Few jazz artists are able to cross the barrier between playing bona fide and creative jazz while also able to communicate musically with the mainstream world. Terence Blanchard has been able to live in these two world due to his wide range of skills. His trumpet talents have taken him from Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers to where he now is the leader of a band that is it’s own “jazz school,” discovering and sending out artists like guitarist Lionel Loueke. As a composer, he has reached millions of ears by creating soundtracks for films such as Spike Lee’s “ Malcom X” as well as “Miracle at St. Anna.” His album about the Katrina disaster, as well as disastrous political fallout, was documented on his Grammy winning “A Tale Of God’s Will,” while his last album “Choices” featured intriguing dialogue by spiritual philosopher Cornell West. His newest release is a swinging collaboration with Poncho Sanchez that is a tip of the hat to Dizzy Gillespie and Chano Pozo.
We caught up with Blanchard to see where he’s come from, and where he’s going.
LET’S START AT THE BEGINNING. HOW DID YOU LAND IN ART BLAKEY’S BAND
Wynton (Marsalis) was the guy leaving the band, and he asked me to come by to play the audition with Donald Harrison, and we did.
WHAT DID YOU LEARN FROM BEING UNDER BLAKEY’S TUTLEGE?
How long is the interview? (Laughs) The main thing I learned is to be honest with what you do musically. Music has to be connected to who you are as a person. It also has to be played honestly for people to feel something from it. To do that, you have to be vulnerable. That’s the word macho men hate to use!
WHEN DID YOU ACHIEVE THAT?
I’m still looking for it. I don’t know if I’ll ever accomplish it. Hopefully ,I will. There are moments that I have where you feel good about it. My teacher always used to say, “Be gratified, but never satisfied.”
HOW DID YOU GO FROM PERFORMING JAZZ TO WRITING SOUNDTRACKS?
Spike (Lee) called me to be on some of his earlier stuff. He heard me play piano on one of his sessions, he liked the tune that I was playing, and asked me if he could use it. We recorded it as a solo trumpet piece, and once he shot it and looked at it, he asked me if I could write a string arrangement for it. I lied, and of course said yes. Things just kind of progressed from there.
BUT, YOU ALSO COMPOSED WITH BLAKEY
Composition was always something that I’ve been geared towards. In fact, when Spike asked me that particular question, I immediately called my composition teacher here, Roger Dickenson. He’s my mentor and like a family member, because I’ve been studying with him since I was 15 years old. He basically told me, “Hey, man, just trust your training. You know what you’re doing, so just go ahead and write.” That was probably some of the best advice I could’ve received, because I was just so scared. Those words were what just made me kind of relax and do what I did, and Spike kept me around.
YOU ALSO DO PHILANTHROPIC WORK FOR NEW ORLEANS
We try wherever we can. We brought The Monk Institute here for four years before they just moved back to Los Angeles. We brought them here for four years because of the community service that work that they were doing. My wife is on a bunch of boards here, and we always try to help around the city.
But, you know, in the political world, you just get a little tired. I’m trying to figure out other avenues of helping out for myself right now. The political environment in this country right now is one that I really don’t want to be a part of, because it really doesn’t seem about getting much done.
THERE ARE NO SAVIORS IN POLITICS
No, there aren’t any. You look at Roosevelt or at Kennedy. You think about a lot of people in our history and there were moments in time, like Lincoln, who had to just go against the tide, and do what’s best for the country. It’s rough to look at it now,as I was watching something on MSNBC today, and everyone was wondering why these Republicans were so headstrong about their positions when it had nothing to do with helping poor people or the disenfranchised. Then, one of the politicians said, “At the end of the day, they say, “look, those guys aren’t going to vote for my, so why should I be concerned about them.” That’s a very cold approach to public service…I don’t want to absolve the Democrats by any stretch of the imagination. The whole system is corrupt.
I see all of these people all around the world protesting. I support them 100%, but at this particular time that is why I’m dropping out of that kind of world. I’d rather do things with people of like minds. Just doing things from my own vantage point to help the community, and not look to the government for help.
I’ll tell you one more story. A friend of mine wanted to help rebuild a park. He got an estimate for it, got all of the people like electricians and plumbers involved, got the donations to help rebuild it. Got donations to rebuild it, it would cost him $60,000 to do it. The next thing you know, he ran it by someone at city hall, and he said, “Oh, you can’t use THAT electrician, you have to use this electrician. You can’t use that plumber; you have to use this plumber. You can’t use that carpenter, etc.” The next thing you knew, the whole cost of the thing went up to $240,000. Just like that. That speaks to what the 99% are talking about.
IT’S INTERESTING THAT YOU BRING THAT UP, BECAUSE YOUR PREVIOUS ALBUM, CHOICES, HAS CORNELL WEST DISCUSSING SIMILAR ISSUES. HOW DID YOU LINK UP WITH HIM?
I’ve always been a fan, and I met him here in New Orleans a few years ago. When I decided to do that album, I knew that he was the person that I needed. He was the one p erson who could talk exactly about what we were trying to say. I didn’t want to do it through songs; I wanted to create a discussion about the choices that we make in this country.
See, the thing that’s interesting about the 99% People is that they’ve been feeling the effects. But, when tragedy strikes, like here in New Orleans with Katrina, in Texas with Rita, in Alabama with the tornados, or Tennessee, you start to see the real side of the government, how they ignore you. That’s when we were saying that the 99% is currently saying. That’s why we made the Choices album. If you look at the words that are spoken on that cd, it’s exactly the same thing that the 99% are saying.
IF YOU LOOK AT HISTORY, PEOPLE WILL BELIEVE THAT EITHER GOVERNMENT WILL SAVE YOU, OR GOD WILL SAVE YOU.
