Terence Blanchard Albums (27)
What The Critics Say
Choices is composer and trumpeter Terence Blanchard's debut recording on the Concord label. And in a career with filled with many shifts and changes, it may be the most radical of all. It features his longtime cohorts, pianist Fabian Almazan, Derrick Hodge on bass, drummer Kendrick Scott, and Lionel Loueke on guitar. Saxophonist Walter Smith III joins the band here as well. In addition there are spoken word readings by intellectual, author, philosopher, and activist Dr. Cornel West, and vocals by neo-soul singer Bilal. The album was recorded in Blanchard's hometown of New Orleans at the Ogden Museum of Art. It's a meld of speculative post-bop, experimental yet accessible song forms, and jazz-initiated atmospheres. That leaves much to the imagination. Check out the opening cut, "Byus," written by Smith. A bassline and some percussive guitar effects by Loueke introduce West speaking about how "smartness" and "braininess" are qualitatively and radically different than wisdom and maturity "when wrestling with what it means to be human, when it comes to making the right, mature choices in life." It's a heady statement for reflection already, but when Blanchard and the band enter right there and weave a harmonically exceptional melody and a series of post-bop statements, it all goes wider and deeper. West re-enters for a moment to elucidate and then it's time for Smith's fine solo as the tune becomes a meditation on post-bop angularities and shifting textures and modes. West appears on six of the album's 15 cuts, either interwoven with the band playing tunes, or a cappella. It's provocative to be sure; and while a bit dense initially because of the complex sonic meld, it's also quite compelling, instructive and uplifting. Bilal will be new to most jazz fans, and though known as a contemporary urban music star, he has the right phrasing, proper discipline, and solid vocal chops to sing jazz. What he does here is move effortlessly through the band's compositions using his own very individual style-weaving of soul feeling, jazz phrasing, and improvisation together. Check his gorgeous vocal on Blanchard's "D's Choice," as he uses his own form of vocalese against the piano. His self-penned "When Will You Call," literally sounds like an inseparable weave of timeless standard and neo-soul tune. But it's on Scott's "Touched by an Angel" where he shines most. The horn section introduces the spare, elegant, lyric, Loueke paints the backdrop, and the rhythm section increases the tension until it all stops and begins again in a different harmonic structure with shifting chromatics. The band walks, whispers, and cries out until about four minutes in, where his silky, wordless, vocal caresses the tune out until West enters at the very end and says that "indifference is what makes the angels weep." No doubt about it, this is a radical set that might be best showcased in a live setting, but Blanchard's no stranger to new territory or to controversy, which is what has made him such a revered and celebrated figure in jazz no matter what he's composing or recording. Choices is a musically expansive, challenging recording that engages its title's subject matter critically and liberally without beating the listener over the head with it. It should appeal not only to jazzheads but open-minded music fans of all stripes. This set has plenty of class and sophistication, but it also speculatively reflects musical and intellectual history and mystery too. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
'Miracle at St. Anna'
Release Date 9/23/2008
Tracks 24
Label Hollywood
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'A Tale of God's Will (A Requiem for Katrina)'
Release Date 8/14/2007
Tracks 13
Label Angel
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What The Critics Say
When director Spike Lee tapped Terence Blanchard to compose the score for his 2006 documentary When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, the agony of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina was a story they both knew had to be told from a moral standpoint and with cultural credibility. Capturing the hurricane's sorrowful consequences through music would have to take its final shape more from the attitudes of their minds, the devastation they witnessed, and from the inspiration emanating from the people they would meet during the making of documentary. On A Tale of God's Will (A Requiem for Katrina), Blanchard uses every principle he has mastered as a genius jazz trumpeter to relay the impact of the destruction, the frustration, the sadness and the hope for a future. Full of his beliefs, sustained and elevated by the power of his purpose, Blanchard, accompanied by his quintet and the Northwest Sinfonia (which he conducted and co-orchestrated), delivers a powerful explanation of the emotions surging through them during this devastating experience. Opening with "Ghost of