Via NPR
Terence Blanchard have been selected as one of the 2024 National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters.
For more than 40 years, the NEA has annually selected a select group of Jazz Masters. The program, which started in 1982, is one of the most prestigious honors in jazz. Abbey Lincoln, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea and Sonny Rollins are among the 173 fellows recognized by the NEA as great figures of jazz.
Born in New Orleans to an opera-loving father, Blanchard started playing the trumpet as a child. Summer camp friends included two princes of jazz: Wynton and Branford Marsalis. Wynton would eventually recommend Blanchard, then a recent Rutgers University graduate, to Art Blakey, then seeking a replacement in the Jazz Messengers. In the 1980s, Blanchard started playing with Lionel Hampton. Since then, he’s written Academy Award-nominated film scores for director Spike Lee as well as for movies such as The Woman King.