One of the greatest jazz trumpeters, Terence Blanchard, is in town, and that’s reason enough to interrupt my series of postings on the Cape Town New Year’s Carnival. He’ll perform with the University of Virginia’s student jazz band on Saturday evening. (More information here.) I made the photos below during his rehearsal with the jazz band, yesterday afternoon. Blanchard--with his rich, earthy sound and amazing sense of time--sounded terrific. And, as you can see, everyone was in a great mood.
Blanchard is a four-time Grammy award winner and the artistic director of the the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance, at Loyola University, New Orleans.
PS: I’ve just come back from a seminar on music in film that Blanchard led, this afternoon, in the music department, at the University of Virginia. It reminded me, very powerfully, that I should have mentioned his work as a composer. His compositions have been recorded by the leading jazz performers of our time. At the same time, he’s been especially successful film, composing music for over 25 movies, including Spike Lee’s Malcolm X and Miracle at St. Anna.
I should also have said something about the incredibly positive energy that Blanchard radiates. I saw it, yesterday, when he was rehearsing with the student jazz band, and today, during the seminar. I’d been in a funk since I got out of bed, but his energy, optimism, creativity, and good humor pulled me right out of it.
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