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Derrick Gardner & The Jazz Prophets

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Released: Jan 1, 2009
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General Info

  • Genre: Jazz / Nu-Jazz / Soul

    Location East Lansing, Michigan, US

    Profile Views: 63994

    Last Login: 4/24/2012

    Member Since 4/23/2006

    Website derrickgardnermusic.com

    Record Label http://www.owlstudios.com/

    Type of Label Indie

  • Bio

    Jazz trumpeter Derrick Gardner is a modern master of traditional sound. Inspired by the finest hard-blowing funky bop bands of the 1960s, Derrick is working to extend that great tradition as a performer, composer & arranger as well as educational advocate for the great American art form ~ JAZZ. Derrick formed his own sextet, The Jazz Prophets, in 1991 which continues to be the primary vehicle of his distinctive, hard-driving music. The Jazz Prophets 2009 CD release, 'Echoes of Ethnicity', was honored as the Independent Music Awards Jazz Album of the Year. Featuring superb musicianship, creative arrangements and a straight ahead style few today can emulate ~ Derrick Gardner is poised to make a significant, lasting mark on the genre. Gardner's 2008 recording by The Jazz Prophets, A Ride to the Other Side.., marked his Owl Studios label debut in March of '08. Like Slim Goodie (his highly regarded first recording as a leader on his own Impact Jazz imprint in 2005) it bubbles with the long-standing collective’s sheer love of the soulful, funky jazz sound for which Cannonball Adderley and Horace Silver built solid foundations with their 1950s and ‘60s ensembles. Derrick Gardner & the Jazz Prophets are taking that solid sound into new, invigorating territory. The band’s three-man horn line, consisting of Derrick, tenor sax player Rob Dixon and Derrick’s brother, trombonist Vincent Gardner of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, has been together since the beginning. Born June 3, 1965 in Chicago, Derrick began playing trumpet at age 9 and rapidly developed as a player and a soloist, regarded highly throughout high school and college at Virginia’s Hampton University as an imaginative and strong improviser. As jazz journalist Ken Franckling points out in the liner notes for A Ride to the Other Side.., Derrick is “a Clifford Brown disciple with tinges of Freddy Hubbard and Woody Shaw thrown in for good measure, all in service of a sound and a band that are extending the funky soul-swing evolution.” In addition to his own recordings, Derrick Gardner is widely recognized for his strong style and powerful command of the trumpet. Derrick has performed on multiple recordings with the Count Basie Orchestra, including the Grammy-winning The Count Basie Orchestra Live at Manchester Craftman's Guild, with the New York Voices in 1997, and four sessions with Harry Connick Jr., including 2007’s Hurricane Katrina-inspired Oh, My Nola. In addition to recording and touring with the Harry Connick Jr. Big Band, an affiliation that continues as his schedule permits, Derrick was the featured trumpet soloist in the Broadway musical Thou Shalt Not, for which Harry Connick Jr. wrote the music and lyrics. He has also been a sideman on recordings by arranging mentor and close friend Frank Foster, Carlos Garnett, Stefon Harris, Roman Schwaller and Liz Wright, among others. Derrick's work has led him to Europe, Scandinavia, Russia, Japan, South Africa and Thailand as well as many premier venues in the United State, working over the past 15 years with a tremendous litany of artists that includes late Dizzy Gillespie, George Benson, Frank Foster, Jon Faddis, Nancy Wilson, Tony Bennett, Joe Williams, Rufus Reid, Clark Terry, Kenny Baron, Stefon Harris and James Moody just to name a few. In 2002, the Jazz Studies program at the Michigan State University College of Music recruited Derrick to join the MSU faculty full-time as an assistant professor of jazz trumpet. Derrick’s decision to move from New York to East Lansing, Mich., brought him full-circle. He lived there in the mid-1970s, when his parents, music educators, were working on their doctorates at Michigan State. His mother, Dr. Effie Gardner, is a classically trained pianist, organist and choral director, now retired from Hampton University, where she chaired the Department of Music. His father, Dr. Burgess Gardner, is a jazz trumpeter/composer/arranger who has played and recorded with many jazz greats through the years, including Nancy Wilson, Count Basie, Louis Bellson, Ray Charles, Woody Herman and two of Derrick’s primary influences – Horace Silver and Cannonball Adderley, as well as R&B great Etta James and zydeco star C.J. Chenier. Today Derrick Gardner is focused on taking his music and the message of Jazz to audiences and students around the world. A much anticipated new CD will be released in march of 2011.

  • Members

    Derrick Gardner ~ Trumpet, Vincent Gardner ~ Trombone, Robert Dixon ~ Tenor Saxophone, Anthony Wonsey ~ Piano, Donald Edwards ~ Drums, Kevin Kaiser ~ Percussion

  • Influences

  • Sounds Like

Echoes of Ethnicity


Echoes of Ethnicity

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