Jazz Monthly.com Interview with Terence Blanchard

“Jazz Monthly Feature Interview” Terence Blanchard

Smitty: When you talk about horn players, you must include my next guest. He has a great new project out. It is called Flow and let me tell you, it is some kind of vibe. My friends, please welcome the amazing and brilliant Mr. Terence Blanchard. Terence, how ya doin’?

Terence Blanchard (TB): I’m fine, Smitty. How ya doin’, man?

Smitty: Wonderful. All right, so you’ve gotta be excited about this record. Flow is a great mix of music, man.

TB: Oh, thank you, thank you. I mean, for us it was a….it’s a great project because the guy that gave us a chance to just kinda document where the band was at that particular moment in time. It’s not a concept record; it’s not a niche record where we’re trying to market with anybody; it’s just really what the band was into musically and we got a chance to put it down. I was gonna say wax, but put it down on hard disc.

Smitty: (Both laughing.) Yeah, I know where you’re coming from.

TB: Yeah.

Smitty: And it’s a fantastic…. I think that’s a brilliant thing too because when you’re in the moment and you want to express yourself in that moment, you’ve gotta do it right then.

TB: Right. Well, that’s the whole thing about playing jazz that I’ve always loved. That’s what I’ve always been fascinated by, the fact that the music itself allows for that type of expression and that type of freedom. And the real good band that I have, these guys are very unique, very honest musicians who have like a constant free-flowing of ideas, and the only drag with this record is that we didn’t get a chance to put multiple takes of tunes on the CD because then people could see how differently these guys will play from take to take.

Smitty: Yeah, yeah. Well, it’s a great band and we really get a real good feel for the band with this record. It’s unbelievable.

TB: Thank you, thank you.

Smitty: You’ve got some great players here, man. But talk a little bit about Terence Blanchard and the horn, man. How did you get introduced to the horn?

TB: It all happened, man, with a guy named Alvin Elkhorn in New Orleans when I was in elementary school studying piano. I’d been playing piano since I was about five years old and this local musician came to my school and gave a demonstration in New Orleans style music, and his name was Alvin Elkhorn. And I remember the first time I heard him play, I kept saying to myself “Man, that’s really what I wanna do,” and I went home and I told my father….I was in fourth grade at the time (laughs)….I told my father, I said “Dad, I think I wanna play the trumpet,” and he had just got a piano in the house for me to practice on, so he wasn’t too enthused about it.

Smitty: (Laughs.) I can imagine. Man oh man. But, you know, the horn is a lot more portable than that piano.

TB: Oh yeah, yes indeed. I was thankful for that. But the thing about him is that he was really cool with it after a while.

Smitty: Yeah.

TB: And the odd thing about it, man, you know, a few years after that, you know, we were at a stoplight and I said “Dad,” I said….in the car next to us was the guy. I said “Dad, that’s the guy who came to my school,” and my father said “Oh, man, that’s Al,” and so my father rolled down the window and he said “Hey, Al, this is my son. He wants to learn how to play jazz. He wants to know if you can teach him how to play jazz,” and Al said “No, he’s gotta learn that on his own.”

Smitty: (Laughs.)

TB: And I was crushed, man. I was really crushed.

Smitty: (Laughs.) Well, you did it.

TB: Oh, thank you.

Smitty: Oh, man, did you ever. If he….I hope he’s had an opportunity to see you now. Wow.

TB: Well, no, he’s passed on and I never really got a chance to talk to him after that.

Smitty: Oh.

TB: ‘Cause I had moved to New York and he died while I was living in New York.

Smitty: Oh, wow. Well, now, talk a little bit about growing up in New Orleans and what that was like musically and what an influence that has been on you even down to this day now.

TB: The thing about growing up in New Orleans is that there’s so many different styles of music that’s being played that are actually part of the New Orleans sound that you don’t even realize it until you grow up, you know what I mean? Because there’s the very traditional jazz sound that’s part of the Louis Armstrong history. Then there’s also the street musicians who have lended a great deal to brass playing or the brass band style of playing. Then you have, like the Meters, the Funky Meters, those guys who came along and did all of that stuff; Professor Longhair, who did a lot for the piano itself. And for us it was just all a part of the New Orleans stuff and you never really realize how vast it is until you actually start to talk about it and start to have to explain it to people.

Smitty: Yeah, yeah, it is just a Mecca.

TB: But the thing about it that was great for us is that being a jazz musician is that, you know, in hearing all of those sounds or all of those styles and then going home and listening to Miles Davis, one could readily hear that there was an evolution in the music, that the music went from period to the next, that it wasn’t this kind of stagnant thing, and in order to understand that, our entry into the business meant that we were a part of the continuum and that it was very encumbered upon us to kinda take things to the next level or to try to be ourselves or to try to move on but, in any case, not to try to stand still in one spot.

