Brian Lynch

Brian Lynch

Musicians | Instrument: Trumpet | Location: New York City

You can lose yourself in the pure energy of his playing, but at any moment you can switch your attention to the logic and craftsmanship of his music and find multiple rewards.

—Neil Tesser, Jazziz

Updated: March 27, 2023

Born: September 12, 1956

MULTIPLE GRAMMY© AWARD WINNER; 6 GRAMMY NOMINATIONS; JJA (Jazz Journalists Association) TRUMPETER OF THE YEAR & RECORD OF THE YEAR

“This is a new millennium, and a lot of music has gone down,” Brian Lynch said a number of years back. “I think that to be a jazz musician now means drawing on a wider variety of things than 30 or 40 years ago. Not just to play a little bit of this or a little bit of that, but to blend everything together into something that has integrity and sounds good. Not to sound like a pastiche or abruptly shifting styles; but like someone with a lot of range and understanding.”

Multiple Grammy© Award Winning trumpeter, composer, and bandleader Brian Lynch brings to his music an unparalleled depth and breadth of experience. A honored graduate of two of the jazz world’s most distinguished academies, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers and the Horace Silver Quintet, he received wide acclaim during his long tenures with Latin Jazz legend Eddie Palmieri and straight ahead master Phil Woods. He has been a valued collaborator with jazz artists such as Benny Golson, Toshiko Akiyoshi, and Charles McPherson; Latin music icons as diverse as Hector LaVoe and Lila Downs; and pop luminaries such as Prince. As a bandleader and recording artist he has released over 20 critically acclaimed CDs featuring his distinctive composing and arranging, and has toured the world at the helm of various ensembles reflecting the wide sweep of his music.

Voted Trumpeter Of The Year and recipient of the Record Of The Year Award by the Jazz Journalists Association, Lynch’s talents have been also recognized by top placing in the Downbeat Critics and Readers Polls (#3 Trumpet Critics Poll); as well as feature stories and highly rated reviews for his work in the New York Times, Jazz Times, and Downbeat. He has received multiple Grammy Award nominations - and garnered Grammy wins in 2020 for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album and in 2007 for Best Latin Jazz Album. He is also the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Knight Foundation, Chamber Music America, and Meet The Composer.

Professor of Jazz and Studio Music at the Frost School Of Music, University of Miami, Lynch has also conducted clinics, workshops, and residencies throughout the world, including at the Stanford Jazz Workshop, Harvard University, Dartmouth University, Michigan State University, Senzoku University (Japan), Yamaha Artist Services Taipei and Moscow, and the Rotterdam Codarts University. Before joining the faculty at the Frost School, Professor Lynch was on the faculty of New York University from 2003 to 2011. He has also taught at the Prinz Claus Conservatorium (Netherlands) as Visiting Professor (2002-07), Long Island University, and The New School.

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All About Jazz Articles

5
Interview

Meet Brian Lynch

Read "Meet Brian Lynch" reviewed by C. Andrew Hovan


This article was first published at All About Jazz in March 2000.Though many of his peers have received far more attention from the public and press, the fact is that Brian Lynch is one of the most experienced and talented jazz trumpeters of his generation. Growing up in the Milwaukee area, Lynch took advantage of a healthy jazz scene there that found him playing professionally at the age of 16 and gaining valuable knowledge and seasoning through his ...

7
Liner Notes

Brian Lynch: Con Clave Vol.2

Read "Brian Lynch: Con Clave Vol.2" reviewed by C. Andrew Hovan


The jazz musician's road to success and sustainability is a rocky one, marked with more than its share of ups and downs. Becoming the norm as of late, those with the strongest staying power have increased their flexibility by becoming more diverse in their efforts. The affect is thus twofold-providing an income to pay the rent, as well as honing a well-rounded perspective of the music. Of course, trumpeter and educator Brian Lynch began the journey down this path many ...

