"Few can match Blanchard's precision and flair in evoking emotion," wrote Time magazine. "He has developed an expressive style reminiscent of the mid-1960s Miles Davis." Although the complimentary assertion is true, Terence Blanchard nonetheless, remains underestimated. For he has been lost in the shuffle of jazz music's recent stampede of young lions. However, Terence is no longer Art Blakey's young prodigy performing in the Jazz Messengers. In fact, it has been eleven years since the trumpet sensation graduated from the legendary ensemble to pursue a band with saxophonist Donald Harrison, and subsequently, a productive recording a career with Columbia Records (Sony Music).

Over the last five years, Blanchard has matured from a vigorous young lion into an established artist, becoming one of the most important musicians / composers / band leaders of this generation. Consequently, he shares the immense responsibility of taking America's greatest contribution to world culture through this decade and beyond into the 21st century. This responsibility can be perceived as an impeding liability to anyone's career, but Terence takes it all in stride. "It's not like I'm going out there to try to be different or to prove anything, I'm just trying to be myself."

Terence Blanchard was born March 13, 1962, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Encouraged by his musically inclined father, Joseph Oliver, Terence began learning the piano at the tender age of five. Initially, he wasn't too excited about his lessons, an attitude that vanished after a phenomenal discovery. "I'll never forget it," said Blanchard. While in the third grade, a jazz band came to his school for an assembly. Blanchard was present in the audience, and attentively aware of one Alvin Alcorn, the trumpet player in the band. After hearing him Terence said, "I want to do that!"

From that day to the present, Blanchard has diligently been working on his craft as a jazz musician -- a serious commitment that has resulted, since 1981, in an active performance and recording schedule. Although world-wide praise and publicity have followed, Blanchard keeps perspective on his career. In particular, Blanchard believes that many have incorrectly perceived him as a protégé of Wynton Marsalis. In fact, the two trumpeters achieved the prominence they currently enjoy virtually simultaneously. Separated in age by less than five months, the two New Orleans natives have been friends since they met in the sixth grade. They both attended the prestigious New Orleans Center of Creative Arts at the same time, developing from identical instruction. When they arrived on the jazz scene, they both confronted the same artistic turbulence and lack of consensus felt by many jazz musicians. And they both had a hand, at the same time, in the jazz resurgence that followed in the 1980s. Now in their thirties, Marsalis and Blanchard are at the forefront of their generation. Like Marsalis, Blanchard plays with his own voice in his own neo-traditionalist style, characterized by strong playing, well-crafted composition, and expressive depth.

In addition to his presence on the jazz scene, Blanchard is active as a film composer. "It's a different discipline which allows you to be creative in a different form," muses Blanchard. Praised by Time for his skillful control of mood and emotion, he got into the industry through his work with Spike Lee. Working out of Brooklyn, Terence has collaborated with Spike since his second film. "I was just a session player on some of his earlier films, and it just grew from there." They first worked together on Spike's early hit, School Daze, for which Blanchard played a trumpet solo. Blanchard subsequently contributed to the soundtrack of Do The Right Thing and worked as both arranger and trumpet instructor to actor Denzel Washington in Mo' Better Blues. Next was Jungle Fever, which was his first ever film score. "I never thought I would actually get a chance to write a score. I thought I'd be in my sixties by the time that happened to me, after I had two hundred recordings, and was on my deathbed." Then, in Malcolm X, Blanchard took charge of all aspects of the music: he was composer, arranger and conductor in charge of an orchestra exceeding fifty musicians. The collaboration, which continued for Crooklyn and Clockers, was praised in the Chicago Tribune: "Lee and Blanchard have forged a partnership for the 90's worthy of any of the great director-composer collaborations from Hollywood's fabled past."

Blanchard has scored other films as well: Sugar Hill, The Inkwell, and Trial By Jury. And on television he provided music for the Disovery Channel's acclaimed TV series "The Promised Land" and for two HBO pictures: Assault at West Point and Soul of the Game. The vibrant presence of Blanchard's trumpet can also be heard in Don Was' music for Backbeat and James Newton Howard's score for Primal Fear. If he's not traveling with his internationally touring quartet, or creating film compositions, Blanchard somehow finds time to fulfill his interests in other projects. His performance on Color and Light: Jazz Sketches on Sondheim (Sony Classical) received rave reviews. Time magazine ranked the album fifth on its list as the best music of 1995. The review hailed Blanchard's contribution as "sensuously redefining and rejuvenating the music of Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim."

Despite his interest and participation in film, television and theater, though, Blanchard regards himself first and foremost as a jazz musician. "Nothing can beat being a jazz musician, playing a club, playing a concert. When I stood next to Sonny Rollins at Carnegie Hall and listened to him play, that was it for me."

Sony Music