It is 41 years since US trumpeter Terence Blanchard first took to the stage at London’s Ronnie Scott’s. In 1982, Blanchard was a young upstart from New Orleans touring fast-paced bebop and heady swing with elder statesman Art Blakey. In the years since, he has established his own incisive tone on the horn, regularly collaborating with Herbie Hancock, as well as earning two Oscar nominations for his Spike Lee film scores and, in 2021, becoming the first Black composer have an opera at New York’s Metropolitan with Fire Shut Up in My Bones.
Returning to the basement of Ronnie’s tonight, Blanchard harnesses his decades of experience as a sideman and composer to lead an unusual and expansive ensemble, featuring his groove-focused E-Collective group as well as the jazz-classical Turtle Island String Quartet.
Read the review in the Guardian.
[This piece was published on 26/02/23]