Terence Blanchard & the WSU Big Band:
Mo’ Better Jazz – An Evening of Swing and Film
The Detroit International Jazz Festival was pleased to partner with the Wayne State University Department of Music in presenting world-renowned trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard in Terence Blanchard & the WSU Big Band: Mo’ Better Jazz – An Evening of Swing and Film. The performance – which took place on March 12 at the Music Box at the Max M. Fisher Music Center – featured Blanchard’s arrangements of popular movie themes, from A Streetcar Named Desire to The Pawnbroker. Blanchard also shared insights about scoring for film and showed a clip from a recent Spike Lee movie.
With more than 29 albums and 50 film scores to his credit, Blanchard is one of the most influential jazz musicians and film score masters of his generation. He recently won a Grammy Award for “Best Improvised Jazz Solo” for the track “Dancin/’ 4 Chicken” on Watts, a 2009 release by celebrated drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts.
Blanchard was joined by the Wayne State University Big Band, under the direction of Chris Collins. The WSU Big Band performs year-round in the Detroit metropolitan area. Recent highlights include a date with the Jazz Club at the Max with Joe Lovano, appearances at Detroit Jazz Fest with vocalists Diane Schuur and Kurt Elling, and an evening at Orchestra Hall with Eddie Daniels. The band will be joined by Terence Blanchard at the festival in 2010 for those who missed the performance in March, the band will be performing with Terence Blanchard again on Labor Day Weekend.
