Composer-musician Terence Blanchard to begin residency

Grammy Award-winning musician Terence Blanchard will make his first visit to Skidmore as the 2008-09 McCormack Visiting Artist-Scholar in Residence during the week of Sept. 15, when he'll visit the Scribner Seminar "Human Dilemmas" class and Professor Gordon Thompson's senior seminar on "Music and Film."

He also will take part in two activities open to the Skidmore community: a rehearsal of the Small Jazz Ensemble, under the direction of John Nazarenko, senior artist-in-residence, at 4 p.m. Monday, Sept. 15, in Filene Recital Hall; and a "Conversation with Professor Tom Denny," chair of the Music Department, at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 16, in Gannett Auditorium.

In the spring Blanchard will return for a week's residency, with events on campus and in the community, culminating in a public performance with his quintet at 8 p.m. Friday, April 3, in a location to be announced.

This year, for the first time, the McCormack residency is in collaboration with the First-Year Experience. According to Jeff Segrave, interim dean of special programs, "Terence's residency will provide curricular, co-curricular, and residential opportunities as part of our year-long FYE program."

As required "reading" for the Class of 2012, all first-year students were assigned to listen to and analyze Blanchard's CD A Tale of God's Will: A Requiem for Katrina. Winner of this year's Grammy Award in the "Best Large Jazz Ensemble" category, the recording is a haunting and impassioned song-cycle about the physical and emotional damage to the city of New Orleans as a result of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Featuring a 40-piece orchestra string section in addition to Blanchard's band, the recording also formed the sound track for the Spike Lee documentary on Katrina, "When the Levees Broke." Segments of the movie have been shown at Skidmore since the academic year started.

The recording and a package of readings related to the hurricane have been provided to members of the first-year class. FYE Director Beau Breslin explained, "We asked each student to explore the CD-read it, in other words-as a non-narrative text. The readings, which include poetry and a report on the government's response to the hurricane, give context to the CD. Our hope is that the breadth of the general topic will allow members of the Skidmore community to integrate at least one component into their curricular or co-curricular work."

Breslin said that he's had the idea for over a year. "Jeff and I were somewhat nervous about presenting a non-traditional text as the required reading," he said. "It's unique-and a little risky. I am delighted by the faculty's response." He added, "Many faculty felt that the idea of analyzing Katrina is a good one-and that it is necessary for us to continue to look at this incident from a range of perspectives."

For New Orleans native Blanchard, Katrina was a personal catastrophe and an artistic challenge. He has said, "This is what we are called to do as artists. We document our social surroundings and give our impressions of events. The problem with Katrina is that the devastation is so vast that there's only been a trickle of art so far. We're all still digesting what went on and what continues to happen. It's like an unending story. For me, like so many others, it's taken a moment to get my mind around all of this. I knew I needed to express this musically to keep the story alive, but so many important things-the safety of family members, figuring out how to rebuild my mother's house-never allowed me the time to breathe for a minute."

Lee's four-hour documentary was a jumpstart for Blanchard. The two had collaborated on several previous projects, so it was natural that Lee would call on Blanchard to score this film, which premiered in 2006 on HBO. Explained Blanchard, "Its part of the grieving process. Once I wrote some of the music for Spike's film, I knew I could take it and expand upon it. Meanwhile guys in my band were writing music that reflected on what happened in the aftermath of Katrina. This provided me with the perfect opportunity to bring the band all together."

The resulting CD, released in 2007 by Blue Note, includes four tracks from the film, as well as "Dear Mom," Blanchard's personal tribute to his mother, whose home was destroyed by the hurricane. In addition, a series of "ghost" tunes is included on the CD, among them, the African beat-drenched "Ghost of Congo Square."

Segrave is thrilled that Blanchard, first introduced to the campus as a participant in the College's summer programs, will be a presence at Skidmore this year. "This is a wonderful opportunity for Special Programs to fulfill the mission of enriching the campus and local community. It represents a chance for the residential college and Special Programs to work in mutually beneficial ways. Terence knows the College through his work in the jazz institute and is excited about the chance to share his knowledge about his beloved city and his beloved art form."

Blanchard's relationship with Skidmore began when he first appeared as a guest artist in the Skidmore Jazz Institute in 2003. He returned this past summer to a standing-room crowd. (He also performed this summer at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center and at Tanglewood in Lenox, Mass.) He was a student of the legendary New Orleans pianist and jazz patriarch Ellis Marsalis and has collaborated with Lee since 1980 on soundtracks for a number of films, including School Days, Do the Right Thing, Mo' Better Blues, and Malcolm X.

Besides his soundtracks, Blanchard has recorded eight solo albums for Columbia and Sony Classical labels, including Simply Stated, Romantic Defiance, Jazz in Film, Let's Get Lost, and Wandering Moon. In 2003, Blanchard released Bounce on Blue Note Records, followed in 2005 by Flow, which was produced by Herbie Hancock.

Blanchard continues to record and tour, and serves as artistic director of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance in New Orleans.