Congo Square," an African beat drenched in Blanchard's articulate trumpeting, handclaps, percussion and the chant "This is the tale of God's will" -- the listener is immediately informed about why things beyond their comprehension will undoubtedly happen. The two-minute trumpet-based "Ghost of Betsy"(about Hurricane Betsy) and the plaintive "Ghost of 1927," a tune reincarnating another flood that ravaged New Orleans and sketched out by saxophonist Brice Winston and drummer Kendrick Scott, complete a trilogy of brief ghost interludes interspersed throughout the recording to imply warnings from the past. Blanchard depicts "Levees" as perpetually in flux: the calm before the storm as captured by the string arrangement; the interlude which decries a breakdown in the security of the Crescent City, shifting, changing, crashing from the strength of thousands of waves, blown by all the winds that passed and losing their old forms in the backwaters of time. His horn registers the aftermath of the destruction -- wailing, grieving and weeping. This song is absolutely amazing. Pianist Aaron Parks plays the unforgettable melody on "Wading Through" "The Water," and mournful "Funeral Dirge" form the remaining nucleus of the material from the documentary. Songs written by four members of Blanchard's quintet serve to offer their own perspective of the tragedy, yet all of the music flows seamlessly to create a brilliant, inspired requiem. The music is potent, tragic, and adept featuring full orchestral plunges and Blanchard's stellar trumpet emerging to involve you the way he's involved. "Dear Mom," Blanchard's heartfelt tribute to his mother who lost her home in the tragedy but thankfully survived with her life, closes the recording. The imagery of sadness and frustration is deeply prevalent but Blanchard builds in accents and hopeful rhythmic nuance to give the listener time to catch his breath, leave behind certain memories, and to realize the promise of a brighter future. The music here will leave you in a melancholy, contemplative mood and definitely in awe of the talented musicians, composers, and arrangers who told A Tale of God's Will. This CD was nominated in 2007 for a Grammy award as Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album, and Blanchard's improvisation on "Levees" was nominated for Best Jazz Instrumental Solo. ~ Paula Edelstein, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
New Orleans trumpeter/composer/bandleader Terence Blanchard re-teamed with longtime collaborator Spike Lee in 2006 for the thriller Inside Man. The film, starring Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, and Jodie Foster, follows a cat and mouse game between a philosophical bank robber and the detectives, lawyers, and bank officials that try and come between them. Blanchard, who spent much of the recording of the movie taking care of property and family members in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, turns in one of his most powerful scores to date, utilizing the expansiveness of Aaron Copland, the action motifs of Hans Zimmer, and the emotionally charged experimentation of Ennio Morricone to produce a work that is as playful and mischievous as it devastating and compelling. ~ James Christopher Monger, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Spike Lee and Terence Blanchard's collaboration continues with Blanchard's score for Lee's romantic comedy She Hate Me. The film, which explores the complexities in the life of a recently fired biotech executive turned sperm-donor for lesbians -- who is also being framed for financial misdoings at his former company -- is a far cry from your standard rom-com fare, and Blanchard's score is very different than a typical soundtrack for a romantic comedy. Driven by piano and brass with some tasteful flourishes of strings, woodwinds, and guitars, Blanchard's pieces are by and large long and meditative instead of short and attention-getting. "She Hate Me" itself proceeds at a mellow pace, taking its time in fleshing out its laid-back motifs. Many of the other pieces are downright brooding, such as the darkly beautiful "Alex & Fatima," "Have You Met Lorna?," "You Are Frank Wills," and "Will o' the Wisp." However, Blanchard does include some tracks that nod to more typical comedy score fare: the painfully named "Snip" is appropriately bleak and whimsical, while "Bonin'" begins with some mischievous pizzicato strings. The lushness of many of the tracks borders on smooth jazz, although pieces like "Mafia" and "Dos Sperm," which has a droll start-and-stop rhythm, never become quite that predictable. Overall, She Hate Me may not be as challenging as Blanchard's other scores for Lee's films or his regular work (and the inclusion of Raul Midon's urban ballad "Adam 'n Eve 'n Eve" underscores the soundtrack's latent mainstream tendencies), but that's in relative terms. In its own right, the album is still an intriguing soundtrack, and works as pretty background music outside of its filmic context -- even if that isn't exactly what Lee and Blanchard intended for it. