Featured Musician - June 2015  

Charlie Porter
Charlie Porter

Name: Charlie Porter

Instrument: B flat trumpet and flugelhorn (for jazz); piccolo trumpet, cornet, B flat trumpet, C trumpet, D trumpet and flugelhorn (for classical).

Early Years/Education: Grew up in Florida, in West Palm Beach. My grandma was a big jazz fan. At 13 I had to go either into football or band. I had no interest in sports and grandma said, “You’re going into music.” I wanted to play drums, but she chose trumpet for me. Grandma really loved Louis Armstrong and Harry James.

She took me to see Wynton Marsalis perform, and she brought me back stage and said, “My grandson plays the trumpet.” I’d only been playing for three months. He gave me his trumpet and said, “Why don’t you go over there and warm up and play something for me?” He put me in front of the mirror and helped me out with my embouchure. He said, “You sound really great”; I think he said something like you sound like Clark Terry or something really nice. The most valuable thing he told me was go home, listen to Louis Armstrong and play what you hear. So I went home and started practicing with “Back ‘O Town” blues and easy things for me to copy.

After I got exposed to Wynton Marsalis and started listening to his stuff, I got turned onto classical trumpet. My other teachers turned me onto classical music too. One of the most important things a teacher can do is turn you onto great music. I went to the Palm Beach County School of the Arts for high school. They really nurtured what you wanted to do. In 1996 I moved to New York to go to Julliard. Why Julliard? That’s where Wynton went, and he lived right next door to the school. I emulated what he was doing. I just wanted to emulate his path, doing musical projects that interest me. That’s what I want to do.

When I was a Julliard in the mid ‘90s they didn’t have a jazz program. My jazz program was going up to see Wynton and playing tunes with him. Later on I got a jazz degree at Manhattan just to have one. After graduating Julliard, I went to the Paris Conservatory for two years. By day I was studying French classical literature and by night I was going out to the jazz clubs. French compositions for trumpet are beautiful. I came back and got into the scene in New York. When someone is really playing music at a high level, there’s a spirit that moves you. Wynton was always talking about the spirit of Louis Armstrong. That’s what I’m always listening for in music.

Bands: I’m a member of the Absolute Ensemble, been with them since I was 18. We’ve toured all over the world, involved with different projects. We just did a project with pianist Simone Dinnerstein doing the music of Bach as she plays it arranged by our group. It’s on Sony. I’ve had my own quartet and sextet. Currently, I’m in the Chuck Israels Jazz Orchestra, the Alan Jones Sextet and perform as part of the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival. I moved to Portland about two years ago but now reside on Orcas Island. Portland feels like home to me more than anyplace I’ve been ... I love the music, I love the food, I love the nice people. This place has a really nice balance. Our plan is to move back here.

Musical Influences: Wynton Marsalis is a big one. Louis Armstrong was my first. Clifford Brown (I love his sweetness), Clark Terry (an incredible human being, inviting you into the music); I love Prokofiev and Stravinsky; also pop music, like Regina Spektor and Andrew Bird.

Most Satisfying Experience: The most satisfying moments in music for me are the live experiences I’ve had listening to true masters. Going to Smalls in New York when I was 18 and hearing Wynton Marsalis right next to Wes “Horn Daddy” Anderson and them playing “Cherokee.” Hearing that is burned into my mind as the pinnacle moment of live music I’ve ever heard. Another time I was playing at a jam session at Cleopatra’s Needle in New York, and Jeremy Pelt and Robert Glasper were there, and I took a solo. I felt it was one of my best solos ever. Partially it was who I was playing with and the atmosphere in the room. There’s a moment when you’re unconscious in a way and it’s flowing out of you, it’s something you can’t force. Afterward, I remember Jeremy said, “Yeah man, that’s how you play jazz.” Another pinnacle moment for me was working with Joe Zawinul. And also getting to go to Mali with the Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rhythm Road tour.

Favorite Recordings: “Louis Armstrong: The Complete Hot Five and Hot Seven Recordings” (Columbia/Legacy); “Prokofiev Piano Concerto No.3 performed by Bryon Janis with Kyril Kondrashin conducting the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra” (Mercury); “Crescent” - John Coltrane Quartet (Impulse!); Mahler “Symphony No.5” - the Chicago Symphony under the direction of Georg Solti (Decca); “Marciac Suite” - Wynton Marsalis (Columbia); “L’Orfeo” by Monteverdi - John Eliot Gardiner (Archiv); “Color Changes” - Clark Terry (Candid); “Concertos Baroque Italiennes” - Maurice Andre (Erato); “Sonny Rollins plus 4” featuring Clifford Brown on trumpet (Prestige); and “Hush” - The Duke Pearson Quintet featuring Johnny Coles & Donald Byrd (Jazzline/Polydor).

Charlie Porter with trumpet

Discography: ”Storyline” The Alan Jones Sextet, selfproduced (2015); “Joyful Noise” by The Chuck Israels Jazz Orchestra, Soulpatch (2015); “Bach Re-Invented” by Absolute Ensemble & Simone Dinnerstein, Sony (2013); “The Basilisk” by Majid Khaliq, self-produced (2011); “Arabian Nights” by Absolute Ensemble featuring Marcel Kalife, Enja (2011); “Initiation” by The Charlie Porter Quartet, self-produced (2010); “Absolute Zawinul” - Joe Zawinul with the Absolute Ensemble, Sunnyside (2009); “The Last Story I Tell” by Tian, self-produced  (2008); “Stravinsky Soldier’s Tale Suite,” CcnC (2007); “Le Lac” Tristan Murai, Aeon (2006); “Sarlings” by Billy Martin, Tzadik (2006); “Pushy Blueness” music of Anthony Coleman, Tzadik (2006); “The Infinite Pursuit” by The Charlie Porter Septet, selfproduced (2004); “Fix” by Absolute Ensemble, Enja (2002); “Absolution” by Absolute Ensemble, Enja ( 2001); “Habanera” by Paquito D’Rivera, Enja (2000); “Absolute Mix” by Absolute Ensemble, CcnC (2000); “Adams, Schoenberg: Chamber Symphonies” by Absolute Ensemble, CcnC ( 1999); and “Kundun” Music from the original soundtrack by Philip Glass, Nonesuch (1997).

Gigs: The Chuck Israels Jazz Orchestra at Vie De Boheme, June 21; Drayton Harbor Music Festival (Blaine, WA), July 5-11; Jimmy Mak’s with The Chuck Israels Jazz Orchestra, July 17; David Berger’s Sultans of Swing Big Band (Scheffield, MA), July 24; Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival (Orcas Island, WA), August 24; Montavilla Jazz Festival, Portland Metro Arts, August 16.

Future Plans: In another two months I’m going to be recording. Living on Orcas Island I’ve had a lot of practice time. I love playing as a side man, but I’ve been a composer since I was 13; ever since I started transcribing I started writing. I’ve won awards in that area too. Chamber Music America and the Doris Duke Foundation commissioned new works and I won. I wrote a piece called “The Buddy Bolden Suite” for my jazz septet. I’d been to New Orleans and love the history of the music; grew up on Louis Armstrong, etc. Buddy Bolden was his idol as a young man.

Other: I had a composition teacher at the Manhattan School who influenced me a lot named Ed Green. He said life is a balance of opposites. You will find an aesthetic harmony. What’s great about Chuck Israels’ writing is he’s always got that inherent balance.

I think jazz is a style of playing not a genre. There’s jazz in Mozart.


-- by Rita Rega