“Blanchard told one scribe, ‘Music and art have the power to change hearts and souls.’ That sums up his social and spiritual mission.” - Dan Oulette

MALCOLM X JAZZ SUITE

NEA Jazz Master, Two-time EMMY and Oscar Nominee, Eight-time GRAMMY® winning trumpeter & composer Terence Blanchard has established himself as the quintessential 21st Century Renaissance man. In celebration of the centennial of human rights and civil rights icon Malcolm X, Blanchard, his band, The E-Collective, which is comprised of Charles Altura on guitar, Taylor Eigsti on piano and synthesizers, Oscar Seaton on drums, and David “DJ” Ginyard on bass, and Two-time GRAMMY® winning Turtle Island Quartet will reprise Blanchard’s iconic Malcolm X Jazz Suite.

The original project was created following the release and subsequent critical acclaim of Spike Lee’s 1992 Film Malcolm X, for which Blanchard wrote the score and performed most of the trumpet cues. The Jazz Suite, then, was a resetting of Blanchard’s own score from the film for his quintet. This updated expansion of instrumentation will offer an updated look at work that has thrilled Blanchard’s fans and rippled through all of his subsequent recordings for the last three decades.

A Tale of God’s Will

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, New Orleans native son Terence Blanchard created an impassioned, GRAMMY-award winning work— A Tale of God's Will: A Requiem for Katrina. This 2025 adaptation of this evening-length emotional tour-de-force of anger, rage, compassion, melancholy, and beauty features Blanchard the E-Collective, as well as Turtle Island Quartet.

An important jumpstart for A Tale of God's Will was director Spike Lee's decision to document the aftermath of Katrina on film, in what turned out to be the four-hour award-winning HBO documentary, When the Levees Broke, which aired last year. Lee, who has enlisted Blanchard on numerous occasions to score his films, such as Mo' Better Blues, Malcolm X, and Inside Man, tapped him once again for his documentary. Four of the tracks from the documentary were given new arrangements and expanded rounding out an work consisting of nine new pieces inspired by New Orleans during and after Hurricane Katrina.

Following high praise at Blanchard’s sold out two-night career retrospective at Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center in March 2024, this 9-piece ensemble will tour what has become widely known as one of this composer & bandleader’s seminal artistic works.

• Trumpet, Guitar, Piano / Keyboard, Bass, Drums & String Quartet plus 2 crew - Eleven (11) total

TOUR DATES

Click here to see the Show Promotion Dossier

OTHER PROJECTS

DID YOU KNOW?

• Blanchard has recorded twenty-three albums as a band leader, most recently on the Blue Note Label, and has toured as a band leader for over thirty years.

• Blanchard now boasts EIGHT (8) Grammy-awards, TWO (2) Oscar Nominations & TWO (2) Emmy Nominations, in addition to being named NEA JAZZ MASTER & USA Fellow.

• Blanchard toured extensively with Art Blakey & Wayne Shorter and still tours regularly with Herbie Hancock.

• Blanchard is the Executive Artistic Director at SFJazz & the Artistic Chair for Jazz at the Detroit Symphony

• Blanchard has had two operas featured at the Metropolitan Opera, one of which is the highest grossing opera EVER at the Met Box Office.

• Terence Blanchard has over eighty film & television credits, including scoring every Spike Lee Joint since 1991.

Click here to read Terence Blanchard’s full Bio.