It should come to no surprise to anyone who visits my site regularly that I am a big Terence Blanchard fan. The man has one of the most original sounds on trumpet and his talent does not stop there. He writes exciting music and is currently working with some of the best young voices in jazz. Lump that with his work in film and you can understand why I think he is a master musician. There was no way he was going to come to Blues Alley and I not be there to hear him. I purchased his new album Flow the day hit the stores on June 7th. It took me a few times listening to connect with the music but I found a lot of things about it that I liked. I was anxious to hear some of the tunes performed live.

I managed to make it to one set on Friday and two sets of his Saturday performance. The Friday performance was great but the Saturday performance was absolutely electric. Terence and his group played a mix of tunes from Bounce along with the new material from Flow. The interesting thing to me was the tunes that I did not care for on Flow became my favorites once I heard them performed live.  It was as if I could understand what they were trying to do as a group.  “Wadagbe” didn’t touch me on the CD but the African rhythms leapt out to me when performed at Blues Alley.  “Over There” actually sounded a touch corny to me on CD but after hearing Terence’s explanation of what it was about – it took on a completely different meaning.  It is now one of my favorite tunes.  I actually got watery eyed listening to it (I’m really becoming a punk in my old age).

The group as a whole sounded great.  Terence was powerful and as usual – extremely expressive.  One of the things I love about his playing is the emotional content contained within each and every note.  His solo on “Over There” was absolutely amazing.  The silence in the audience told me that everyone was hanging on every tone that rolled out of the bell of his horn.  It was beautiful.  The real star of the night to me was Kendrick Scott.  He got sounds and rhythms out of his drum set that I never dreamed possible.  There was an older gentleman sitting next to me and he proclaimed during one of the drum solos that Kendrick was the best drummer he had ever heard (those were not his exact words — this is a family web site).  It was hard to argue that proclamation.  In his autobiography, Miles Davis spoke of how easy it is to “get off” on the music if you have a great drummer.  Dizzy Gillespie described the drum and trumpet as cousins.  I totally agree with both assessments… nothing fires me up like an interesting beat.  Kendrick kept it interesting and most importantly – in the pocket all night.

After the first set we got to speak with Terence, take a picture and get an autograph.  He was really cool and actually remember my wife and I from a performance at the Kennedy Center ( I probably never mentioned this in my journal entries but he played a song for us in honor of our tenth wedding anniversary.  It was really special).   He talked about how good it felt to be on Blue Note and how he was doing the type of music that he always wanted to do.    When we mentioned that we were disappointed in not being able to stay for the second set (it was sold out) he pulled some strings and got us in!  Thanks Alexia!  😉

All in all – a memorable weekend.  This performance was just what the doctor ordered for me.  After my performance at the birthday gig – I was feeling a bit down about where I am as a player.  Hearing Terence play reminded me of why I picked up the instrument to begin with.  Hopefully I can hang on that feeling — I’ve got another playing gig this weekend.

Before I close this journal entry I have to send a special thanks to Russ Johnson for his encouraging words.  They came at a great time and considering they came from an amazing player like him — they meant a lot.  Thanks Russ.  Save Big is ordered and on the way!