Terence Blanchard

Terence Blanchard – Let’s Get Lost (2001) SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

SACD / DSD By admin · October 31, 2023 · Comments off

Like George Gershwin and Cole Porter, the music of Jimmy McHugh is an essential part of the American popular song canon, and jazz musicians have always been the canon’s greatest interpreters. On this CD, New Orleans-born trumpeter Terence Blanchard delivers fresh renditions of McHugh’s songs with four of the brightest singers on the scene. The cool Canadian chanteuse Diana Krall tickles the title track with her Shirley Horn-like vocals and pianisms, while Jane Monheit graces the ballad “Too Young to Go Steady” and the bouncy “I Can’t Give You Anything but Love” with her quiet-storm phrasing. Dianne Reeves’s powerful voice imbues “I Can’t Believe You’re in Love with Me” and the midtempo “Can’t Get Out of This Mood” with new emotional colors. Cassandra Wilson’s down-South delivery transforms “Don’t Blame Me” and “Sunny Side of the Street” into slow-drag and tango-tinged numbers. Blanchard’s instrumental versions of “You’re a Sweetheart” and “Lost in a Fog,” with the tenor saxophonist Brice Winston, are lyrical in their own jazzy ways.

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Terence Blanchard, The E-Collective – Live (2018) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · October 16, 2023 · Comments off

USA Fellow and five-time Grammy-winning trumpeter/composer Terence Blanchard has been a consistent artistic force for making powerful musical statements concerning painful American tragedies – past and present. With his band The E-Collective he addresses the staggering cyclical epidemic of gun violence in America with his new album “Live” – 7 powerful songs recorded in concert that both reflect the bitter frustration of the conscious masses while also providing a balm of emotional healing. With a title that carries a pointed double meaning, the album is an impassioned continuation of the band’s GRAMMY-nominated 2015 studio recording, “Breathless”…

The music of Live was symbolically culled from concerts performed at venues in three communities that have experienced escalating conflicts between law enforcement and African American citizens: The Dakota in Minneapolis (near where Philando Castile was pulled over and shot by a cop on July 6, 2016); The Bop Stop in Cleveland (near where 12-year-old Tamir Rice was shot by police on November 22, 2014); and the Wyly Theatre in Dallas (near where police officers Lorne Ahrens, Michael Krol, Michael Smith, Brent Thompson and Patricio Zamarripa were assassinated while on duty covering a peaceful Black Lives Matter protest on July 7-8, 2016). The E-Collective’s Live project condemns gun violence of all manner whether against profiled citizens of color or targeted members of law enforcement.

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Terence Blanchard feat. The E-Collective – Breathless (2015) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · October 16, 2023 · Comments off

Terence Blanchard’s 2013 return to Blue Note, Magnetic, built upon his decades-long history of post-bop dynamism with a forward-thinking approach that blended edgy, modal improvisation with a sophisticated, genre-crossing compositional style. It was a concept he had been investigating on his previous efforts Bounce (2003), Flow (2005), and Choices (2009), and, though it had been years since Blanchard was considered a young lion, the eclecticism of the album matched the work of many of his younger contemporaries like trumpeter Christian Scott and pianist Robert Glasper, the latter of whom even played on Bounce. In keeping with this boundary-pushing trajectory, Blanchard’s follow-up, 2015’s Breathless, finds the New Orleans native jumping wholeheartedly into a funky stew of R&B, hip-hop, and fusion-influenced jazz. Blanchard is joined here by his band the E-Collective, an adroit group of young players centered around gifted keyboardist Fabian Almazan, the only carry-over from the Magnetic sessions. Along with Almazan, the E-Collective features Charles Altura (guitar), Donald Ramsey (bass), and Oscar Seaton (drums). Also showcased throughout is vocalist PJ Morton, who has released his own R&B- and contemporary gospel-infused albums and toured as a keyboardist with the pop group Maroon 5. Ambitious, adventurous, and steeped in the kind of sticky, psychedelic jazz-funk pioneered by trumpeter Miles Davis in the ’70s, Breathless is Blanchard’s most electrified album to date. While Blanchard has long drawn comparisons to Davis, they’ve mostly referenced the iconic trumpeter’s classic quintet sides from the late ’60s and not his effects-drenched fusion period. Similarly, while on previous efforts Blanchard has flirted with an electronic sound, he’s never gone this far in a contemporary jazz direction. Here we get a very ’90s hip-hop/jazz-infused reworking of Les McCann’s classic 1969 socio-political anthem “Compared to What,” several languid, new agey spoken word pieces with Morton, and some expansive, groove-oriented cuts like the bluesy midtempo “See Me as I Am” that allow for plenty of spaced-out solos. Also intriguing are Morton’s several slow jam vocal numbers, including an inspired cover of Hank Williams’ “I Ain’t Got Nothin’ But Time,’ which replaces the country legend’s cowboy twang and fiddles with sweeping, Stevie Wonder-esque orchestral synth backgrounds. Also compelling is the languid, dreamy ballad “Everglades,” which impossibly balances Debussy-influenced impressionism with angular, synthy, ’80s electro-funk. Ultimately, while Breathless is a break from the aggressive, acoustic swing that has marked much of Blanchard’s career, it nonetheless retains all the jaw-dropping artistry and soulful creativity we have come to expect, albeit delivered in a vibrant, electric style. –Matt Collar

