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Gerard Presencer

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Gerard Presencer is a British jazz trumpeter, born on 12 September 1972 in Watford. He came to the trumpet at the age of nine, after hearing a solo by Roy Eldridge. He names Dizzy Gillespie, Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard, Kenny Wheeler, Woody Shaw and Clifford Brown as his early influences. At eleven he became the youngest member of the National Youth Jazz Orchestra. At eighteen he was already playing in the groups of the pianist Stan Tracey, including at a concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London that was later released on Blue Note.

Music and breakthrough

Presencer worked with British jazz musicians such as Peter King, John Dankworth, Ronnie Scott and Norma Winstone, and with Americans such as Johnny Griffin, Chris Potter and Herbie Hancock. He plays in Charlie Watts's jazz groups and was the soloist on Cantaloop by US3, the best-selling Blue Note album of the 1990s. Under his own name he made albums such as Platypus, The Optimist and Chasing Reality. He also played as a session musician on records by Sting, Jamiroquai, Zero 7, James Brown, Ray Charles and Joni Mitchell. The score of the computer game L.A. Noire, which won a BAFTA, also contains his trumpet solos.

Influence

Since 2010 he has been a member of the Danish Radio Big Band and lives in Copenhagen. Presencer was also a leading teacher: from 1999 to 2010 he headed the jazz department of the Royal Academy of Music and wrote a book on trumpet playing in improvised music. In this way he links the world of jazz with that of pop.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to Cantaloop by US3 and notice the trumpet solo above the hip hop beat. Hear how a jazz solo and a hip hop rhythm reinforce one another there.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

Categories: Artists