Terence Blanchard

Terence Blanchard

Terence Blanchard is an American trumpeter and score composer from New Orleans, Louisiana. Born in 1962, he works across jazz, hard bop and post-bop, and is also active as a bandleader, composer and arranger. He is associated with Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers, the Terence Blanchard Group, The E-Collective, Harrison & Blanchard and Orquestra Was.

Career

Blanchard is known for a long career in jazz that begins in the 1980s, when he establishes himself as one of the leading trumpet players in the genre. He works with a number of major jazz figures and develops an African-fusion approach to trumpet playing that sets his style apart.

He also becomes widely known as a film-score composer. His trumpet appears on nearly fifty film scores, and around forty of these carry his own compositional work. This part of his career brings him to a wider audience and becomes an important part of his reputation as a musician.

Role and activity

Blanchard is described as the most prolific jazz musician to compose for motion pictures. He also serves as Artistic Director at the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz at USC in Los Angeles.