27
Album Review

Russ Spiegel: Caribbean Blue

Read "Caribbean Blue" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Pleasant music with ample color and variety--that's an apt description of Caribbean Blue, the latest albulm from California-bred, Florida-based guitarist Russ Spiegel, who has surrounded himself with world-class musicians and given them rein to canvass ten of his generally engaging compositions and bring them admirably to life. While everything on offer is respectable, it is the album's midsection--tracks 3-8--that rise above the others and lend the session much of its vitality and charm. After harmonica virtuoso Hendrik ...

7
Album Review

Michael Eckroth Group: Plena

Read "Plena" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


Michael Eckroth had clear goals in mind for this project--"to create music that was lyrical, modern, true to its Afro-Latin roots, but never purist in its approach"--and he's accomplished his mission with gusto. Through Plena, this Grammy-nominated pianist/composer delivers a program of original music that, while acknowledging folkloric traditions, doesn't buy into their formal strictures and structures. Instead, Eckroth deals in forward-thinking offshoots and branch realities that beautifully extend on--and past--those points. Essentially working with two different ...

1
Album Review

Brian Lynch: Songbook Vol. 1: Bus Stop Serenade

Read "Songbook Vol. 1: Bus Stop Serenade" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


Con Bus Stop Serenade Brian Lynch inaugura una serie di album che raccolgono il suo intero songbook, scritto in quarant'anni di carriera e disseminato in numerose incisioni. Da alcuni anni il trombettista ha varato una propria etichetta (la Hollistic MusicWorks) e iniziato a reinterpretare le sue vecchie composizioni: “Ho sentito che avrebbero beneficiato di un po' d'attenzione sotto forma di nuove versioni—ha detto—presentate ad ascoltatori contemporanei, che potrebbero non conoscere il mio lavoro precedente. Sono poi diventato un po' testardo ...

4
Album Review

South Florida Jazz Orchestra: Cheap Thrills: The Music Of Rick Margitza

Read "Cheap Thrills: The Music Of Rick Margitza" reviewed by Jack Bowers


In 2019, the acclaimed Michigan-bred, Paris-based tenor saxophonist Rick Margitza thought he was being asked to contribute a couple of charts to the University of South Florida Jazz Orchestra's fifth recording in its fifteen-year history as a working ensemble. But when SFJO founder and leader Chuck Bergeron looked at the charts he had an even better idea, and asked Margitza to write and / or arrange everything on the album, which thus became Cheap Thrills: The Music of Rick Margitza. ...

1
Album Review

South Florida Jazz Orchestra: Cheap Thrills: The Music Of Rick Margitza

Read "Cheap Thrills: The Music Of Rick Margitza" reviewed by Pierre Giroux


The concept of a large, tightly-knit big band in a recording studio, on a concert or jazz club stage may just be a plug-in memory in today's environment. Fortunately there is the fifteenth anniversary recording of The South Florida Jazz Orchestra directed by bassist/bandleader Chuck Bergeron, entitled Cheap Thrills: The Music Of Rick Margitza, to remind us what a disciplined inventive big band sounds like. With the exception of George and Ira Gershwin's “Embraceable You," all the other ...

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7

Recording

Guitarist Russ Spiegel Releases 'Caribbean Blue' with Guests Brian Lynch, Tim Armacost, Hendrik Meurkens and more on RuzzTone Music

Guitarist Russ Spiegel Releases 'Caribbean Blue' with Guests Brian Lynch, Tim Armacost, Hendrik Meurkens and more on RuzzTone Music

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services

A world-class guitarist by anyone’s definition, California-born Russ Spiegel is also a composer, arranger, big band leader, mixing engineer, educator and much more, including a world traveler. Though not entirely, much of the music in Caribbean Blue is a tip of the hat to some of his destinations and the cultures he’s experienced, and homage to many of the genres of music he loves, and, perhaps most importantly, a reminder of just how small the world really is. Throughout his ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Brian Lynch

Jazz Musician of the Day: Brian Lynch

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Brian Lynch's birthday today!

