Terence Blanchard listens for the hunger.
As a veteran jazz educator, composer and longtime bandleader who has fostered dozens of careers through his small ensembles, Blanchard, who turns 52 next month, is consistently exposed to burgeoning young musicians trying to catch his ear.
"I hear plenty of guys who are talented, but I'm looking for a sense of uniqueness and passion and drama in what they are playing. I'm listening for people who are hungry, who have to have a vehicle to express themselves," he said by phone between classes at the Henry Mancini Institute in Coral Gables, Fla., where he has been artistic director for three years.
Blanchard knows firsthand how the visceral need for expression can overwhelm inexperience and jittery nerves. He was 19 when he replaced Wynton Marsalis as trumpeter for Blakey's legendary Jazz Messengers. (Marsalis, a childhood friend, vouched for him.)
In the decades since, his hunger has pushed him into different musical directions. Blanchard has composed more film soundtracks than any other jazz artist. He wrote his first opera last year, about boxer Emile Griffith, and has been commissioned to compose another. The next couple of years will be spent working on two more film scores, composing for a string quartet and for a children's program put on by the Kennedy Center. He also programs jazz events for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Then there is life with his wife and four children in his native New Orleans.
Through it all, Blanchard never neglects his improvisational roots in small-ensemble jazz, regularly taking time to record and tour with his working quintet. He will showcase his latest album, last year's highly praised "Magnetic," Monday and Tuesday at the Dakota in Minneapolis. Listeners can expect bristling, high-wire exchanges and innovative renditions of the songs on "Magnetic," all composed by members of the group.
Blanchard said joining his band can be "a lifetime appointment" — saxophonist Brice Winston has been with him nearly 15 years. But he expects and encourages his cohorts to follow their muse — it stimulates new experiences when they return and creates an opening for a new voice when they don't.
Last year, the quintet's regular drummer, Kendrick Scott, released his third album since joining Blanchard, produced by former Blanchard bassist Derrick Hodge. Quintet pianist Fabian Almazan is set to release his second album, and debut for the Blue Note label, this spring. Scott won't be present for the Dakota gigs, so Blanchard will turn to 29-year-old Justin Brown, who finished second in the 2012 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Drums Competition, and is already compiling an extensive résumé. Brown will team with 22-year-old bassist Joshua Crumbly, who as a three-year veteran is the newest regular member of the band.
