Terence Blanchard at The Grand Performances California Plaza
by jazzcat on Jul.16, 2005, under News
California Plaza, located in the business and arts district in downtown Los Angeles, is a Mecca
for free cultural summer fun and entertainment. The lovely LeAnne Hahn
and the rest of the folks at Grand Performances do an excellent job at
selecting the finest in world class entertainment for the public to
enjoy.
Tonight, Cal Plaza
is packed with over “Flowing” anticipation of one of today’s hottest
groups in jazz music. Terence Blanchard is here and he is particularly
fond of the synchronicity that his latest group of fine young musicians
posses. The colors of the music and the apparel of the musicians lend
warmth to a cool Los Angeles
summer evening. After a day of extremely gorgeous warm sunshine, it is
an unexpectedly cool evening and Terence makes reference to the weather
as he relates and gets comfortable with the audience.
He has a good time
clowning his musicians as he introduces them. You can tell Terence has
much love for the kinship of this band and that closeness is expressed
on stage though the music. He shares with the audience how his latest
creation of all original music, “Flow,” was created. One by one as he
spoke of them, each of his visionaries started vibing on their
instrument until music was “Flowing” in full swing. From a thought to a
feeling an, in an instant, music, funky jazz music is created.
That is how it is
done! The evolution of the creativity that lies within all of us
becomes manifested for the world to enjoy from that point forward. I
interviewed Terence earlier last month and he said that the music is
different every night. “These guys take the music in directions that I
would not think of going and it turns out to be hip” And hip it is. The
heads are movin’ and the crowd is certainly feeling the music. This is
music that reflects our time and our lives in the spirit of now.
Feelings, moods, cities, crowds, the weather and all kinds of variables
are constantly changing. As the world turns on its axis, a new
perspective of life is created that comes out through the music.
This is original
music with a style and grace all its own that expands to the extreme
branches of the tree of jazz. Taking the genre and pushing the
boundaries to include today’s sound as well as those from the past.
These cats take their instruments and find new ways of playing them
while incorporating those sounds into the wonderful rhythms they
produce.
Pick up Terence’s new
album “Flow” on Blue Note Records. If you would like to read a cool
interview that I did with Terence, Click Below!
LeRoy Downs