Brian Lynch GRAMMY AWARD WINNER; 4 GRAMMY NOMINATIONS; 2017 TRUMPETER OF THE YEAR, RECORD OF THE YEAR (Jazz Journalists Association) “This is a new millennium, and a lot of music has gone down,” Brian Lynch said several years ago. “I think that to be a jazz musician now means drawing on a wider variety of things than 30 or 40 years ago. Not just to play a little bit of this ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Brian Lynch

Jazz Musician of the Day: Brian Lynch

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Brian Lynch's birthday today!

Brian Lynch GRAMMY AWARD WINNER; 4 GRAMMY NOMINATIONS; 2017 TRUMPETER OF THE YEAR, RECORD OF THE YEAR (Jazz Journalists Association) “This is a new millennium, and a lot of music has gone down,” Brian Lynch said several years ago. “I think that to be a jazz musician now means drawing on a wider variety of things than 30 or 40 years ago. Not just to play a little bit of this ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Brian Lynch

Jazz Musician of the Day: Brian Lynch

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Brian Lynch's birthday today!

Brian Lynch GRAMMY AWARD WINNER; 4 GRAMMY NOMINATIONS; 2017 TRUMPETER OF THE YEAR, RECORD OF THE YEAR (Jazz Journalists Association) “This is a new millennium, and a lot of music has gone down,” Brian Lynch said several years ago. “I think that to be a jazz musician now means drawing on a wider variety of things than 30 or 40 years ago. Not just to play a little bit of this ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Brian Lynch

Jazz Musician of the Day: Brian Lynch

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Brian Lynch's birthday today!

Brian Lynch GRAMMY AWARD WINNER; 4 GRAMMY NOMINATIONS; 2017 TRUMPETER OF THE YEAR, RECORD OF THE YEAR (Jazz Journalists Association) “This is a new millennium, and a lot of music has gone down,” Brian Lynch said several years ago. “I think that to be a jazz musician now means drawing on a wider variety of things than 30 or 40 years ago. Not just to play a little bit of this ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Brian Lynch

Jazz Musician of the Day: Brian Lynch

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Brian Lynch's birthday today!

Brian Lynch GRAMMY AWARD WINNER; 4 GRAMMY NOMINATIONS; 2017 TRUMPETER OF THE YEAR, RECORD OF THE YEAR (Jazz Journalists Association) “This is a new millennium, and a lot of music has gone down,” Brian Lynch said several years ago. “I think that to be a jazz musician now means drawing on a wider variety of things than 30 or 40 years ago. Not just to play a little bit of this ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Brian Lynch

Jazz Musician of the Day: Brian Lynch

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Brian Lynch's birthday today!

Brian Lynch GRAMMY AWARD WINNER; 4 GRAMMY NOMINATIONS; 2017 TRUMPETER OF THE YEAR, RECORD OF THE YEAR (Jazz Journalists Association) “This is a new millennium, and a lot of music has gone down,” Brian Lynch said several years ago. “I think that to be a jazz musician now means drawing on a wider variety of things than 30 or 40 years ago. Not just to play a little bit of this ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Brian Lynch

Jazz Musician of the Day: Brian Lynch

Source: Michael Ricci


Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Brian Lynch

Jazz Musician of the Day: Brian Lynch

Source: Michael Ricci


1

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Brian Lynch

Jazz Musician of the Day: Brian Lynch

Source: Michael Ricci


Critical Acclaim For Brian Lynch:

“You can lose yourself in the pure energy of his playing, but at any moment you can switch your attention to the logic and craftsmanship of his music and find multiple rewards.” NEIL TESSER, Jazziz

“Lynch demonstrates that a dedicated, knowledgeable jazzman can play a diversity of styles with telling authenticity, and make the renditions extremely appealing to both musician and neophyte...Lynch is simply first-rate.” ZAN STEWART, Downbeat

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Primary Instrument

Trumpet

Location

New York City

Willing to teach

Advanced only

Contact

Publicist

Lydia Liebman Promotions

Management

J. Chriss & Co.

Concerts

  Wed, May 8
Fort Lauderdale, FL
Brian Lynch Quintet
Broward Center for the Performing Arts
Wed, May 8. 7:45 pm

Music