered by The Brass Band of Battle Creek in March 2004. Both works are scheduled for release on DVD in summer of 2006.

Gordon's compositions have been performed by The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, The Wynton Marsalis Septet, The Wycliffe Gordon Quartet, The Brass Band of Battle Creek and numerous other ensembles, and performed in programs throughout the U.S. and abroad including concert halls in New York, Los Angeles, Aspen, Georgia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Germany, London, Finland and Switzerland. His compositions are also featured as a part of the PBS series "Marsalis on Music." Recent concert seasons have included premieres of compositions by Mr. Gordon for a variety of ensembles both in the Unites States and internationally. The first in a series of print editions of his big band, small ensemble and choir compositions will be available in fall of 2006.

Gordon's television appearances have included the Grammy Awards, the PBS special documentary "Swingin’ with the Duke," and two Live from Lincoln Center broadcasts with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra—"Uptown Blues, Ellington at 100" (a collaboration with the New York Philharmonic) and "Big Train." Gordon also appeared in Ken Burns’ documentary "Jazz." Other television appearances include "A Carnegie Hall Christmas Concert" and "Live from Lincoln Center: The Juilliard School at 100 Years." Gordon is featured in BET's 13-part series "Journey with Jazz at Lincoln Center" and was guest artist and commentator in NPR affiliate WVIA's special program on Tommy Dorsey (along with the late Skitch Henderson, just days before Henderson's death). Gordon also appeared with the Wynton Marsalis Septet in the feature film "Tune In Tomorrow" starring Peter Falk, Keanu Reeves and Barbara Hershey.

Gordon is rapidly becoming one of America’s most persuasive and committed music educators. He currently serves on the faculty of the Jazz Studies Program at The Juilliard School, a position he has held since the founding of the program. His work with young musicians and audiences from elementary schools to universities all over the world is extensive, and includes master classes, clinics, workshops, children's concerts and lectures—powerful evidence of his unique ability to relate musically to people of all ages. Gordon is currently working on a collection of trombone quartets, trios and duos to be entitled "Trombone Majesty," with expected publication in late 2006. In addition, his first method book "Wycliffe Gordon's Suggested Studies for Trombone," a compilation of the materials, exercises and approaches he uses in his teaching and in his own practice regimen, will be released in January 2007. Gordon teamed with trombonist Joseph Alessi of the New York Philharmonic and students in both of their studios at Juilliard in creating and presenting the master class "Two Sides of the Slide" for Jazz at Lincoln Center. The master class is available in its entirety as part of a streaming video series offered by the Education Department of Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Gordon is the youngest member of the U.S. Statesmen of Jazz, and in many tour performances has served and continues to serve as a musical ambassador for the U.S. State Department.

Born in Waynesboro, Georgia, Gordon was first introduced to music by his late father, Lucius Gordon, a classical pianist and teacher. His interest in the trombone was sparked at age twelve by his elder brother who played the instrument in his junior high school band. Egged on by sibling rivalry, Gordon's relentless pleading of his parents led to his first trombone. A year later, an aunt bequeathed Gordon her jazz record collection, and so began his passion for jazz music.
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Deborah Silver: Deborah Silver with the Count Basie Orchestra: Basie Rocks!

Read "Deborah Silver with the Count Basie Orchestra: Basie Rocks!" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
June 19, 2025

Basie Rocks! A great idea? One best left on the cutting-room floor? Or perhaps a little of both? There are reasonable arguments to be made on all sides of the equation. On the one hand, this is the one and only Count Basie Orchestra, swinging in its own exceptional way. On the other, the orchestra has joined forces on every number with Mississippi-bred pop-rock singer Deborah Silver, the latest in a series of acclaimed guest vocalists that includes Ella Fitzgerald, ...

Album Review

Deborah Silver: Deborah Silver with the Count Basie Orchestra: Basie Rocks!

Read "Deborah Silver with the Count Basie Orchestra: Basie Rocks!" reviewed by Kyle Simpler

by Kyle Simpler
June 6, 2025

Jazz musicians frequently cover popular songs, but few do it quite like vocalist Deborah Silver. With Basie Rocks!, Silver teams up with the iconic Count Basie Orchestra for a genre-crossing collection that you truly have to hear to believe. This is a groove-charged big band album that reimagines classic rock and pop classics through the swinging lens of traditional jazz. While that premise might sound gimmicky on paper, the result is total sonic satisfaction. Produced by ...

