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Sunday, September 3, 2017
Friday, October 21, 2016
Terence Blanchard & his E-Collective tune up
by Shaun Brady, FOR THE INQUIRER
Updated: OCTOBER 19, 2016 — 11:51 AM EDT
Terence Blanchard has never been what you’d call predictable. Like Wynton Marsalis before him, the trumpeter left New Orleans in the early '80s, served an apprenticeship with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, and seemed destined for leadership in the tradition-focused “Young Lions” movement committed to steering jazz back onto a straight-ahead track.
But Blanchard veered off that narrow path. He became Spike Lee’s composer of choice, scoring nearly all of the director’s films since 1991’s Jungle Fever. His own music grew more ambitious in scope, from the 2007 album-length suite A Tale of God’s Will (A Requiem for Katrina), inspired by the devastation wrought on his hometown by Hurricane Katrina, to the 2013 jazz opera Champion, based on the life of welterweight boxing champion Emile Griffith.
Last year, he took another unexpected turn with his latest release, Breathless. The album introduced his new band, the E-Collective, an electro-acoustic ensemble inspired as much by hip-hop and modern rock such as Radiohead as by the fusion bands of Blanchard’s youth, including Weather Report and Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters. “Influences for this band came from all over the place,” Blanchard said last week, over the phone from Ohio’s Oberlin College, where he was rehearsing for a performance of A Tale of God’s Will.
“The Mahavishnu Orchestra, Return to Forever, Rage Against the Machine - when I was growing up, I was listening to Parliament Funkadelic along with Clifford Brown, Miles Davis, and [classical trumpeter] Maurice André. I never wanted to be that guy that says there’s a finite set of criteria that defines who I am. The universe is too big for that.”
read more: http://news360.com/digestarticle/GOAk11t-oUCrsk4z4dPBTA
Monday, December 28, 2015
Terence Blanchard
"Terence Blanchard has always been forward thinking, but with E-Collective he shoots straight into tomorrow adding all sorts of different types of electricity and attitude to a new set of tunes. The concept is still right now with a more modern edge and sound, vocals and all, but it’s still the tough but tender, timeless but vital unique tone that marks Terence’s horn as one of the truly great and classic jazzmen". - David Kunian, Downbeat
CD: Terence Blanchard / Breathless
UPC # 00602547269393
Release Date: 05/26/2015
Label (p)© 2015 Blue Note Records
Monday, November 23, 2015
Terence Blanchard / Jacob Collier review
Barbican, London
Collier brings his striking choral harmonies to the London jazz festival, while Spike Lee collaborator Blanchard is exhaustingly impressive
On his last UK date, in July, we declared Jacob Collier to be jazz’s new messiah. Since then the endearingly geeky 20-year-old has taken his multimedia one-man band to jazz festivals around the world. It is a live incarnation of his YouTube masterworks – covers of soul and jazz standards pieced together in real time on drums, bass guitar, piano and a choir of voices – and it’s stunning.
Some tiny reservations remain: Collier’s soft, choirboy voice is perfectly suited to the startling choral harmonies he creates via his keyboard but it isn’t, perhaps, as effective as a lead instrument. However, the results are usually so impressive that it doesn’t matter. Even when he ditches the audiovisual gimmicks and plays a solo version of Stevie Wonder’s Lately – just voice and piano – the effect is startling, with his cascading piano accompaniment full of momentary semitone shifts and off-kilter chordal voicing.
read more: http://news360.com/digestarticle/bppPmJ8ydUqQlY4VkoNkrg
Published on Apr 18, 2015
Eight Jacob Colliers team up to arrange, perform & produce a distinctive version of a well-loved ballad, made famous by Ray Charles.
Monday, June 29, 2015
Terence Blanchard's 2013 return to Blue Note ....
Terence Blanchard's 2013 return to Blue Note, Magnetic, built upon his decades-long history of post-bop dynamism with a forward-thinking approach that blended edgy, modal improvisation with a sophisticated, genre-crossing compositional style. It was a concept he had been investigating on his previous efforts Bounce (2003), Flow (2005), and Choices (2009), and, though it had been years sinceBlanchard was considered a young lion, the eclecticism of the album matched the work of many of his younger contemporaries like trumpeter Christian Scott and pianist Robert Glasper, the latter of whom even played on Bounce.
In keeping with this boundary-pushing trajectory, Blanchard's follow-up, 2015's Breathless, finds the New Orleans native jumping wholeheartedly into a funky stew of R&B, hip-hop, and fusion-influenced jazz. Blanchard is joined here by his band the E-Collective, an adroit group of young players centered around gifted keyboardist Fabian Almazan, the only carry-over from the Magnetic sessions. Along with Almazan, the E-Collective features Charles Altura (guitar), Donald Ramsey (bass), and Oscar Seaton (drums). Also showcased throughout is vocalist PJ Morton, who has released his own R&B- and contemporary gospel-infused albums and toured as a keyboardist with the pop group Maroon 5.
