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Terence Blanchard

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

Terence Blanchard is an American jazz trumpeter and composer, born in 1962 in New Orleans. His father was an insurance manager and amateur opera singer. He began piano at five and chose the trumpet at eight. As a child he played in summer camps with Wynton and Branford Marsalis, and he studied with Ellis Marsalis at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. While studying at Rutgers University he toured with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra. In 1982, on the recommendation of Wynton Marsalis, he took Marsalis's place in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, where he became musical director.

Music and breakthrough

In 1986 he formed a quintet of his own with Donald Harrison, which influenced young jazz musicians such as Christian McBride, Nicholas Payton and Roy Hargrove. His self-titled solo debut appeared in 1990 on Columbia. After work on Do the Right Thing and Mo' Better Blues he composed the music for Jungle Fever (1991). Since then he has scored most of Spike Lee's films, including Malcolm X, Clockers, 25th Hour, Inside Man, BlacKkKlansman and Da 5 Bloods. For the last two he received Oscar nominations. His opera Fire Shut Up in My Bones was staged at the Metropolitan Opera in 2021 and 2022, the first opera by an African American composer there.

Influence

Blanchard plays with a warm, singing tone and connects the jazz tradition of New Orleans with film music and opera. He is also a teacher, among other things as artistic director of the Thelonious Monk Institute, and in 2024 he was named an NEA Jazz Master.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to his music for Malcolm X and notice how the trumpet takes on the role of a singing narrator above an orchestra.

Discography

Studio albums

Other work

In School of Rock

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Mentioned in other articles

See also

Categories: ArtistsNeotraditional jazz (Young Lions)