Terence Blanchard Releases First Small-Group Album in Five Years

Trumpeter Terence Blanchard has become a dominant voice in the film score world, but it's not all movie music for the New Orleans jazz musician. One of the great voices who brought about jazz's mainstream resurgence in the '80s, Blanchard shows just how far he has advanced on his new album "Wandering Moon," his first small group recording in five years.

One might think that with all his work for film--including scores to several Spike Lee films and four new soundtrack projects this year--the 37-year-old balladeer might have left the scuffle world of jazz behind. But Blanchard continues to tour about 80 percent of the year, and he's pushing his complex compositional aesthetic as far as ever.

Like his film scores, his new album is full of counterpoint--the interwoven and overlapping voices that distinguish jazz composition from blowing sessions. Blanchard admits that his film work probably had some influence on his ability to develop a theme, but he points to two often-overlooked sources of the counterpoint that he uses in his jazz compositions: improvisation and the musical personalities in his band.

''When you listen to things that were happening between what [John Coltrane's drummer] Elvin [Jones] was doing with his snare drum and what 'Trane [John Coltrane] was playing, there's an element of counterpoint and complexity in the improvisation. Sometimes, I think, composition follows the improv,'' he said from a New Orleans studio.

Musical interactions among his band members (longtime pianist Edward Simon, tenor saxophonist Brice Winston, 20-year old alto saxophonist Aaron Fletcher and drummer Eric Harland) have both inspired Blanchard's compositional ideas and provided the crucible in which he can test harmonic and melodic ideas. Blanchard also brought in bassist/composer Dave Holland for the session, whose own recent release ''Points of View'' made crossing lines and mood-setting structures central.

''If the guys have been dealing with those issues [such as counterpoint and crossing lines], then sometimes you tend to make that a part of the arrangements, to take advantage of their strengths as musicians. Then other times, they're just things you conceive of. You may hear some lines going in different directions, or you may hear different types of harmony....You put that in the arrangement and it has an effect the way guys play.''

Hallmarks of the album, featuring seven original tunes, include Blanchard's expressive ballad playing, full of space and ascents into the upper register; his consideration of each piece as a miniature suite which can include different instrumental configurations for improvisation, sometimes freed of strict meter; and ingenious rhythmic foundations that are so well-constructed that the listener doesn't notice how unconventional they are.

''What we've been trying to do is to free ourselves from the boundaries of 4/4 and have the music seem like it floats in space-- hence the need to play in eleven [on ''Luna Viajera''] and in seven [''Simplemente Simon'']. You just try to create a mood where the downbeat never seems to actually occur. Or if it does, it doesn't occur where you think it is.''

Blanchard's memories also influence the compositions he writes. The direct connection between the composer's experience and musical output is not usually obvious in jazz, but Blanchard relates two anecdotes about the secret life of the tune ''Joe & O.''

'''Joe & O' is basically a tune about my father and myself. His middle name was Joseph and my middle name is Oliver. One of the things I really loved about my father is that we argued about music a lot--because he loved opera and classical. He loved jazz, but he loved a lot of the earlier stuff like King Oliver, Louis Armstrong and Earl 'Fatha' Hines. The thing I loved about him most was that he let me have my opinions...His thing was, 'Prove me wrong. Make me understand your point.' In the tune, one line starts, and the other line comes in, and that represents us being at odds. Then at the end of the tune, everything kind of comes together, and at the drum solo, everybody plays together.

''I had an experience where my cousin was playing drums, and my father sat down and showed us a beat...where he played 4/4 on the bass drum and 2/4 on the hi-hat. And we thought that was some of the corniest shit we had ever heard. And years later, man, I joined Art Blakey's band, and we played 'Moanin'.' And the first thing, when I looked at what he was playing, it was 4/4 on the bass drum and 2/4 on the hi-hat. So we started to come together later in life about our musical opinions.''

The metaphor of coming together could also be used to describe Blanchard's commercial career right now. ''Wandering Moon'' is his second album for Sony Classical, and although it's a classical imprint, the staff is more serious about his musical development than his former label Columbia Jazz, which does not have a dedicated jazz staff, he said.

Blanchard will be touring with his sextet (replacing Holland with bassist Derek Nievergelt) this spring, and he plans to continue ''making records that are hopefully interesting not only to the listener but also for the musicians involved in the project.''