Terence Blanchard's New Gig

SFJAZZ answers its succession question with a major appointment

Terence Blanchard at SFJAZZ in 2016. (Bill Evans)

Succession has been a rich topic of discussion lately, and not just for the recappers feasting on Jesse Armstrong’s majestic TV show. For real-world media types, this week was all about the fall of Chris Licht, who’d succeeded Jeff Zucker at CNN. Over at Twitter [sad trombone], folks are trying to extract hope from despair as they watch the first steps of Linda Yaccarino, handpicked for CEO by the World’s Richest Man™. In politics, even as we continue to adjust to the weird mouthfeel of the phrase “King Charles,” the GOP’s grifter-in-chef faces likely indictment and a presidential primary that keeps coughing up new challengers, like some cursed sort of clown car.

Whoa, that got a little dark there. Maybe it’s something in the air. But I’m here to bring you a much happier tale of succession: today SFJAZZ announced that its new executive artist director is Terence Blanchard, the ever-prolific trumpeter, composer and bandleader, last seen taking curtain calls at The Met Opera and announcing his musical contribution to a forthcoming Disney park ride.

Blanchard is just the second person to hold this position at SFJAZZ, after the organization’s dynamic founder, Randall Kline. Yesterday I talked with both of them about what this appointment means, and how it feels. I wrote a piece for WRTI that includes their comments. But I’d like to elaborate a little further here: on some of the qualities that make Blanchard an inspired pick for the job, and how Kline created an organizational culture ideal for just such a handoff. And yeah, let’s take a moment to acknowledge that America’s two preeminent institutions dedicated to jazz are now both led by brilliantly charismatic trumpeter-composer-bandleaders from New Orleans, born less than six months apart — “an interesting bit of happenstance,” as Kline put it to me, but also an instructive and culturally resonant fact.