Smitty: Yeah, and you never want to stand still in one spot That’s cool, man. And I think it takes a great musician and a great ear and a great love for music to realize that you don’t want to stand still but you’ve seen the evolution of the music over the years and you realize that you’ve gotta move on to the next level. I think that’s a beautiful thing.

TB: Well, it is. I mean, you know, I feel very blessed to have had that experience here in New Orleans. Another thing I’m gonna tell you that’s really great is that the guys that I grew up listening to are all guys who never really made a lot of money but they did it because they loved it and they were very passionate and dedicated to it. So I didn’t grow up with this sense of being a musician to make money. I grew up with a sense of being a musician because you purely loved the music and wanted to be a part of that culture.

Smitty: Yes, man. Oh, you don’t know how much I love to hear you say that because when it comes from that deep within, then the rest takes care of itself.

TB: Yeah.

Smitty: You’ve gotta have that deep love from within to create great music and to enjoy it, and then anything else that comes along is a bonus.

TB: Yeah, I know, and that’s the thing because with me all your decisions are made totally based on your passion for music, not anything else. I mean, I grew up listening to guys, man, who made no money, but when I would go hear them in the French Quarter, they were constantly talking about music and that was my orientation into the business and I feel very blessed to have met those guys and to have the experience of their personalities musically growing up in the city.

Smitty: That’s a beautiful thing. You have been a very blessed man because you have played with some of the greats like Clifford Brown and Freddie Hubbard and Herbie Hancock. In fact, Herbie’s on this project. Talk about your experience of working with some of these cats and how that has really enhanced your career and your craft.

TB: Well, working with those guys has been amazing because Herbie Hancock, I mean, he’s a legend. And when it came time for us to do the project and he agreed to do it, I was just totally floored that he agreed to do it, but having him in the studio, man, it was a great thing, but even prior to that I’d been working with them at the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz (Performance), along with Wayne Shorter and Ron Carter, are all on the board and periodically whenever we’ve had certain types of auditions or different types of affairs, fundraisers or whatever, I would get a chance to speak to these guys and talk to them about music and get to know them, and that’s been a great learning experience. And then couple that with having Herbie produce the record and having him there to talk about our music was just a godsend. Every day we would record from ten in the morning to ten at night and then we would just hang out and talk to this cat until 2 a.m.

Smitty: Wow.

TB: He was always asking us questions, simple questions like “Who plays like you guys? So why worry about it?” You know what I mean?

Smitty: Yes.

TB: “Just go ahead and do your thing.” And that was a great motivating force to have around us at that particular point in time in our development because as a group we knew that we were having fun playing what we were doing, but to have a guy like that come along and then just kinda validate what you’re doing was really great for everybody involved.

Smitty: Yes indeed. He (Herbie Hancock) had a very nice compliment for you and I’m sure you’ve heard this, but I’m just gonna quote Herbie Hancock. He said of you, “One of the most exciting working bands in jazz today,” speaking of you and your band. What a compliment from a legend.

TB: Well, sir, that’s a great compliment, man. I mean, coming from a person who’s also had great bands. (Laughs.)

Smitty: Yeah.

TB: Know what I mean? I mean, not only is he a great musician, but he’s very much in line with that Miles Davis legacy of having great musicians in the group as well.

Smitty: Oh, man, yeah. Speaking of this band, do me a favor and just introduce the band and talk about these great cats, if you would.

TB: Well, I gotta start with Lionel Loueke because he’s one of our former students at the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz. He’s a guitarist who is from Benin, a small town called Cortino in Benin, and he’s just been a great addition to the group. He’s the type of musician who’s a visionary and innovator. While he’s very well versed in the tradition of jazz, that’s really not what he’s about. He’s all about fusing his heritage, his homeland’s music with the traditional forms of jazz, which makes for a unique mix and an interesting style. Brice Winston is a tenor saxophone player who’s from Tucson, Arizona, who’s been in the band the longest and he’s probably one of the most underrated guys in the band. He’s a brilliant musician, he has an amazing sound, amazing approach to improvisation, and he’s also a great writer, as you can hear on his tune “Child’s Play.” But when you listen to him play on Lionel’s tune “Wadagbe,” you can tell that this guy is a force to be reckoned with.

