Trumpet Star Terell Stafford Brings Miles Davis to The Grand on State

The legendary jazz trumpet genius Miles Davis would have been 100 years old this year. Tributes to him have been playing around the country and on Wednesday, September 9, The Grand on State presents one of its own. Terell Stafford, one of the greatest of today’s jazz trumpeters, will be joined by pianist Tamir Hendelman as part of The Grand’s Visiting Artist Series. Based in New York City, Stafford has been among America’s top jazz performers for decades, leading his own quintet, recording several albums, playing on more than 100 others, and leading one of the nation’s top jazz education programs. The performance will be a highlight of The Grand’s early days as the jazz outpost in town. 

Stafford is also the director of jazz studies and chair of instrumental music at Temple University, and his students can be heard all over the jazz world. “They’re making names for themselves and really doing music at a high level,” he says proudly, noting that Temple alumni are in everything from the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra to the Count Basie Orchestra and the legendary Village Vanguard Orchestra, to which Stafford himself belongs (the Vanguard group played at my wedding some 34 years ago). 

Stafford is working hard to keep the music alive today, while making sure it continues in the future. He talked with me about his upcoming Miles Davis tribute show and what he is hoping local jazz fans will experience. 

Tell me a little bit about the impact Miles Davis had on your playing. 

When I switched [early in his career from classical] to jazz, there were a few trumpet players that I heard. Dizzy Gillespie, Clifford Brown. Phenomenal trumpet players. But they were both a little bit over my head. And then I heard Miles Davis, and he actually played solos that I could sing. People say, “You should sing it before you play it,” that’s what Miles did for me. I was able to sing the [sound of the] solos before I played them because they were at a place that I could understand. Not to say that he was a simple soloist, but he played so melodically, and he used space in such a great way, that for a young improviser it provided a great path to learn how to improvise. So, I started to listen to Miles. I loved his style. I loved his sound. I loved that he had so much control over different colors, and he could get different beautiful sounds on the Harmon mute, and the way he would articulate was really special. 

What are some of his memorable tunes that you might be including in your set in Santa Barbara?

We can do “If I Were a Bell.” I love the old Milestones. I love the song he recorded, called “Dig,” with Sonny Rollins. “I Thought About You” he recorded, and so many great tunes that he did from the ’40s, ’50s, and ’60s. “Dear Old Stockholm,” there’s just so many. The hardest part is just trying to narrow down what we play each night because there’s so many great tunes to play. 

You’re playing in a duet with pianist Tamir Hendelman. What is it like performing with just a piano?

I’ve done a lot with Tamir, and I love playing duo with him. There’s a few piano players that I really love playing duo with. I’ve played duos with artists like Kenny Barron, Bill Charlap, Bruce Barth, so it’s a format I really enjoy. And Tamir is one of the people I love to play with. It doesn’t feel like a duo. It feels like we’re playing in a quartet — the harmonics, the rhythmic concept, the melodic concept, and the interaction and communication between us makes it very interesting and engaging.

The Grand on State is a fairly intimate room, narrow but with the stage at the center. How does a smaller room impact how you play, as opposed to a larger concert setting?

I prefer to play smaller rooms. And the beautiful thing about Miles is that his color palette and his palette of dynamics were huge. So, it doesn’t have to be super loud or super powerful. We can play [songs] that can be super intimate but yet still have excitement. Even if you’re playing as a duo, you can be passionate and emotional, and you can have some fire behind it. 

You’re a longtime jazz educator. What do you see as the state of music and jazz education today? We have great programs here at UCSB and SBCC, and a lot of young people have been coming to The Grand. 

Everything that I’ve been through in my life as a musician, I want my students to have the opportunity to do it. I just don’t want to tell them stories and say, you know, “Back in the day, this is how it was.” I want them to experience exactly what I went through. So, we just got back from a 10-day tour of Europe with the Temple University big band. And in March, we went to Japan for eight days. Touring is so powerful because you go out on the road with someone, you learn a set of music, you get to know everybody in the band so much better, and then usually you come off the road and you record and, and that’s how it was back, you know, in the ’90s and early 2000s when I was younger. So, I wanted the students to experience that. After Rome, France, and other places, we recorded in Spain. I love to teach, I love to share, I love to expose, and I think that’s all really important in education these days.

What do you hope that Santa Barbara listeners take away from the Miles Davis show that you’re going to present with Tamir? 

I hope they take away the different facets of Miles. You know, Miles was a very mysterious guy and had a reputation of turning his back [on the audience]. But I think if you put all that aside and just close your eyes and listen to his music, you hear this passionate person that’s just trying to share their heart, and that’s what I hope that we can convey to the audience in Santa Barbara. It’s about being vulnerable, and that’s what every musician’s goal is, to be vulnerable in front of an audience and share their heart at the deepest level. And hopefully the audience can receive that and reciprocate it back to us, and then that’s how the magic happens. 

Terell Stafford will be at The Grand on State (1218 State St.) on Wednesday, September 9. Doors open at 5 p.m. for dinner; music starts at 7 p.m. Tickets are available at thegrandonstate.com.