Right, and the truth of the matter is that we have to be vigilant and active ourselves. And that’s the truth that I’ve came upon. One of the things that we have to do is to be active in our own communities, do the things we have to do to strengthen our communities. Also, we have to be active in the voting process. Two of the things that I hope comes out of this whole thing is that I hope people will create their own banks. I really do hope they create their own banking system, and we can just put our money into it. Because, logic doesn’t work with these guys. The other thing that I hope comes out of this is a third party.
LINCOLN’S REPUBLICAN PARTY WAS INITIALLY A “THIRD PARTY”
Exactly.
THERE’S SOMETHING I TEACH THE KIDS AT OUR CHURCH. IT’S A COMBINATION; YOU PRAISE GOD, BUT YOU STILL HAVE TO ROW TOWARDS SHORE.
I always believe that God will help you, but you have to help yourself also.
HOW DID THIS LATEST DISC WITH PONCHO SANCHEZ COME ABOUT?
I’ve been a big fan of Poncho for a number of years. I played on one of his earlier records, and as soon as he contacted me about the project I said “Sure! I’m on board; just let me know when!” I’ve always loved his band.
YOU’VE GOT THE SAME MAGIC TOUCH AS ART BLAKEY WHEN IT COMES TO DISCOVERING TALENT
That’s the thing people are starting to say about me. I don’t know if that means I’m getting old or what!! You don’t know if that’s a complement or the kiss of death! I’ve that from Art. One of the things about being with Art Blakey is that when we joined the band, we joined the band wanting to revisit the old Blakey music. But he said “Oh, NO!” That was his way of pushing forward, to keep the young and fresh ideas coming his way, so HE could learn. I remember Art Blakey told me something one time, you’ll never believe this, but he said, ”Man, a band needs to get to the point when it can just walk on stage and improvise a tune, just from scratch and just start playing.” Most people would never even think that Art Blakey would think along those lines. But I remember having that conversation with him.
WHEN YOU GET GUYS LIKE LIONEL LOUEKE IN YOUR BAND, WHAT DO YOU TRY TO PASS ON TO THEM BEFORE THEY MOVE ON?
The same thing. Just be honest with yourself and be forthright. One of the tricks, one of the things that’s really rough about being a jazz musician, is that we have so much reverence for our history, sometimes we feel that it’s sacrilege to try and step out on your own. And the thing that I try to tell these guys is, “No, that’s what you’re here to do.” You respect the history by learning it, and understanding the language. But that’s different. Sometimes we put guilt on a musician because they don’t learn the history. That’s not what I’m talking about; you have to know the history. But what try to tell these guys is that “Listen, there’s certain things that you do naturally. Let’s build upon those things to help develop your own style. “ And they may not be the same things that you heard on the record. I was talking to Kendrick Scott about some concepts, and he asked me what records he could go to listen to this stuff. I told him, “None. You’ve got to figure it out on your own.”
THE BEGINNING OF JAZZ DIDN’T HAVE “A HISTORY.” THEY JUST CREATED IT.
I think that whole thing came out because, and it’s a valid assertion, because those early musicians weren’t being respected in the broad spectrum of the music world. So, they were simply fighting for their own identity. While they had their own musical identity, America wasn’t exactly saying at the time “Oh, this is the greatest thing since the invention of the wheel.” So, these early guys had to toot their own horns, per se, by talking about their heroes and bringing up their importance and how important it is to continue that legacy, which is very true. I think where it got misconstrued is where you had young talent that came along and didn’t follow the status quo, or didn’t know the history in order to further the music. That’s where it gets twisted.
THAT’S HOW JAZZ CAN TURN INTO CLASSICAL MUSIC. JUST REPLAYING THE SAME OLD STUFF.
Right, and people get my ideas and theories about this wrong. They think that I’m against history. That’s not true. I think that you have to know where the music comes from. The only thing that I say is that you can’t live in the past.
Trying to keep the music moving forward is what we try to keep in the forefront of our minds. One of the big revelations of our band was when we did the album a few years ago that Herbie Hancock produced for us on Blue Note, Float. We were in the studio recording, and we were paying so much homage to Herbie, Miles and all those guys, and Herbie said “Look, man, who plays like you guys? Who plays like this band? You guys need to have a sound and thing all your own.” It made us realize that it was ok to do what we were doing. So Herbie was telling us to keep pushing forward.
Then, I did a tour with Herbie after that. During the tour, I’ll never forget…it was with Kendrick Scott on drums, James Genus on bass and Lionel Loueke. We were doing a sound check one day, cause we had done a new arrangement of “Speak Like A Child,” but during the sound check Herbie started playing the old classic Blue Note version, and while he was playing it, we were going, “Whew! That’s it” We were loving it. Herbie wasn’t paying attention to us, but we were just grooving to the sound check. And, when he stopped, he said, “Man, that sounds so old to me. It just feels so old.” And we go, “Yeah, Herbie, right, that was old!” Ha! That let us know that this guy could still play in that genre, and play in that vibe, but that’s just not where he is anymore. You have to keep growing.
YOU’RE GOING TO BE PLAYING WITH PONCHO AT THE DISNEY HALL. HOW MUCH REHEARSAL DO YOU NEED FOR THAT
Ah, playing with those guys has been such a joy. We play together on that album, and the next thing you know, Poncho calls a tour, and we’re just off an playing and do our thing. The thing about it is that you can’t just go out and jam like that with everybody. You have to have like minds.
As the Bible says, “Can two walk together unless they are in agreement?” Blanchard has made a successful career out of teaming up with people of like minds, and creating some of the most imaginative music of this generation, be it on the silver screen or in a jazz concert hall. Either way, taking in his music is a memorable experience. Check out his material, and see the future of jazz