Trumpeter Jeremy Pelt Interviewed at AAJ

For the younger generation of jazz musicians, those in their thirties today, the path is not always as smooth and easy as we may think it is. Nobody likes to live in anybody's shadow. Jazz is populated with giants who left their mark and those who look up to them in order to be able to move on.

Just like Nicholas Payton before him--who had to hear the endless comparisons jazz critics and fans kept throwing at him with Louis Armstrong (a New Orleans association of ideas, since Payton never phrased like Pops, nor did he ever need to) and even Clifford Brown--Jeremy Pelt has had his share of endless name throwing as well, as if his breathtaking creativity wasn't enough to satisfy the soul, and his music needed to be explained in terms of old glories and their innovative times; when the truth of the matter is that listening to him is almost like listening to jazz for the first time.

Pelt's latest CD, Men of Honor (HighNote, 2010), capitalizes on the value of group longevity and evolved chemistry. AAJ Contributor Esther Berlenga-Ryan spoke with Pelt at length, about Men of Honor, the trajectory of his own career and living up to the high bar set by those who came before him.

Check out Jeremy Pelt: A Man of Honor at AAJ today!