Terence Blanchard – Miracle At St. Anna

GRAMMY-WINNING COMPOSER/TRUMPET PLAYER TERENCE BLANCHARD SCORES MIRACLE AT ST. ANNA, A FILM BY SPIKE LEE

Film is Golden-Globe nominated Composer’s 43^rd film score and 12^th collaboration with Lee

World-renowned film composer and trumpet player Terence Blanchard has completed the score for Miracle at St. Anna, director Spike Lee’s upcoming feature film based on author James McBride’s critically-acclaimed, NY Times bestseller and World War II novel of the same name.  Featuring over 140 minutes of music and 42 separate cues, the score for Miracle at St. Anna was recorded at Sony Studios in Los Angeles with a 90-piece orchestra as well as members of Terence’s band.

With a cast that includes Michael Ealy, John Turturro, John Leguizamo, and Walton Scoggins, Miracle at St. Anna depicts the lives of four African-American soldiers fighting in World War II (1944) who are trapped in an Italian village.  The film is set in Tuscany and follows the 92^nd Buffalo Soldier Division as the soldiers find themselves trapped behind enemy lines and separated from their unit.  What happens within the confines of the town, the stories of love and loss and the incredible passion with which these soldiers live out their daily lives is nothing less than physically and emotionally extraordinary.  Miracle at St. Anna is presented by Touchstone Pictures in association with On My Own and Rai Cinema, and is set to premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in early September, opening nationwide September 26^th.

Says Blanchard of Miracle, “I’m inspired by the story itself.  Growing-up in New Orleans, I remember the Buffalo Soldiers marching in parades and never realized the significant role they played in fighting for our freedom.  It’s an honor to be a part of a project that helps to relive and tell a small segment of what those soldiers dealt with in our history.”

Directed by Spike Lee, Miracle at St. Anna marks the 12^th feature film that Lee and Blanchard have worked on together including Mo Better Blues, Malcolm X and Inside Man, along with HBO’s critically lauded Emmy-winning series, When the Levees Broke:  A Requiem In Four Acts.  Terence’s CD, A Tale Of God’s Will (A Requiem For Katrina), is based on the music that Terence wrote for the series and included new music written by his band members.  A beautifully haunting and impassioned song-cycle about Hurricane Katrina and the ravages incurred by it upon the city of New Orleans and its residents, A Tale Of God’s Will (A Requiem For Katrina) was the recipient of a 2008 Grammy Award.

The past year has been an incredibly prolific one for Terence on a number of other levels. In addition to touring worldwide, Blanchard also played a pivotal role in the moving of The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz from Los Angeles to New Orleans, a move that as Artistic Director he feels will benefit not only the city of New Orleans, but the students themselves who will be surrounded by the ever-present rich diversity of music in the Crescent City.  

Blanchard was born in New Orleans on March 13, 1962, and began playing piano at 5 years of age.  In elementary school, he added on the trumpet and was coached at home by his opera-singing father.  In high school, Terence came under the tutelage of Ellis Marsalis and Roger Dickerson, and after graduation, attended Rutger’s University on a music scholarship where one of his professors was so impressed by his talent that he brokered him a touring gig with Lionel Hampton’s band. 

In ’83, Wynton Marsalis recommended Terence as his replacement in Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. Part of the Blakey legend was his ability to foster performances and individual personalities from the young, malleable talents he brought into his fold. Blakey utilized and nurtured the improvisation and compositional ideas of his band members to solidify his own unique artistic vision. The legacy of the working band as jazz workshop is at the essence of jazz, and Terence remains one of the few on the scene today who fully embrace that dynamic.