Ambitious, adventurous, and steeped in the kind of sticky, psychedelic jazz-funk pioneered by trumpeter Miles Davis in the '70s, Breathless is Blanchard's most electrified album to date. While Blanchard has long drawn comparisons to Davis, they've mostly referenced the iconic trumpeter's classic quintet sides from the late '60s and not his effects-drenched fusion period. Similarly, while on previous efforts Blanchard has flirted with an electronic sound, he's never gone this far in a contemporary jazz direction. Here we get a very '90s hip-hop/jazz-infused reworking of Les McCann's classic 1969 socio-political anthem "Compared to What," several languid, new agey spoken word pieces with Morton, and some expansive, groove-oriented cuts like the bluesy midtempo "See Me as I Am" that allow for plenty of spaced-out solos.
Also intriguing are Morton's several slow jam vocal numbers, including an inspired cover of Hank Williams' "I Ain't Got Nothin' But Time,' which replaces the country legend's cowboy twang and fiddles with sweeping, Stevie Wonder-esque orchestral synth backgrounds. Also compelling is the languid, dreamy ballad "Everglades," which impossibly balancesDebussy-influenced impressionism with angular, synthy, '80s electro-funk. Ultimately, whileBreathless is a break from the aggressive, acoustic swing that has marked much of Blanchard's career, it nonetheless retains all the jaw-dropping artistry and soulful creativity we have come to expect, albeit delivered in a vibrant, electric style.
read more: http://www.bluenote.com/artists/terence-blanchard/breathless
Wednesday, June 3, 2015
Trumpeter Terence Blanchard ....
The Canadian Press - This photo provided by Terence Blanchard shows the cover of the CD "Breathless," by Blanchard. (Henry Adebonojo/Terence Blanchard via AP)
The Canadian PressBy Charles J. Gans, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – Tue, 2 Jun, 2015
Terence Blanchard, "Breathless" (Blue Note)
Grammy-winning jazz trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard makes a powerful political and musical statement with his new E-Collective quintet on "Breathless," his first plunge as a bandleader into groove-based electric fusion music drawing on funk, R&B and the blues.
The title track, inspired by the last words ("I can't breathe") of Eric Garner, who died in a New York police officer's chokehold, is a moving father-and-son dialogue featuring Blanchard's muted crying trumpet and son JRei Oliver's spoken-word reflection on the effects of racism.
Blanchard opens the album with a funked-up version of the still relevant civil rights and Vietnam war protest song "Compared to What," a 1969 hit recording for Les McCann. Blanchard's fiery trumpet solos drive soulful vocals by Maroon 5's PJ Morton.
On "Talk to Me," a funky groove underscores activist Cornel West's commentary on Martin Luther King Jr.'s prediction that America would remain haunted by racism, militarism and wealth inequality.
Blanchard puts aside his social engagement on other tracks, including the meditative, dream-like "Samadhi" with Oliver reciting a soft-spoken poem about finding inner peace, and the hard-driving "Cosmic Warrior" with some powerful rock riffing.
read more: https://ca.news.yahoo.com/trumpeter-terence-blanchard-makes-powerful-musical-political-statement-125836259.html
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Record Review: 'Chano y Dizzy!,' Poncho Sanchez and Terence Blanchard
Poncho Sanchez (left) and Terence Blanchard have released the CD "Chano y Dizzy." CONCORD MUSIC
Photo: Concord Music Group / SPoncho Sanchez and Terence Blanchard
Chano y Dizzy!
Concord Picante
Concord Picante
Team Poncho Sanchez, a conga player from Los Angeles by way of Laredo, with Terence Blanchard, a trumpeter from New Orleans, and the result is music born in New York, Afro-Cuban jazz as developed by conguero Chano Pozo and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie.
For his 25th album on the Concord label, Sanchez, his cooking band (which includes former San Antonio denizen Rob Hardt on saxophones) and Blanchard salute Pozo and Gillespie and the percolating music they introduced to jazz in the '40s. The crew does so not with note-for-note readings from the Pozo/Gillespie books but with a mixture of songs written by the masters and original compositions, several by Francisco Torres, CD co-producer with Sanchez and the Sanchez band's trombonist/vocalist.
The disc features a Chano Pozo medley, Tin Tin Deo/Manteca/Guachi Guaro, Pozo's Ari±a±ara, Gillespie classics Con Alma and Groovin' High, Blanchard's Wandering Wonder and Siboney, penned by Ernesto Lecuona. Torres' playful Dizzy's Dashiki and the spare Jack's Dilemma fit not only the spirit of the project but the groove.