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Terence Blanchard – The Comedian (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (2017) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · October 16, 2023 · Comments off

Terence Blanchard has composed the original music for the comedy drama „The Comedian“. The film is directed by Taylor Hackford (Ray, An Officer and a Gentleman, The Devil’s Advocate, Dolores Claiborne) and stars Robert De Niro, Leslie Mann, Danny DeVito, Edie Falco, Veronica Ferres, Charles Grodin, Patti LuPone, Cloris Leachman, Lois Smith and Harvey Keitel. The movie revolves around a comic icon trying to reinvent himself with the audience only wanting to know him as the former TV character he once played. Art Linson (Fight Club, Heat), Jeff Ross, Richard LaGravenese (The Horse Whisperer, The Fisher King) and Lewis Friedman (BASEketball) have written the screenplay. Hackford and Linson are also producing the project with John Linson (Lords of Dogtown), Mark Canton (300, Immortals) and Courtney Solomon (Cake, Mr. Church). The Comedian will premiere next month at the AFI Film Festival and receive an awards-qualifying release later this year before opening nationwide.

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Terence Blanchard – Magnetic (2013) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · October 16, 2023 · Comments off

Magnetic is the highly anticipated album by Terence Blanchard. The jazz legend is joined by his quintet which includes saxophonist Brice Winston, pianist Fabian Almazan, bassist Joshua Crumbly and drummer Kendrick Scott. The recording features ten originals written by Blanchard or a member of his quintet. It also showcases special appearances by bass legend Ron Carter, saxophonist Ravi Coltrane and guitarist Lionel Loueke. Magnetic is another genre-defying chapter in this innovative musician’s illustrious career. The vast array of approaches undertaken by the ensemble throughout the album is striking, from the blistering bop of “Don’t Run” to the fragile ballad “Jacob’s Ladder.”

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Terence Blanchard – Absence (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · October 16, 2023 · Comments off

Wayne Shorter’s saxophone was so omnipresent throughout jazz’s waves of upheaval in the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s that it would have been easy to mistake the man for the type of standard bearer that kept the genre anchored to its roots while iconoclasts were busy pushing boundaries. There he was with Art Blakey, there he was with Miles, there he was on Blue Note, there he was with Weather Report. However, in all of those scenarios, Shorter was absolutely not there to provide a grounding assist; instead, he was often one of the primary people (if not the only person) whose daring compositional prowess and improvisational innovation was a defining factor in that music’s spectacular uniqueness. To be fair, Shorter is the recipient of all sorts of readers’ poll victories, lifetime achievement awards, Grammys, and effusive praise from his musical contemporaries and descendants, so while he is far from being some well-kept secret, any opportunity to spotlight his contributions is a good one. And in that spirit, trumpeter Terence Blanchard’s latest album is designed as a tribute to Shorter’s genius and influence. Interestingly, only five of the 12 tracks here are Shorter compositions-“The Elders,” “Fall,” “When It Was Now,” “Diana,” and “More Elders”-while the others were penned by Blanchard and members of the jazz quartet E-Collective, who back Blanchard on the album, alongside the strings of the Turtle Island Quartet.

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