Wycliffe Gordon enjoys an extraordinary career as a performer, conductor, composer, arranger, and educator, receiving high praise from audiences and critics alike. Gordon tours the world performing hard-swinging, straight-ahead jazz for audiences ranging from heads of state to elementary school students. Gordon received the Jazz Journalists Association 2008, 2007, 2006, 2002 and 2001 Award for Trombonist of the Year, and the Jazz Journalists Association 2000 Critics’ Choice Award for Best Trombone.
In addition to a thriving solo career, he tours regularly leading the Wycliffe Gordon Quartet, headlining at legendary jazz venues throughout the world. Gordon is a former veteran member of the Wynton Marsalis Septet, Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and has been a featured guest artist on Billy Taylor’s “Jazz at the Kennedy Center” Series. Gordon’s extensive performance experience includes work with many of the most renowned jazz performers of the past and present.
Gordon’s musical prowess has been captured on numerous recordings, including thirteen solo CDs and seven co-leader CDs. His latest recordings, “Boss Bones” and “You and I” were released in June 2008. Gordon is featured on numerous recordings with the Wynton Marsalis Septet, Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, and many others as evidenced in his extensive discography.
Wycliffe Gordon is also a gifted composer and arranger. He was commissioned to compose a vibrant new score for the 1925 classic silent film “Body and Soul ” (notable as the screen debut of Paul Robeson), which was premiered at the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra’s 2000-01 season opening night performance at Avery Fisher Hall, and was released on DVD in 2008. Gordon’s “I Saw the Light,” a musical tribute to Muhammad Ali, was commissioned and premiered by the Brass Band of Battle Creek in March 2004, and is scheduled for release on DVD in 2009.
Gordon’s compositions have been performed by the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, the Wynton Marsalis Septet, the Wycliffe Gordon Quartet, the Brass Band of Battle Creek and numerous other ensembles, and performed in programs throughout the U.S. and abroad including concert halls in New York, Los Angeles, Aspen, Georgia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Germany, London, Finland, and Switzerland. Two of Gordon’s arrangements are also featured as a part of the PBS series “Marsalis on Music.” Recent concert seasons have included premieres of compositions by Gordon for a variety of ensembles both in the Unites States and internationally. The first in a series of print editions of his big band, small ensemble, and choir compositions will be available by spring of 2009.