Charlottesville Jazz Society Presents Steve Wilson, Terence Blanchard

The Steve Wilson Quartet is celebrated as one of the foremost ensembles in jazz. Including pianist Bruce Barth, bassist Ed Howard and drummer Adam Cruz, this band of contemporaries delivers inspiring melodies in shifting styles and varied textures, with swing, cohesion, and soulful empathy that come from over ten years of working together.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n15ipIrNFwo

The Live Arts show with Steve Wilson is a performance not to miss. Steve Wilson is in demand as one of the finest saxophone players today and it's worth noting that Steve is also a member of the newly formed jazz group - The Blue Note 7. “On January 13, 2009 Blue Note Records will commemorate the label's 70th anniversary with the release of Mosaic: A Celebration of Blue Note Records, an eight-song collection of classic Blue Note repertoire re-envisioned by The Blue Note 7, an all-star septet comprising pianist, musical director, and current Blue Note recording artist Bill Charlap with trumpeter Nicholas Payton, tenor saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, alto saxophonist/flutist Steve Wilson, guitarist Peter Bernstein, bassist Peter Washington and drummer Lewis Nash. The album is produced by Charlap, Michael Cuscuna and Eli Wolf, and executive produced by Danny Melnick, founder of the event production company Absolutely Live Entertainment."

TERENCE BLANCHARD
Grammy Award-winning composer and performer discusses “Jazz in Film".
Friday, March 13, 2009
Colloquium at Old Cabell Hall Room 107 -- 3:30PM Free
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Guest artist with the UVA Jazz Ensemble
Old Cabell Hall 8PM $10 cover ($5 students)

Besides performing for sold-out audiences around the globe, Terence was a featured panelist and performer at this year's Sundance Film Festival and served as a keynote speaker at the Billboard Film and Television Music Conference. One week out of every month finds Terence teaching at the Monk Institute, and he just recently performed at the 2007 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. Flow: Living In The Stream of Music, thecritically acclaimed documentary that followed Terence and his band across four continents, was nominated for a Grammy (Best Long-form Music Video) in the 49th Annual Grammy Awards (his critically-acclaimed CD, Flow, was the recipient of two Grammy nominations in 2006).

Blanchard was born in New Orleans on March 13, 1962, and began playing piano at 5 years of age. In elementary school, he added on the trumpet and was coached at home by his opera-singing father. In high school, Terence came under the tutelage of Ellis Marsalis and Roger Dickerson, and after graduation, attended Rutger's University on a music scholarship where one of his professors was so impressed by his talent that he brokered him a touring gig with Lionel Hampton's band.

In '83, Wynton Marsalis recommended Terence as his replacement in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. Part of the Blakey legend was his ability to foster performances and individual personalities from the young, malleable talents he brought into his fold. Blakey utilized and nurtured the improvisation and compositional ideas of his band members to solidify his own unique artistic vision. The legacy of the working band as jazz workshop is at the essence of jazz, and Terence remains one of the few on the scene today who fully embrace that dynamic.

Two years later, Terence and fellow Messenger Donald Harrison split to form their own quintet. In '90, TB departed to pursue a solo career. During his tenure at Columbia, both his soundtrack to Mo' Better Blues and his CD The Heart Speaks were nominated for Grammy Awards. Signed to the Sony Classical label in 1999, the trumpeter/composer gained acclaim as a bandleader and composer of movie and television soundtracks (including the Grammy-nominated Wandering Moon and a Golden Globe nomination for his score for Spike Lee's The 25th Hour). In 2003 Terence signed with Blue Note Records and has released Bounce and Flow, the first two parts of a three-record trilogy.

Additional films that Terence has written the music for include Eve's Bayou, MalcolmX, Barbershop, Their Eyes Were Watching God and Clockers.