He plays Mo' Better Blues than Wynton....
I think Terrance Blanchard is an excellent trumpet player and extraordinary composer. He has written quite a few film scores. He like Wynton Marsalis comes from New Orleans and represents a part of the unique New Orleans trumpet talent and sound. Also both of them got their start with the Jazz great, drummer Art Blakey. I always believed and still do, that Terrance Blanchard has more feeling, passion and overall fire in his playing than Wynton and I have always preferred his playing to Wynton’s.
Now if you are comparing him with Miles, of course that’s not worth the time… I have yet to hear anyone fill the shoes of Miles Davis, Kenny Durham, Fats Navarro, Clifford Brown, Booker Little or Woody Shaw…. to name a few. And there are a lot of other great and extraordinary trumpet players who have their own sound and presence, who rarely if ever get the mainstream recognition that Blanchard and Marsalis receive. That will always be the problem with our more serious and artistic musical giants and activities…you have to dig for it to find it…but many times its really because Black folks are sleepin’ their higher culture away…including music, art, film, photography and writing.