Album Review

Adrian Cunningham: It's About Time

Read "It's About Time" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
May 9, 2025

Australian-born, New York-based multi-instrumentalist (and vocalist) Adrian Cunningham brings impressive creds to his latest recording, It's About Time, raising the number of albums under his leadership well into double figures. And as if playing an array of instruments were not enough, Cunningham also writes, having composed nine of the album's songs and arranged all of them. The exceptions are George Gershwin's “Summertime" (from the folk opera Porgy and Bess) and the traditional “Battle Hymn of the Republic." ...

Album Review

Visions Jazz Ensemble: Across the Field

Read "Across the Field" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
November 16, 2024

Here is a unique and intriguing concept: a baker's dozen collegiate anthems and fight songs, trimly recast in contemporary jazz settings by the seven-member Visions Jazz Ensemble, comprised of Indiana University alumni who stride Across the Field with an abundance of proficiency and perception. Although the hip arrangements by the ensemble's co-leaders, trumpeter Sam Butler and tenor saxophonist Garrett Fasig, sometimes turn these largely familiar songs inside out and upside down, every one of them has its ...

Liner Notes

Wycliffe Gordon: What You Dealin' With?

by C. Andrew Hovan
April 2, 2023

Privy to the entire history of jazz trombone via the technological age in which we live, Wycliffe Gordon seems to have utilized this information in such a way that his own playing displays elements from various periods and a technical competence that is indeed remarkable. “I was most familiar, at first, with guys who played with Louis Armstrong, namely Trummy Young or Kid Ory and later on Jack Teagarden," says Gordon about the early years in his development. “Later I ...

Album Review

Diane Marino: I Hear Music

Read "I Hear Music" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello

by Nicholas F. Mondello
November 26, 2022

"I Hear Music," from Nashville-based vocalist, pianist and arranger Diane Marino, is a twelve-track retrospective of selections--famous and not so--drawn from the Songbook, as well as being associated with such great artists as Dakota Staton, Ella Fitzgerald, Anita O'Day, and others. The opener, the rarely heard “I Hear Music," is Marino's fine upbeat take on an old Burton Lane & Frank Loesser tune from a forgetable pre-WWII film, “Dancing on a Dime" (Paramount Pictures, 1940). It is ...

Album Review

NYO Jazz: We're Still Here

Read "We're Still Here" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
October 14, 2022

The “NYO" in NYO Jazz is shorthand for National Youth Orchestra, a marvelous concept that should be cloned and shipped to as many cities, towns and villages as possible. NYO, comprising carefully chosen musicians, ages 16 to 19, from across the U.S.A. is based at Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute in New York City, and We're Still Here marks its first full-length recording. The NYO's artistic director is trumpeter, composer and educator Sean Jones who is featured ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Wycliffe Gordon

Source: Michael Ricci
May 29, 2018

All About Jazz is celebrating Wycliffe Gordon's birthday today!

Place our Musician of the Day widget on your website or blog. ...
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Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Wycliffe Gordon

Source: Michael Ricci
May 29, 2017

All About Jazz is celebrating Wycliffe Gordon's birthday today!

Place our Musician of the Day widget on your website or blog. ...
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Performance / Tour

A robust sound rooted in early jazz

Source: Ken Franckling's Jazz Notes
March 27, 2017

Trombonist Wycliffe Gordon is a modern-day ambassador for classic jazz dating back nearly a century. He digs the repertoire and style, putting his own stamp on it whether performing vintage songs or his own newer material. Such was the case on Friday, March 24 when Gordon performed at the Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center in Fort Myers as part of its Jazzy Nights concert series. He was backed by four Southwest Florida jazz all-stars: tenor saxophonist Lew Del Gatto, ...
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Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Wycliffe Gordon

Source: Michael Ricci
May 29, 2016

All About Jazz is celebrating Wycliffe Gordon's birthday today!

