It’s been a year since trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard took over as SFJAZZ’s Executive Artistic Director from founder Randall Kline. As the 2024-25 SFJAZZ Season begins, I checked in to find out how his vision is taking shape.
The season includes more than 350 shows with a rich lineup of creative artists and the organization’s Resident Artistic Directors — guitarist Julian Lage, harpist Brandee Younger, Oakland-bred saxophonist Howard Wiley, and pianist Kenny Barron.
Closest to Blanchard’s heart are shows that spotlight young or mid-career musicians. He is presenting many of them in a season-long series dubbed “Terence Blanchard’s Upswing.”
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Let’s talk about your Upswing series and your vision for the new season.
I’m excited about the possibilities this season holds for the future. When I got into music, you could still get signed to a major label, and they could get you radio play and help you tour. It’s different nowadays. I look at our organization as a gap filler for some of those things.
What else is on your agenda?
One is to create an outdoor festival as a gift to the community.
We really need to make SFJAZZ a destination spot for people from around the world. That’s my big vision for the organization.
As part of that, we want to keep building our online presence in terms of the video productions that we do. Not just streaming the concerts, but all the things we do with the artists, like our Drop the Needle series.
Expanding and diversifying the audience is part of your mission. How is that going?
We had an open house and a lot of people from the neighborhood came in. And there were people who’d never been there before. I understand it, because when my operas opened at the Met, a lot of people came who’d never been there before. But once they came through the doors, they were no longer intimidated. That’s what I want to do here.
It’s hard to change perceptions.
One thing I’ve noticed is that when you see our High School All-Stars, the kids are great. But you don’t see a lot of diversity there. And I think part of the reason is that you have some kids in Oakland and some of the surrounding communities who can’t afford private lessons. So we’ve been raising money, and we’re going to start offering lessons to these kids. Hopefully, people will read about it and contact us.
How big a role should local musicians play in the organization?
I’m from New Orleans where we have a lot of great local musicians, and we do a lot for them. The Bay Area also has a lot of talented players, and I think we should be doing the same thing here. When I look at this community and its musicians, I can see that it’s fertile ground for a lot of great creativity.
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