Thu 2/27 @ 8PM
Fri 2/28 @ 8 & 10 PM
While Wynton Marsalis might be the best-known jazz trumpeter out of New Orleans, his contemporary Terence Blanchard, who still lives in that city, is hot on his heels.
In fact, it was Marsalis, with whom he’d crossed paths as a youth in New Orleans, who recommended him for his breakthrough gig with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in the ’80s.
Since then, Blanchard’s career has spiraled upward from one high to another. He released his first solo album in 1991. He performed on soundtracks for Spike Lee’s films and graduated to scoring his films. He expanded into work for other directors, making him one of the most prominent contemporary film composers. That’s not all though — he’s also written music for stage plays, penned an opera, and served ten years as the artistic director of UCLA’s Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz.
But his first love is still performing. And hot on the heels of his latest album last year’s Magnetic, he’ll be performing two nights, two shows a night, at Nighttown with his quintet.
Tickets are $30.