TERENCE BLANCHARD is nothing if not a busy man. Bandleader, music educator and film soundtrack composer - not to mention one of the finest trumpet players in jazz - he has no shortage of things to be getting on with.
Speaking recently over the phone from Los Angeles, he was wearing his teacher's hat and catching a short break between classes at the Thelonious Monk Institute. That stint was sandwiched between completing work on the soundtrack for a new Spike Lee film - Inside Man, to be released next month - and a tour with his critically acclaimed sextet. The schedule includes one date in Hong Kong, this Saturday, as part of the Hong Kong Arts Festival.
Blanchard is also delivering a lecture tomorrow at the University of Hong Kong on writing music for films. He and his band are touring in support of an album, Flow, which scored two Grammy nominations. Critically, it was one of the best-received albums of last year, but, musically, Blanchard says, he and his five young bandmates have already moved on.
'We'll probably play some things from Flow but we'll have some new material as well,' says the softly spoken trumpeter. 'One of the great things about this band is that everybody has a strong ability to compose, and with very unique styles. While the music that we play still sounds like our group, it comes from a lot of different directions.'
Blanchard himself comes from New Orleans, and first captured the attention of jazz lovers in 1983 when - on his predecessor's recommendation - he stepped into Wynton Marsalis' shoes in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. Two years later, Blanchard and fellow Jazz Messenger, alto saxophonist Donald Harrison, split to form their own quintet, and in 1990 Blanchard signed as a soloist to Columbia.
His reputation as a film soundtrack composer flowered along with his solo career, largely thanks to his association with Lee. His soundtracks to both Mo' Better Blues and The Heart Speaks were also nominated for Grammy Awards. Lee and Blanchard discovered his talent for scoring movies more or less by accident.