Terence Blanchard Quintet
7:30–9:00PM, Carhartt Amphitheatre Stage
With more than 29 albums and 50 film scores to his credit, multi-Grammy Award-winning trumpeter/composer Terence Blanchard is widely regarded as one of the most influential jazz musicians and film score masters of his generation. Hailed in the 1980s as one of jazz’s “young lions,” Blanchard made his initial mark when he replaced Wynton Marsalis in Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. After four years with Blakey, he rose to prominence as co-leader of a quintet that featured fellow Blakey alums Donald Harrison and Mulgrew Miller. The Harrison-Blanchard group recorded five well-received albums, starting with 1984’s New York Second Line.
In the 1990s, Blanchard made several recordings as bandleader, including his self-titled debut, which reached #3 on the Billboard Jazz Charts. It was during this time that he also began establishing a reputation as one of the premier film score composers. Blanchard’s film achievements include scores for Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever (1991), Malcolm X (1992), Clockers (1995) and Inside Man (2006) and Kasi Lemmons' Eve's Bayou (1997). He also composed the score for two critically acclaimed documentaries by Lee—the Academy Award-nominated 4 Little Girls (1997) and When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (2006).
Despite his success as a film composer, Blanchard has remained true to his jazz roots, continuing to tour as a preeminent bandleader and trumpeter and releasing several award-winning albums. In 2008, he received a Grammy Award for his album A Tale of God’s Will (Requiem for Katrina), followed by Grammys for his solo work on “Be-Bop” (on Live at the 2007 Monterey Jazz Festival) in 2009 and “Dancin’ 4 Chicken,” a track on drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts’ self-titled album, in 2010. Blanchard’s latest release, Choices (2009), is his first completed album made in his hometown of New Orleans. All About Jazz praised the effort for its “. . . combination of eloquent intellectualism and stirring composition.”
Appearing with Blanchard at Detroit Jazz Fest are Brice Winston (sax), Kendrick Scott (drums), Fabian Almazan (piano) and Joshua Crumbly (bass).