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard has come further in a sense than any of the 1980s Art Blakey alumni. While Wynton and Branford Marsalis may have higher profiles, Blanchard is the player who has most improved as both a soloist and an ensemble player. He is an excellent bandleader whose great taste in arrangements and sidemen are reflected on nearly all of his recordings. But most of all, Mr. Blanchard has become one of jazz's most sophisticated and erudite composers. Combining elegance; sleek, shimmering surfaces; and lopping, limpid ambiences with wonderful harmonic and melodic invention -- not to mention a great cast of soloists -- there's no wonder why Mr. Blanchard is Spike Lee's chosen soundtrack composer. On Bounce, Mr. Blanchard and his septet (which includes the brilliant pianist Aaron Parks, saxophonist Brice Winston, drummer Eric Harland, B3 and Fender Rhodes maestro Robert Glasper, guitarist Lionel Loueke, and bassist Brandon Owens) explore various sides of the Latin music experience while not making a "Latin" record per se. Blanchard seems to be interested in the colorations of rhythm on his own modern creative and post-bop experiments in texture, structure, and musical elasticity. And these tunes do stretch into melodic arenas he's never explored before. Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than the achingly beautiful "Passionate Courage," where a long, slow opening statement form the horns moves in linear fashion to engage both piano and Rhodes at different junctures as they wander at a luxuriant pace through shaded key signatures and satiny harmonic figures, and engage counterpoint without actually delving into it. On "Azania," Owens' bass creates the Afro-Cuban motif that is gently funked up by Glasper on B3. Finally, the African side of the rhythm becomes dominant with chanted vocals by Loueke and the tune moves into Abdullah Ibrahim's brand of township jazz, while never straying from the blues all that much. Remarkable. Ultimately, Bounce is the most perfectly paced of all of Blanchard's recordings. He divides his time between tempos, but always comes back to silence to ground himself and begin over. In terms of his lyrical lines, they have never been in a sense more simple or more sophisticated (check out the blissed-out harmonics in "Innocence"), where the individual players become identified by their ensemble contributions first and then as soloists. Mr. Blanchard's own soling has never been more restrained or more profound. In his economy of phrase, entire sound worlds become evident that were never noticeable before. On Bounce, Blanchard proves that he is the trumpet player, composer, and bandleader who is moving jazz, albeit at his own pace, in new directions that encompass both a new look at Western musical systems and never leave the human heart out of the equation. This is his masterpiece thus far and a high-water mark for anybody else to follow. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
People I Know, director Dan Algrant's film of Jon Robin Baitz's screenplay about a fading New York press agent played by Al Pacino, had trouble getting out of the gate due to unforeseen circumstances after being filmed in early 2001. It wasn't so much the fantasy shot of the World Trade Center on its side hallucinated by the main character, which was easy to edit out after September 11, 2001, as it was the film's themes of corruption and political intrigue -- and its implicit criticism of suddenly sanctified New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani -- that no longer felt right after the terrorist attacks. Finally, the film was given an American theatrical release in the spring of 2003, though its commercial chances had long since been compromised. That's too bad for Terence Blanchard. The jazz trumpeter moved into film scoring with a series of efforts for director Spike Lee, starting with 1991's Jungle Fever, and he gradually made his way to more mainstream features, though his choices have been unfortunate. (He scored the disastrous Mariah Carey film Glitter, for instance.) That can be the fate of film composers, and if People I Know is another misfire, it's not because the music doesn't work. Blanchard has a good sense of the movie's odd mixture of thriller and social criticism, and while his score has the expected jazz accents, it also employs strong orchestral passages to underlie the dramatic elements. Jon Hendricks turns in excellent performances of "Bye Bye Blackbird" and his own composition "Nothing to Me" (featuring the phrase "It's just some people I know"), and Rickie Lee Jones' version of the former is borrowed from her 1991 Pop Pop album. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
'Let's Get Lost: The Songs of Jimmy McHugh'
Release Date 5/22/2001
Tracks 11
Label Sony
See Album Tracklist and Review
