Explore Terence Blanchard at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

By Rebecca Littman, Managing Librarian
March 27, 2023
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

In its 2021–2022 season, the Metropolitan Opera performed Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up In My Bones, the first opera by a Black composer ever to be mounted at the Met. This year they’ll be staging his earlier work Champion about a boxer who rises from obscurity to become world champion in three different weight classes. Blanchard is a multi-faceted musician—a Grammy-winning jazz trumpeter, composer, and band leader, an Oscar-nominated composer of film scores, and a music educator. He bridges the traditions of western art music and vernacular traditions from jazz to hip-hop in unique and artful ways.

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center is proud to have a large collection of his recorded works in both the circulating and General Research collections.

In preparation to host a conversation with Blanchard at 6 PM on April 13, 2023 in the Bruno Walter Auditorium, we pulled together selective bibliographies and video/discographies to use as a guide.

We share these tools with you here.

(Semi)Biographical print

Image of cover of Contemporary Cat - a biography of Terence Blanchard

Contemporary Cat: Terence Blanchard with Special Guests

Magro, Anthony. Contemporary Cat: Terence Blanchard with Special Guests. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2002.

  • NYPL circulating collection call number: B Blanchard M

Spera, Keith. “Terence Blanchard and a Muse Called Katrina,” in Groove Interrupted: Loss, Renewal, and the Music of New Orleans. New York: St Martin’s Press, 2011.

  • NYPL circulating collection call number: 780.9227 S

Watch & Listen

Image of Terence Blanchard and Rhiannon Giddens

Rhiannon Giddens and Terence Blanchard in conversation on her podcast

Blanchard, Terence. (The HistoryMakers  BioID: A2014.248), interviewed by Harriette Cole, 10/8/2014, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive.

A series of oral history interviews with Blanchard (requires NYPL Library card to connect)

Blanchard, Terence (Interviewee). McPartland, Marian (Interviewer) for Marian McPartland’s piano jazz, season 27, no. 1, Recorded 11/18/1994

  • NYPL Music & Recorded Sound Division Research Collection call number: *LDC 41901

Icons Among Us: Jazz in the Present Tense. [United States]: Indiepix Films, 2009.

  • NYPL circulating collection call number: DVD 785.42 J

Giddens, Rhiannon. “Aria Code Breakers: Terence Blanchard and Rhiannon Giddens Discuss Fire Shut Up in My Bones.” The Greene Space at WNYC & WQXR. Recorded October 8, 2021. Accessed March 15, 2034. https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/aria-code/episodes/aria-code-virtual-event-terence-blanchard  

Giddens, Rhiannon. “Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones: A Boy of Peculiar Grace.” Produced by Merrin Layzan, The Metropolitan Opera, and WQXR. Aria Code, October 13, 2021. Podcast, 43:33. Accessed March 15, 2023. https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/aria-code/episodes/aria-code-terence-blanchard-fire-shut-up-in-my-bones-will-liverman.

Lights, action, music: a documentary. A film created by Dan Lieberstein; written by Steve Cohen; directed by Dan Lieberstein. [United States]: First Look Studios, 2007.

  • NYPL circulating collection call number: DVD 927.8 L

Explorations of Blanchard and his work

André, Naomi. “Metropolitan Opera | Blaze of Glory.” The Metropolitan Opera. Accessed March 15, 2023.

Brooks, Ronald M. "The Improvisational Style of Terence Blanchard."   Dissertation: University of Northern Colorado, 2008.

Dobkin, Matt. “Metropolitan Opera | Love and Boxing.” The Metropolitan Opera. Accessed March 15, 2023.

Doughty, Ruth. "Scoring a Black Aesthetic: Music in the Films of Spike Lee." Dissertation: Keele University (United Kingdom), 2004.

Horton, Johnathan B. "Tone Parallels in Music for Film: The Compositional Works of Terence Blanchard in the Diegetic Universe and a New Work for Studio Orchestra by Brian Horton." Dissertation: University of North Texas, 2017.

Norris, Marcus. "The Influence of Billie Holiday and Black Vocal Music on Selected Operatic Works by Anthony Davis, Terence Blanchard, and Marcus Norris." Dissertation: University of California, Los Angeles, 2022.

Selected Recordings of Blanchard’s Music at the Library for the Performing Arts as a Performer

Cover image of Terence Blanchard's recording Breathless

Breathless is Blanchard's 2015 CD release.

Blanchard, Terence. Magnetic. Hollywood: Blue Note, 2013

  • NYPL circulating collection call number CD Jazz Blanchar-5928

Blanchard, Terence. Breathless. Hollywood: Blue Note, 2015

  • NYPL circulating collection call number CD Jazz Breathe-2771

Billie Sings, Terence Plays. New York: Columbia, 1994.

  • NYPL Music & Recorded Sound Research call number: *LDC 13425

On Commission: Terence Blanchard and Roy Hargrove. Jazz at Lincoln Center; Recorded at Alice Tully Hall 9/22/1993

  • NYPL Music & Recorded Sound Research call number: *LDCO 808

Terence Blanchard. New York: Columbia, 1991.

  • NYPL Music & Recorded Sound Research call number: *LDC 5848

Selected Recordings of Blanchard’s Music at the Library for the Performing Arts as a Composer

Cover image of Soundtrack to the movie Harriet

Blanchard composed the score to the 2019 film Harriet

Blanchard, Terence. Music for Film. [N.P]: Silva Screen Records, 2017

Blanchard, Terence. The Malcolm X Jazz Suite. New York, Columbia, 1993

  • NYPL Music & Recorded Sound Division Research call number: *LDC 11486

Clockers: original orchestral score for the motion picture. New York: Columbia, 1995

  • NYPL Music & Recorded Sound Division Research call number *LDC 13296

Harriet: original motion picture soundtrack. [United States]: Backlot Music, 2019

  • NYPL circulating collection call number: CD SOUNDTRACK BLANCHAR-2400

BlacKKKlansman: original motion picture soundtrack. [Los Angeles, CA]: Backlot Music, 2019

  • NYPL circulating collection call number: CD SOUNDTRACK BLANCHAR-6767

One Night in Miami: original motion picture soundtrack. [New York]: ABKCO, 2021

  • NYPL circulation collection call number: CD SOUNDTRACK ONE NIGH-3986

Inside Man: original motion picture soundtrack. Studio City, CA: Varese Sarabande, 2006

  • NYPL Music & Recorded Sound Division Research call number: *LDC 39495 [CD]

The event on April 13 is free to all, but registration is strongly recommended. More information and a link to register.