Place our Musician of the Day widget on your website or blog. ...
read more

Performance / Tour

Emmanuel Baptist Church Welcomes Trombonist Wycliffe Gordon To Their Next Jazz Vespers

Source: Emmanuel Baptist Church Jazz Vespers
April 5, 2013

Brooklyn, NY: Extraordinary and Award-winning jazz artist Wycliffe Gordon will be performing at the next edition of Emmanuel Baptist Church’s highly popular Jazz Vespers series. He will be bringing his unique hard-swinging, straight-ahead style to a diverse audience of true jazz lovers. The Jazz Vespers service will take place in its standing home at the historic Emmanuel Baptist Church, 279 Lafayette Avenue, located in the Clinton Hill section of Brooklyn, New York, on April 28, 2013 at 3:00 PM. Currently ...
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Performance / Tour

Juilliard Jazz Presents "An Evening with Wycliffe Gordon" on Monday February 4

Source: Chris M. Slawecki
January 21, 2013

Juilliard Jazz presents “An Evening with Wycliffe Gordon” on Monday, February 4 at 8 PM in Juilliard’s Paul Hall. Trombonist Wycliffe Gordon is artist-in-residence this season at Juilliard Jazz and performs with Juilliard Jazz Ensembles. The program features arrangements by Wycliffe Gordon, Fats Waller, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie and James Brown. The two Juilliard Ensembles performing on the February 4th concert have been coached by Juilliard faculty members Frank Kimbrough and Xavier Davis. Xavier Davis’ ensemble features Gabriel Medd (trumpet), ...
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Event

Trish Richardson "The Soul of Jazz" Book Signing at Wycliffe Gordon Concert on May 2

Source: Trish Richardson
April 25, 2012

Author Trish Richardson will be signing copies of her book, The Soul of Jazz: Stories and Inspiration from Those Who Followed the Song in Their Souls prior to Wycliffe Gordon and the Bothell High School and Mercer Island High School Jazz Bands’ performance at Eastside Foursquare Church in Bothell on Wednesday, May 2nd at 7 pm. Doors open at 6:30pm. Tickets to the concert can be purchased at mihsband.com. For this special event, half the profits from each book sale ...
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Festival

Harlem Jazz Shrines: Wycliffe Gordon's Jazz a la Carte, May 13-14, Apollo

Source: Carolyn McClair Public Relations
April 27, 2011

The Apollo Theater Serves up Wycliffe Gordon's Jazz à la Carte Featuring Wycliffe Gordon, Savion Glover, Carla Cook, Nikki Yanofsky, Corey Wilcox, Grace Kelly, Temple University Big Band and Director/Choreographer Ken Roberson May 13, 8:00 pm and May 14, 5:00 pm and 8:00 pm Harlem Jazz Shrines Festival Runs May 9-15 7 Days * 35 Events * 8 Venues The prestige of the past / The pulse of the present All Tickets Just $10 or Free! ...
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Performance / Tour

Wycliffe Gordon is "Home for the Holidays" to Help Commencement Park with Some Friends

Source: Jazz@Rochester
November 27, 2010

Wycliffe Gordon, one of the top trombone blowers in jazz is coming “Home for the Holidays"and performing Sunday at a Jazz for the Park concert to benefit the Wilson Commencement Park. He'll be joined by an all-star quintet that features George Caldwell (piano), Sabu Adeyola (bass), Melvin Henderson (guitar), Sean Jefferson (drums) and Herb Smith (trumpet). Proceeds from Jazz for the Park enhance the life-changing programs and services at the Wilson Commencement Park in Rochester. The Park has 50 townhouse ...
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Education

Jazz Arts Group Welcomes Wycliffe Gordon for in-School Residency and Premiere of "East High Pride"

Source: Michael Ricci
October 20, 2010

This week, the Jazz Arts Group's Jazz in Schools program welcomes acclaimed trombonist and composer Wycliffe Gordon back to Columbus for a two-day in-school residency, punctuated by an on-field appearance with the East High School Mighty Marching Tiger Band to premiere “East High Pride" on Friday, October 22. Mr. Gordon will be joining the band on East High's Senior Night as they present their legacy piece, written by Gordon, for the community of the King-Lincoln District. He will also conduct ...
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