Terence Blanchard

feat. The E-Collective with Atom String Quartet
US

Wednesday, 10 July, at 22.00
Križanke
Double bill Chief Adjuah + Terence Blanchard

E-Collective
Terence Blanchard, trumpet, synths
Charles Altura, guitar
Taylor Eigsti, piano, keyboards, synths
David Ginyard, Jr., el. bass
Oscar Seaton, drums

Atom String Quartet
Dawid Lubowicz, violin
Mateusz Smoczyński, violin
Michal Zaborski, viola
Krzysztof Lenczowski, cello

Day pass for Wednesday, 10 July
(Chief Adjuah + Terence Blanchard)
Presale (until 8 July):
EUR 36, 28*
Regular sale:
EUR 42, 36*      

Terence Blanchard grew up in the inspiring gumbo of New Orleans’ cultural and musical influences, blooming as a young pianist and trumpeter. In his teenage years he began playing with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra, and in the 80s succeeded Wynton Marsalis in Art Blakey’s legendary The Jazz Messengers. After leaving the band he formed a quintet with saxophonist Donald Harrison Jr. (the uncle and mentor of our second guest at Ljubljana Jazz Festival, Chief Adjuah).

In the late 80s he built a close rapport with the up-and-coming filmmaker and activist Spike Lee. Blanchard’s soundtracks accentuate the critical undertone in at least thirty of Lee’s “joints”– from the melancholy trumpet theme played by Denzel Washington in the musical drama Mo’ Better Blues to orchestral commentaries in Black KKKlansman and Da 5 Bloods. For the latter two Blanchard received Oscar nominations for Best Original Score. He is probably the most prolific film composer among jazz musicians.

While adding more Grammys to his awards cabinet (he has seven), his career progressed towards the next step – opera. He made American history with Fire Shut Up in My Bones that opened the New York’s Metropolitan Opera 2021–22 season as the first opera by an African-American composer in the Met’s 141-year history!

On his latest album, Absence, Blanchard augments his E-Collective by a string quartet, paying tribute to his mentor and a friend, the late jazz luminary Wayne Shorter, with a lush and dramatic soundscape.