Kendrick Scott, the drummer in the band, I met him when he was 17 at the Betty Carter Jazz and Education Program, and he was just simply amazing then because I remember I went and heard the band that he was playing with and they were playing one of his compositions and I kept saying “Well, man, who wrote the tune?” And they said “The drummer,” and I was just totally floored. So not only is he a great composer, but he also brings that compositional style to the way that he plays the drums in terms of how he orchestrates his accompaniment playing on certain parts of the drums that creates certain sounds for different solos. Aaron Parks is a young pianist from Seattle, Washington. Kendrick is from Houston, by the way.

Smitty: All right!

TB: Aaron joined the band when he was 18. He was a college graduate at the time, but I met him along with Kendrick at that Betty Carter Jazz and Education Program, and Aaron was 15 at the time and he was holding his own back then. The interesting thing about Aaron’s involvement in the band is that by him being the youngest, when he joined the band he had just like a treasure trove full of compositions that he was bringing to the band, and I truly think that his involvement in bringing compositions to the band sparked curiosity for everybody else in the band ‘cause all of the other guys started to write. And he has a very rhythmic style to his compositions that are just very unique and, I think, very refreshing.

Now, Derrick Hodge is the bassist from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Derrick is the guy who I think….I’ve always referred to him as the last piece to a perfect puzzle because he’s the last guy to join this particular group, but he made such a big difference and he had such an impact on how the band would even operate. When you listen to some of the things on the album, at the inception of some of the solos, Derrick would like just shift gears and he would play certain lines and he would deviate from the established lines that were composed for the tune and next thing you know he would be off in a different direction. And he also has great ears. Because he can follow along, he can come wherever you wanna go, then I could go there with you. And he’s also a great composer, as you can hear on his tune “Over There.”

Smitty: Yeah. Man oh man. And Howard?

TB: Howard Drossin. Howard Drossin is actually a guy who does all of my orchestration in my film career and what we needed Howard to do…. Howard was more of a tech guy on this particular session because what we did was we recorded a lot of the piano stuff and some stuff that I did with a foot controller and some of the stuff that Kendrick did with the drums, we had triggers mounted on these instruments and we recorded the MIDI information so that later on I could go back in and do a bit of orchestration with electronic sounds mimicking Aaron’s comp work or some of Kendrick’s rhythmic stuff.

Smitty: Yeah, and I like Gretchen’s vocals too on “Over There.”

TB: Gretchen, it was great having her on the record because she’s also a former student at the Monk Institute.

Smitty: When I think about this band and just listening to you describe them, you guys have great synergy. I can feel that in the music too. You know, there’s a chemistry there.

TB: Well, the thing about the band is that, you know, like I said, we were struggling trying to get there, but when Derrick joined the band, it call kinda fell into place, and when people saw how attentive he was in listening to everybody’s solos, it perked everybody else up in the band, and it makes for an enjoyable experience for us every night because, you know, we’re playing the same tunes over the course of a period of months that can get a little….it can wear on you.

Smitty: Yeah, yeah.

TB: But these guys, you know, I always look forward to playing with them every night.

Smitty: Yeah. Man, this is really cool. Now, talk to me about the title Flow because I know there’s much more here than just the word.

TB: Well, yeah, the title itself is really an indication of what the band does every night because, you know, what happens is is that with this group, like I said, like I’ve been saying throughout the interview, you know, these guys are true improvisers in a true sense of that word, so when it came time to name the album….let me go back. The tune itself?

Smitty: Yeah.

TB: You know, we were running out of material for the album and we needed some extra….we needed another tune, and it was Herbie’s suggestion. Herbie said “Well, why don’t you guys just go in there and create something? Make something up. You’re jazz musicians.” (Both laughing.) You know? So that’s what we did.

Smitty: Oh.

TB: And that’s how that tune came about, so when it came time to name the tune, we were trying to find all of these titles for the tune and then my road manager, Vincent Bennett, he had been reading this book and it was all about stream of consciousness, and it talked about that flow and how artists have it, how athletes can have it, and so we just decided to call the album Flow.

Smitty: Very cool and fitting. You did a little blurb here in your liner notes about the experiences of consciousness and how flow is involved in that and the concentration and focusing on something in the moment and really feeling that experience at the time, and I think that was a fitting explanation for this record because that’s where it puts you, in that kind of consciousness of total concentration and total focus on the music and what’s happening inside.

TB: One of the best compliments, Smitty, we could’ve ever gotten was….there was a guy who came to our show in Seattle, and he came to the Sunday show, and he said that he had been there on Tuesday and Thursday, and he said when he came Thursday he wanted to just see what this band would sound like and he was surprised that the band sounded different, and he was curious to see what would happen on Sunday because he brought some friends and he was surprised to see that we were even different on Sunday night. So that was the best compliment we could’ve ever gotten because this is a guy who came to hear us three times in one week and saw essentially three different bands.