Every musician shines, but the ensemble power, the infectious mambo/salsa/bop fusion, makes the sound as captivating and exciting today as it was 65 years ago.
— Jim Beal Jr.
Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/entertainment/music/article/Record-Review-Chano-y-Dizzy-Poncho-Sanchez-2202622.php#ixzz1Zw0YrftpSaturday, September 26, 2009
Terence Blanchard’s New CD Choices Released on Concord Jazz
Follow-up To Grammy Winning ‘A Tale Of God’s Will (A Requiem For Katrina)’ Is First Complete CD The World-Renowned Trumpet Player and Film Composer Has Recorded In New Orleans and Features Guests Dr. Cornel West and Bilal “Life is all about expansion and evolution. We make choices every day, none of which are right or wrong. They are simply choices that allow us to explore the variety of what’s before us.” -- Terence Blanchard
New Orleans, Louisiana. Choices, the new CD from three-time Grammy award winning trumpet player and composer Terence Blanchard, has been released on Concord Jazz. Recorded in March in Blanchard’s hometown of New Orleans at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, Choices addresses the choices we all make in life – both as a society and on a personal level. Accompanying Blanchard on the album are longstanding band members Fabian Almazan on piano, Derrick Hodge on bass and Kendrick Scott on drums, along with newcomer Walter Smith lll on saxophone, all of whom wrote significant track contributions to the CD as well (a complete track listing is attached to this release.) Guest artists include writer, speaker, educator and activist Dr. Cornel West, critically-acclaimed guitarist and Blanchard protégé Lionel Loueke, and singer, musician and composer Bilal. West performs spoken word pieces on the album with Bilal providing vocals on several of the tracks.
Said Blanchard, “When the spoken word idea came to mind, Dr. Cornel West was the first person I thought of. I’ve always been a fan of his philosophy -- the stances he’s taken and the causes that he has championed throughout his career -- and I thought what better person could I find to put a lot of these ideas into words that can work in this particular musical situation. Bilal on the other hand is a great vocalist and while recognized more as an R&B soul singer, he is a huge fan of Jazz and is very knowledgeable when it comes to the history of music. Bilal is an extremely accomplished, creative and talented musician and it just seemed natural that he should be involved with the Choices project.
Added Dr. West, “Choices…what kind of human being you’re going to be. How are you going to opt for a life of decency and compassion and service and love. What goes into that kind of choice. That’s the human challenge. To be part of this album is an unadulterated joy because no doubt about it, music for me is continuous of life -- to be able to live the kind of life that I live on the certain kind of Socratic calling of raising
unsettling questions. To be able to be in conversation and on an album with Terence Blanchard, that’s serious business…I mean, that’s…that’s a beautiful thing.”
The Ogden Museum of Southern Art’s Patrick F. Taylor Library was chosen for the recording due to its outstanding acoustics as well as its historical importance to the city of New Orleans. The Library, completed in 1889 and a survivor of both hurricanes and decades of neglect, is the only existing building in the South designed by New Orleans native H.H. Richardson. “There couldn’t have been a more perfect place to record this project,” says Blanchard, “The Library itself is a survivor as is this city. While my last album (the Grammy-winning A Tale Of God’s Will (A Requiem For Katrina) stemmed from Katrina’s pain and destruction, Choices will be a celebration of all that has survived and more.”
Blanchard has established himself as one of the most influential jazz musicians and film score masters of his generation, a member of a jazz legacy that has shaped the contours of modern jazz today. With more than 29 albums to his credit, as a musician Blanchard is a multi-Grammy Award winner and nominee, winning earlier this year for his instrumental solo for “Be-Bop” on Live At The 2007 Monterey Jazz Festival. In addition to receiving the award, Blanchard performed live on the telecast along with other New Orleans artists including Lil’ Wayne, Allen Toussaint and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, who were all joined on-stage by singer Robin Thicke. In 2008, Blanchard also won a Grammy for his CD, A Tale of God's Will (A Requiem for Katrina), a beautifully haunting and impassioned song cycle about Hurricane Katrina and the ravages incurred upon the City of New Orleans and its residents.
As a film composer, Blanchard has more than 50 scores to his credit and received a Golden Globe nomination for Spike Lee's “25th Hour.” In 2008 he completed the score for Lee's “Miracle at St. Anna,” as well as the soundtrack for Darnell Martin’s “Cadillac Records.” Other film music written by Blanchard includes Kasi Lemmons' “Eve's Bayou” and “Talk to Me,” Oprah Winfrey's “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” Tim Story's “Barbershop” and Ron Shelton's “Dark Blue.” He is currently working on the score for George Lucas’ “Red Tails” and has already completed musical contributions for the score on Disney’s “The Princess and the Frog,” set for release this fall.
