Ground-breaking jazz trumpeter, composer Terence Blanchard helps Holy Cross celebrate new president

WORCESTER — Two-time Oscar nominee and five-time Grammy-winning jazz trumpeter, composer and educator Terence Blanchard lives a busy life, but the tempo increased even further with two recent events.

On Aug. 27,  Blanchard, performing with his E-Collective and the Turtle Island Quartet, released the album "Absence," a tribute to legendary saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter, who is now 88. "I just wanted to show how much we love him and appreciate him. I want to do it now. I didn't want to wait until he's not around," Blanchard said. 

Then on Sept. 27, Blanchard's opera "Fire Shut Up in My Bones" with a libretto by Kasi Lemmons had its world premiere opening the Metropolitan Opera in New York City's 2021-22 season. It was the first live, in-person performance there since the pandemic started.

It is also first work by a Black composer in the 138-year history of the Met.

"I didn't know that until a journalist asked me a question about it," Blanchard said.

The revelation of that astonishing fact, while not a secret and proclaimed by the Met,  has launched dozens of discussions and made Blanchard's schedule yet more crowded.  "It's been incredible. I've been interviewing all day, every day," he said.

But not so busy that he doesn't have time for another significant date.

At 7:30 p.m. Thursday Blanchard will perform "Absence" in Mechanics Hall with the E-Collective and Turtle Island Quartet. The concert is in conjunction with the inauguration of Vincent D. Rougeau as the 33rd president of the College of the Holy Cross. Rougeau is first Black and lay president of Holy Cross, as well as a big jazz fan. The performance is open to the public (tickets must be purchased).

In 2015 Blanchard headlined two events on the campus of Holy Cross presented by the college's Arts Transcending Borders. He noted that he's performed in Worcester on several occasions.

Blanchard was speaking on the phone last Friday as he was on the road traveling for a performance of "Absence"  that evening at the Zoellner Arts Center at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. 

Wayne Shorter played with Miles Davis and co-founded Weather Report, widely considered one of the defining bands of the jazz fusion genre.

"He's the main driving force in my life, musically, since I was a kid," Blanchard said.

The album consists of pieces written by Shorter as well as original compositions by Blanchard and members of his band that reflect on different levels of Shorter's influence. The E-Collective is made up of Blanchard, trumpet, synths; Fabian Almazan, piano, synths; Charles Altura, guitar; David Ginyard, bass, synths; and Oscar Seaton, drums. The Turtle Island Quartet is led by violinist/artistic director David Balakrishnan with Gabe Terracciano on violin, Benjamin von Gutzeit on viola and Malcom Parson on cello.

The album begins with the title track, an atmospheric composition by Ginyard.

JazzTrain called "Absence" a "shining salute" to Shorter. "The saxophonist Wayne Shorter is considered a modern jazz deity," said The New Yorker. "A forthright project like Absence best honors the staunchly venturesome Shorter by going its own way.” 

As for Shorter's reaction, Blanchard said, "Before we started recording we went over to his house, talking and chatting about music and life in general." After the album had been recorded, "he loved it. He sent me a nice message about the entire thing, how thankful he was and how he loved it. It made me feel extremely overjoyed," Blanchard said. 

Blanchard was born in 1962 and raised in New Orleans, and graduated from the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts in 1981. He replaced Wynton Marsalis in Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, released joint albums with saxophonist Donald Harrison Jr., then moved on to solo projects. Blanchard played trumpet on the soundtracks of several Spike Lee films, then Lee tapped him for Blanchard's first film score, "Jungle Fever."  Blanchard has now scored more than 40 films, with Academy Award nominations for Lee's "BlacKkKlansman" and "Da 5 Bloods." His Grammys include an award for his 2007 studio album "A Tale of God's Will (A Requiem for Katrina)." 

Blanchard's family was musical and a definite influence. "My father was a baritone, my aunt played piano and taught voice, my uncle used to sing with my dad," he said.

Regarding when he decided to devote himself to music, he said, "I think it was a gradual thing. Music became more of a focal point when I became a teenager."

And yet while he was growing up in New Orleans, a cradle of music, he also had feelings of isolation. Being a young musician in his neighborhood — taking piano lessons and later trumpet lessons — set him apart. "In the neighborhood, not the city," he said. "There was always a burning desire to say something." 

And so although his experiences were different, he was able to relate to the emotions in New York Times columnist Charles Blow's memoir, "Fire Shut Up in My Bones," which has been called "an emotionally searing story of child molestation in segregated northern Louisiana of the 1970s."

"My wife gave it to me to read. I really could relate to his isolation and being a little different in his community," Blanchard said. "I thought it would be a very helpful thing to  let people realize they can overcome in their situations."

Those feelings led to the opera "Fire Shut Up in My Bones," which was first performed in 2019 at the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis in Missouri. For the Met production, new scenes were added, along with a chorus, and a troupe of dancers. The cast is all Black.

"The performers are simply amazing. Impeccable," he said.

Blanchard received a seven-minute standing ovation after the opening night performance as he became the first Black composer to step onto the stage of New York City’s Metropolitan Opera house.

He noticed that the audience itself was more diverse than is usually the case at such occasions.

"Fire Shut Up in My Bones" will run at the Met until Oct. 23. There will also be a simulcast at movie theaters worldwide Oct. 23. 

"It's been an amazing response, all of the shows. Having said that it's an amazing thing to think I was the first African-American, I know I'm not the first African-American who was qualified, that's for sure," Blanchard said. 

Will Blanchard's recognition now open more doors for Black composers?

"I think that's going to happen," he said. "Let's see what happens with the rest of the world. There's a lot of great stories to be told."

Blanchard has helped open doors and tell stories as an educator, with affiliations that have included being a visiting scholar at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and artistic director of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz.  At Holy Cross in 2015, he performed "A Tale of God's Will (A Requiem for Katrina)" and took part in a discussion about the artistic response in the aftermath of the disaster.

"I love all of them," he said of performing, composing and teaching, despite all of the demands.

 If he had to choose one, it would be performing, he said.

"But they all have a distinct place."  

'Absence': Terence Blanchard, feat. The E-Collective and Turtle Island Quartet 

Presented by Arts Transcending Borders at the College of the Holy Cross.

When: 7:30 p.m. Oct. 21

Where: Mechanics Hall, 321 Main St., Worcester

How much: $25; $10 Holy Cross faculty and staff; $5 students. For tickets,  go to holycross.edu/atb/visit and click on its  Evenbrite page.