Sneak Peek: Terence Blanchard: A Life in Music—Part One

Terence Blanchard: Oh, man, being in that first thing about being in Lionel Hamptons band is that you realize when you get on the bus, everybody has their assigned seat and you, and don't disrespect that. You know what I mean? And I'm a young kid and I'm like 18 years old, Hey, young fellow, that's my seat. That happened for about five minutes, and I wind up in the back of the bus, of course, obviously. But once we got to the bandstand, it was an amazing experience. Oliver Beaner, he was a trumpet player in the section. He kind of took me under his wing because he was like, man, come sit by me. You know what I mean? And I remember I was such a young kid, and his wife met me and saw me in the band and knew I was a college student. So when we'd have trips, she'd fix a meal for him, and then she'd fix extra stuff for me to have, because I was just a kid.

But then musically, excuse me. But then musically, it was incredible. I had Curtis Fuller in that band who's a great trombone player. Frankie Dunlap, who played with Sonny Rollins was in that band. And like I said, Oliver Beaner, there were great musicians in that band man. And it was an education being around those guys because they would all play on a high level. Everybody in that group. And I was the youngest guy in the group. And it was interesting because they treated me with respect, but they treated me like a, they had expectations. Just because you a kid, don't think we're going to be easy on you. No, it wasn't that I had to live up to everything by being in that band. And I think that band really helped prepare me to be in our Blakeys band after that, because I was getting training and learning how to elevate myself by being around those guys.