Smitty: Wow. That is a compliment, man, because you don’t hear that every day. I can tell you only a handful of bands could probably admit that they’ve heard that, and that speaks volumes for this band.

TB: Well, yeah, it’s been a great experience playing with these guys because they are constantly trying to keep themselves open to ideas and constantly trying to push the envelope, and it’s been a lot of fun.

Smitty: I can just imagine because I can just feel the energy listening to the record.

TB: Right, right.

Smitty: Yeah. So, now, you’re from New Orleans….

TB: Yes.

Smitty: ….just to kinda switch gears a little, how’s things going for you? I mean, I know there has just been just a total unusual experience down there in the past six months or so, and how are you doing?

TB: Well, I mean, you know, it’s day to day. I mean, when you look at what other people are going through, I mean, we’re doing great.

Smitty: Yeah, I can just imagine.

TB: You know, because I still have my home, I just had broken windows and roof damage. My mom lost everything. I mean, she lost her entire home and every….and all of the contents.

Smitty: Wow, I’m so sorry my friend.

TB: Even with that I still feel blessed because we had another piece of property that we own where she’s gonna be living right now.

Smitty: Oh, good.

TB: So I still feel very blessed about that. But the city is recovering, it’s recovering slowly.

Smitty: Glad that there’s progress.

TB: The citizens, they are very determined because we love the city and this is our home and they’re gonna make sure that we’re gonna build it, re-build it as best we can. There are a lot of obstacles in our way that have nothing to do with our desire to build the city. It has everything to do with politics and bureaucracy which is very unfortunate.

Smitty: Yes. Well, you are blessed in a lot of ways and one in particular is that you’re here, you’re still here, and….

TB: Well, yeah, exactly, and that’s the thing. I mean, you start to really realize that when you look at what other people have gone through. I’m constantly hearing stories about friends of mine who have passed on.

Smitty: Yeah.

TB: You know, a couple of guys that I know passed on trying to save people.

Smitty: That’s so tragic.

TB: It’s an interesting thing because you just never know when it’s gonna end.

Smitty: Yeah, exactly, and I’m just happy that you’ve made it through and your family’s okay and those other material things, they’re so secondary when it comes to life itself, and the city will come back and I know there’s a lot of efforts by a lot of musicians to help in that regard and that’s a beautiful thing when the whole camaraderie of musicians….I know I’ve seen some ads from Wynton Marsalis, the work of Marilyn Scott and The Prana Foundation, and many others, and so it’s beautiful when there’s an effort there that will make the city even stronger when it does come back, and I think that strength is building right now.

TB: Oh, yeah, everybody’s doing whatever they can and that’s the beautiful thing about it because when the tragedy first happened, man, I didn’t see where red or blue states across this country, I’m here to tell you. I saw one nation unified to helping people in need and that was a beautiful thing.

Smitty: Yes.

TB: So how interesting is to see that whole situation politicized, you know, by these political groups on either side of the isle, doesn’t really matter to me.

Smitty: Right.

TB: So that’s kind of unfortunate. That’s one of the things about New Orleans that’s really been evident.

Smitty: Yes, absolutely. Well, I tell you, Terence, it’s been a pleasure talking with you. I love this record….

TB: Thank you.

Smitty: You are so welcome. It’s on the Blue Note label, it’s called Flow, and it’s great to hear your voice and that you’re strong and you’ve got the vibe and that just gives you a chill right there.

TB: Oh, thank you. Thank you, Smitty. I appreciate you for doing this feature and I’m happy that you enjoyed the record. For us it’s one of those things we had a great time making it and you just hope people have just as great a time or even more listening to it.

Smitty: Yes indeed. Now, you have a Web site?

TB: Yes. Yes, the Web site is just www.terenceblanchard.com.

Smitty: All right, so people can go there and they can not only learn more about Flow and also Bounce and all the other great CD’s.

TB: Man, everything. (Both laughing.)

Smitty: Yes indeed. I hope we’ll get to see you out on the road and playing some of this great music live. I want to experience what the guy in Seattle experienced, you know?

TB: (Both laughing.) Okay, okay, definitely.

Smitty: Yes indeed. Well, listen, keep doing your thing, man. Keep making great music. My congratulations to you and the entire band and everyone associated with this record because it was a great team effort and it really shows what great musicians you truly are.

TB: Thank you. Thank you, Smitty. I appreciate that.

Baldwin “Smitty” Smith

For More Information Visit www.terenceblanchard.com and www.bluenote.com.