TrumpetBoy

On a chilly Sunday night we headed downtown towards Times Square. Our destination for the evening was to be the Iridium Jazz Club in it’s most recent incarnation at Broadway and 51st St. It promised to be a special occasion. We were going to watch Terence Blanchard on the last day of his first New York engagement in a few years.

Terence Blanchard is a Trumpet player, originally from New Orleans, who came to prominence in the 1980s as a member of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. He blazed a trail during the late ’80s and early ’90s proving himself a fiery Hardbop soloist in a variety of groups, both under his own name and in tandem with Alto Saxophonist; Donald Harrison. During the ’90s he stepped back from the Jazz scene and instead forged a parallel career as a Film Score composer for many movies including most of Spike Lee’s, beginning with the well renowned "Mo’ Better Blues". In the last few years his work as a Jazz musician has seen something of a renaissance and has culminated in a new record deal with Blue Note Records. His first Blue Note release; "Bounce", was one of my favourite CDs of 2004 and features Terence and his young band burning through a selection of intricate yet soulful Modern Jazz. It was with suitable anticipation that we took our seats at the Iridium.

Unfortunately we were to be disappointed. While technically able, Terence Blanchard’s young musicians produced what can most politely be described as tepid "groove-jazz". There was nothing exciting about the performance and very little that was even interesting. Most disappointing was that Mr. Blanchard himself hardly played, at least comparatively to his sidemen. When he did play he displayed the musical characteristics we grow to expect from him; he has a beautiful sound on the Trumpet and an impressive facility coupled with a vocabulary of bluesy smears and swoops. He was at his best of the set during the ballad "Memory of a Flame", written by pianist Aaron Parks who also contributed a pleasant introduction but, in general, left me wanting much more by the end of the evening.

During the course of introducing the band (who are listed below), Terence Blanchard mentioned that they had recently completed their 2nd Blue Note CD. If, as he suggested, the music we heard and watched on this occasion is indicative of the content of this new album I, for one, will not be wasting any more money on it. This gig surprised and saddened me. After so many years of enjoying somebody’s music on record, there are few things worse than being so let down by their live performance.

Location:

"The Iridium", Broadway & 51st St, New York

Musicians:

• Terence Blanchard - Trumpet
• Brice Winston - Tenor Saxophone
• Lionel Loueke - Guitar
• Aaron Parks - Piano
• Derrick Hodge - Double Bass
• Kendrick Scott - Drums