As Artistic Director of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, which he was instrumental in relocating from Los Angeles to New Orleans, Blanchard works with students in the areas of artistic development, arranging, composition and concert programming. He also participates in master classes around the world as well as local community outreach activities in his beloved hometown of New Orleans. The release of Choices will be accompanied by a worldwide tour featuring Terence and his band.
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Leading a Crew of Energetic Youngsters, and Keeping Up With Them
Music Review | Terence Blanchard
By BEN RATLIFF
Published: July 24, 2009
The trumpeter Terence Blanchard runs an informal but important academy. Since the beginning of the 1990s his bands have always been strong, if sometimes overcontrolled. But now that he’s a full generation older than most of the musicians working with him — and those musicians have musically evolved from education and influences different from the ones that formed him — his music is feeling energized in a new way.
His quintet plays through the weekend at the Jazz Standard, and it’s worth a look. Mr. Blanchard’s other career is in film soundtrack composition, and for the last two years he has been performing music from his recent album “A Tale of God’s Will (A Requiem for Katrina),” partly written for Spike Lee’s New Orleans documentary, “When the Levees Broke.” It did well by Mr. Blanchard: he won a Grammy for it. But he seems eager to move on. On Thursday night he acknowledged from the stage that most audiences still wanted to hear those slow, sad themes, but that he wouldn’t be playing them.
So he played pieces from a new record, “Choices,” which Concord will release on Aug. 18. Surprisingly, because it was so new, the band pushed hard against the music, warped it and expanded it.
Mr. Blanchard chose to add a few fiddly extras: at the beginning and end of some pieces he ran his trumpet through a chorus pedal and triggered samples of Cornel West, discoursing about individuality and the meaning of life. The extras didn’t feel particularly intrusive. Dr. West’s speech cadence is musical in itself, and the synthetic harmony connected to the plush, interior feeling of some of the music.
In the new ballad “Choices,” Mr. Blanchard showed off the prettiest part of his playing, evocative, meditative and sort of scene-setting: he calmly bends notes, muting his liquid sound without using an actual mute. But on another tune, “H.U.G.s. (Historically Underrepresented Groups),” he played harder, in quick, syncopated phrases, balancing cool long tones with hot bursts of ranting.
This is a band whose lineup changes have become significant — they swing attention toward young musicians — and as of this year its tenor saxophonist is Walter Smith III, who seized a couple of spots on Thursday to improvise with furious continuity. Mr. Smith’s own song “Him or Me,” with surprise rests, odd phrase lengths and opaque harmony, became the show’s peak: everyone in the band, including the pianist Fabian Almazan, the bassist Ben Street and the drummer Kendrick Scott, smoked through all that complexity. Mr. Smith’s solo ran through a few choruses with dam-breaking force and binding logic, using tension and release and working up to split tones. Mr. Almazan played a dense and imaginative solo, improvising with both hands around the center of the keyboard. The music already felt lived in, and open enough to keep changing.
The Terence Blanchard Quintet continues through Sunday at the Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, with the singer Bilal as a guest on Saturday; (212) 576-2232, jazzstandard.com.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/25/arts/music/25terence.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Monday 11th-Wednesday 13th May RONNIE SCOTT’S 50TH PRESENTS...Terence Blanchard
Charismatic US jazz quintet led by one of the trumpet greats of our times. After early appearances with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and Lionel Hampton’s band, he quickly rose to prominence as a exceptionally gifted player and composer, as well as writing music for the films of Spike Lee. His score for the documentary on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, When The Levees Broke, led to his 2007 Grammy
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Terence Blanchard's Shows at Jazz at the Bistro Postponed Until May
SOURCE: St. Louis Jazz Notes
Trumpeter Terence Blanchard's appearance at Jazz at the Bistro that was scheduled for February 4 through February 7 has been postponed until May. Here's the announcement from Jazz St. Louis director of operations Bob Bennett:
“Due to circumstances beyond our control, Terence Blanchard has been forced to reschedule his dates at Jazz at the Bistro. Mr. Blanchard's performances, originally scheduled for February 4-7, 2009, have been moved to May 27-30, 2009. Patrons with tickets for these shows will be able to use them for the newly scheduled dates in May, on the corresponding evening, or return them to the point of purchase for a full refund.
Where Mr. Blanchard was scheduled to perform, we are proud to announce the return of one of the Bistro's most popular groups, Good 4 The Soul. These performances will only be on Friday, February 6 and Saturday, February 7, 2009 as opposed to Wednesday through Saturday. Tickets for Good 4 The Soul's February performances are $20 ($10 for students w/ID) and are available now by calling our box office, Metrotix at 314-534-1111, online at www.metrotix.com or at any Metrotix outlet."
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=28590
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