This Wednesday, patrons packed Bates Concert Hall to catch a whistle of the renowned jazz trumpeter and composer, Terence Blanchard. He accompanied the UT Jazz Orchestra and Jazz Ensemble as a soloist for their final concert of the semester.
Originally from New Orleans, Blanchard, a disciple of Ellis Marsalis, toured with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra and joined Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers at the age of 19 as a musician before eventually serving as director. A six-time Grammy award winner, Oscar-nominee and film scorer, his recent endeavors involve bringing jazz music into the world of opera.
Although jazz as a genre possesses deep roots in tradition, Blanchard said he doesn’t think about upholding such customs.
“The tradition of jazz is to break the tradition, I’m just trying to utilize all of the tools at my disposal to help tell stories and to create interesting music,” Blanchard said. “I’m at a point in my career (where) I’m trying to create music that helps people’s souls to heal because the music is bigger than us as individuals.”
Director of the Jazz Studies department and JO director Diego Rivera, described Blanchard as an established artist who explores and innovates new ways of presenting jazz music and brings the best aspects of jazz tradition into modern innovation. Rivera said he wants his students to see this experience not as a one-time occurance, but as a jumping off point in their musical career.
“I don’t want them to look at this as, ‘This was the one time I got to play with Terence,’” Rivera said. “I want them to look at it like, ‘The first time I played with Mr. Blanchard was at UT. … This is something that hopefully starts a relationship with the artists that we bring in.”
Blanchard emphasized the importance of mentorship, even as an accomplished artist.
“It’s always important to get that first hand experience from people who have done it before,” Blanchard said. “Roger Dickerson mentored me when I was a little kid and still does, and then Art Blakey, and now I’m playing with Herbie Hancock and in a way he’s mentoring me even though I’m an established musician — we can always grow.”
For the concert, alongside JE, Blanchard played on Art Blakey’s “One by One” and Bill Lee’s “Mo’ Better Blues,” both serving as hat-tips to his early career. JO performed five of Blanchard’s compositions arranged by Diego Rivera that spanned throughout his career: “Lil’ Fawdy,” “Passionate Courage,” “Azania,” “Sing Soweto” and “Bounce.”
“It was kind of funny in the rehearsal,” Blanchard said. “I hadn’t played those tunes in such a long time, it brought back a lot of great memories.”
Although summing up Blanchard’s work in one concert proves impossible, Rivera said the pieces came as a labor of love, requiring depth and a great deal of both musical and artistic knowledge. Rivera said he wants his students to take in all of Blanchard’s teachings as they see fit to advance their artistry and relationship with jazz.
“It’s a great opportunity for the students here to be able to perform Mr. Blanchard’s music alongside him,” said Gene Centeno, current Doctor of Music Arts student and assistant instructor for the Jazz Studies department. “It’s a major event for me. … It’s something I’m going to hold in my memory forever.”
