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Charlie Porter

Internationally acclaimed and Grammy Award-winning trumpeter and composer Charlie Porter first cut his teeth on the New York jazz scene in the late ’90s, while simultaneously studying classical trumpet performance at The Juilliard School under the tutelage of famed trumpeter and composer Wynton Marsalis. Though he has a strong penchant for improvised music, Charlie has since delved into many projects from jazz and classical to Arabic, Indian, African, Australian Aboriginal and Korean music, seeking to find common ground among all "good music" and avoiding the pigeonholing of genre labels.

Though he has recorded many albums as a side musician, Porter has two recent albums as a leader that have been garnering high praise. He recently released his second album as a leader “Immigration Nation,” recorded in New York City, on the Origin Arts label in late November 2019. It has been hailed by Jazziz Magazine as a "joyful but tempered expression of optimism...poignantly voiced...nuanced performance,” “sublime…Joyous… Fascinating" by Jeff Krow of Audiophile Audition, and as “a sterling merger of politics and music” by Chris Spector of Midwest Record.

Previously, he released the debut eponymous album, “Charlie Porter,” in 2018, which featured a who’s who of Portland jazz musicians, including the legendary Mel Brown and Chuck Israels. It was hailed as "A testament to Porter's prodigious talent and imaginative creativity” by All About Jazz and as "technical wizardry” by DownBeat Magazine.

Charlie has toured the world as a side-man and band-leader in jazz and also as a classical soloist and chamber musician, performing and recording with many notable musicians and groups over the last twenty years ranging from jazz greats including Joe Zawinul, Mike Longo, Paquito D’Rivera, Ira Sullivan, Aaron Diehl, Mike Holober, Jimmy Greene, David Berger, Charli Persip and Chuck Israels to classical artists such as Simone Dinnerstein, Sarah Chang, and Joyce DiDonato as well as world-music greats Goran Bregovic, Marcel Khalife, and Kim Duksoo, among many others. He is also a founding member of the grammy-nominated electro-acoustic Absolute Ensemble, directed by Kristjan Jarvi. Charlie’s recent collaboration on opera star Joyce DoDonato’s crossover album “Songplay” earned him a Grammy Award for 2019.

Porter holds degrees from The Juilliard School and Manhattan School of music in jazz and classical performance. He was also a Fulbright Scholar at the Paris Conservatory. Before his college studies, he attended the Palm Beach County School of the Arts. Among many awards to his credit, Charlie was the first trumpeter to win 1st place in both the classical and jazz divisions of the National Trumpet Competition. As a composer, he has been commissioned by Chamber Music America and the Doris Duke Foundation.

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Tags

3
Album Review

Chance Hayden: Shag Bag

Read "Shag Bag" reviewed by Geno Thackara


Warm springtime, sunshine, good friends—it must be time for a party. Chance Hayden is certainly feeling the joy and ready to kick off something fun. Working around pandemic restrictions left him and his colleagues ready to bounce and blow off some steam, and bagging (sorry) the iconic Ronnie Foster on keys made the perfect funk-fusion topping. The standalone single “Shag Bag" packs a drum-and-conga groove to get the backyard shaking, slathers on a dash of bright horns, then ties it ...

4
Album Review

Charlie Porter: Hindsight

Read "Hindsight" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian


Trumpeter Charlie Porter has proved himself to be an inventive composer whose works are simultaneously thought-provoking and mellifluous. His third and perhaps most immediately relevant release, Hindsight, draws inspiration from the events that came to public attention in 2020. Musically, the nine originals are fluid yet complex and are peppered with sounds from other genres such as gospel, African folk and hip hop. The result is a seamless and delightfully unique fusion which delivers its message with intelligence and panache. ...

7
Album Review

Charlie Porter: Hindsight

Read "Hindsight" reviewed by Paul Rauch


Portland based trumpeter/composer Charlie Porter is back, and following the trend industry wide over the past year, has released a finely crafted collection of pieces attached to a social narrative. Hindsight examines how we act in hindsight dealing with the long term societal struggles of racism, corruption and inequality. While two of the pieces feature the lyrics of Majid Khaliq and Madelaina Piazza, Porter has namaged to weave the emotional uncertainty of daily life during the Covid-19 pandemic into bittersweet ...

