Terence Blanchard grew up in New Orleans, which in jazz terms is like growing up in the family business. He studied at NOCCA alongside Wynton Marsalis and Donald Harrison, and when Marsalis left Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, Blanchard took his chair. That's a strange thing to inherit — someone else's old gig in the most important finishing school jazz ever had — but Blanchard used it the way everyone in that band did: as a crash course in how to lead, write, and stand up front.

After Blakey, Blanchard and Harrison ran their own quintet for a stretch, playing sharp, confident hard bop that sounded like two guys who knew exactly how good they were. But the thing that really set Blanchard apart came from a different direction entirely. Spike Lee needed a trumpet player and arranger for a few cues on an early film, and that turned into one of the longest composer-director partnerships in American movies. Blanchard has scored nearly every Spike Lee joint since, and the work bleeds both ways — his film scores have the harmonic language of a jazz musician, and his jazz albums carry the pacing and drama of someone who thinks in scenes.