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Cecil Bridgewater

Cecil Bridgewater's 30 plus years of experience includes roles as performer, composer, arranger, record producer and educator. He has been a member of the groups of Max Roach, Horace Silver and the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra to name a few. He has also shared the stage and/or studio with the Count Basie Orchestra, Duke Ellington Orchestra, Dizzy Gillespie, McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Heath, Sir Roland Hanna, Wynton Marsalis and Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers among others.

Cecil Bridgewater is a trumpeter who realizes the lineage of the trumpet and has an appreciation for its place in contemporary music, Cecil explores his artistic depth on his latest CD, Mean What You Say (March, 1998) - Brownstone Recordings. His illustrious career began with the musical training he received from his parents in Illinois where he grew up. His father, a trumpet player, inspired him to study trumpet. Also, he performed with and wrote for the high school dance band and played weekend gigs with band leader/uncle Pete Bridgewater.

After study at the University of Illinois, he went to Chicago for further study and professional performances. After a two year tour of duty with the Army, he toured with the University of Illinois Jazz Band in Eastern Europe and Russia. They made the rounds at the Newport Jazz Festival and several prestigious collegiate jazz festivals, most notably the Notre Dame Collegiate Jazz Festival, where Cecil was the recipient of the Best Trumpet, Best Overall Musician, Best Small Group, and Best Big Band awards.

Cecil moved to New York in 1970, where he established himself as an international artist. His recognition increased exponentially after joining the Horace Silver Quintet and the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra. As a soloist, writer, arranger and musical consultant, he has collaborated with such musical luminaries as Max Roach. Cecil's compositions and arrangements have been recorded and performed by Lena Horne, Vanessa Rubin, the Uptown String Quartet, and Dee Dee Bridgewater, (he contributed 9 of arrangements on her most recent CD, "This Is New" the compositions of Kurt Weill and (three of his arrangements are included on her Grammy Award winning CD, "Dear Ella"), among others. He has received commissions from the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, that produced "New Dawn", the Atlanta Arts Festival, University of Illinois, Jazzmobile, and Meet the Composers that produced the "'Cannonball' Adderley Suite" that had its premiere in February 1994 in Los Angeles and again in March 1996 in Washington, D.C.

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Cecil Bridgewater: Where to Create Music

Read "Cecil Bridgewater: Where to Create Music" reviewed by AAJ Staff


By Cecil Bridgewater Creating music requires a place and an environment within which to create. I see a number of young, talented people coming into the various schools where I teach having had no practical experience in this music outside of a classroom. They have developed tremendous facility on their instruments and knowledge of the history of the music, but have very few places to perform. They are about the art of performing and yet have never ...

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Performance / Tour

Cecil Bridgewater at the LaGuardia Performing Arts Center on November 22

Cecil Bridgewater at the LaGuardia Performing Arts Center on November 22

Source: All About Jazz

At the LaGuardia Community College / CUNY 47th Avenue at Van Dam Street Long Island City, NY 8 PM $7.00 (box office: 718-482-5151)

Take the #7 train to 33rd/Rawson only 10 minutes from Grand Central Station 2 blocks west of MoMA QNS

Long Island City, NY--Cecil Bridgewater, the internationally acclaimed hard bop trumpeter who was the longtime sideman with the Max Roach quartet, will join a jazz jam ...

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Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Old News Borrowed...

Engine Studios
2009

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Mean What You Say

Brownstone
1998

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All

Blue Note Records
1972

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