10
Album Review

Nicole McCabe: Introducing Nicole McCabe

Read "Introducing Nicole McCabe" reviewed by Paul Rauch


If you were a young and talented jazz musician in Portland, Oregon, you would make yourself highly visible on the local scene to gain invaluable experience playing with the best the city had to offer. In addition to your more formal studies, you would extend your musical outreach from post-bop modernism to the avant-garde. Most importantly, you would constantly be rubbing musical shoulders with the elders who have mentored you to the point of having professional aspirations. This ...

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Catching Up With

Charlie Porter: Discovering Horizons Past, Present and Future

Read "Charlie Porter: Discovering Horizons Past, Present and Future" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello


Charlie Porter is one of the most insightful, creatively brilliant and truly dynamic trumpet artists performing today. Porter straddles both the jazz and classical trumpet worlds with ease and has garnered highly-celebrated performance and recording reviews. An innovative composer and arranger as well, Porter recently performed on Joyce DiDonato's Grammy-winning recording, Songplay and released Immigration Nation on Origin Records. All About Jazz: Charlie, on behalf of All About Jazz, thanks for taking time to chat and congratulations on ...

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Album Review

Charlie Porter: Immigration Nation

Read "Immigration Nation" reviewed by Paul Rauch


Jazz has always carried with it a social narrative with historical ebbs and flows reliant on the polarizing issues of its time. With Immigrant Nation (OA2, 2019), Portland based trumpeter Charlie Porter embraces the forever narrative of American immigration, the historical force of humanity that has formed and enriched this country from its beginnings. The linear timeline of American immigration that widened at the beginning of the twentieth century has narrowed due to the gut wrenching actions of the current ...

3
Album Review

Charlie Porter: Charlie Porter

Read "Charlie Porter" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello


Charlie Porter is an album that is musically and structurally reminiscent of those iconic M.C. Escher prints: dizzying ziggurats, waterfalls to some/nowhere and eye-teasing figure-ground images. Porter, with the able assistance of his local colleagues -all ace musicians -has created an intriguing, intelligent recording that simmers and boils over with ingenious original compositions, stellar musicianship, and a marvelous sense of puck. “Prologue" has Porter's unaccompanied trumpet bellowing a five-note Miklos Rosza-like fanfare before he bursts into a ...

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Performance / Tour

Charlie Porter Quintet Live at the John Birks Gillespie Auditorium, NYC 5/5

Charlie Porter Quintet Live at the John Birks Gillespie Auditorium, NYC 5/5

Source: All About Jazz

The Charlie Porter Quintet will be performing on May 5th at the John Birks Gillespie Auditorium in New York City this coming Tuesday, May 5th at 8pm and 9:30pm. The concert will feature new original works by Charlie Porter and the band. The Band will feature: Charlie Porter - Trumpet Arun Luthra - Saxes Dan Kaufman - Piano Aidan O'Donnell - Bass Jon Wikan - Drums Admission for the show ...

"Porter's playing is fluid, expressive, and magnificent" -DownBeat Magazine

“…technical wizardry" -DownBeat Magazine

“…prodigious talent and imaginative creativity" -All About Jazz

"Porter's excellent stylish playing draws you in; you hang on each note" -Palm Beach Post

“…honest and engaged fully with the embodiment of what jazz is musically” -Paul Rauch, All About Jazz

“…unorthodox and sophisticated" -Oregon Artswatch

“He is an incredibly proficient instrumentalist, with a fluid and expressive style that feels like a fresh twist on the hard-bop establishment.” Jazz Society of Oregon

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Primary Instrument

Trumpet

Location

Portland

Willing to teach

Intermediate to advanced

Clinic/Workshop Information

As a clinician, I generally help explain concepts in music and jazz that will help musicians grow harmonically and rhythmically. I speak from experience of what has helped me, as well as generally accepted practice concepts and techniques that work with regard to phrasing, developing an individual sound, keeping good time, etc. I've taught clinics at Portland State University, University of Oregon, Palm Beach College, University of Denver, Clark College, Tallinn Conservatory of Music and Dreyfoos School of the Arts.

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Shag Bag

Ropeadope
2022

buy

Hindsight

OA2 Records
2021

buy

Immigration Nation

OA2 Records
2019

buy

Garden Of Delights

Dot Time Records
2016

buy

Prologue

From: Charlie Porter
By Charlie Porter

Videos

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