Primary Instrument: Trumpet
Joshua Trinidad (trumpet, flugelhorn, piano, electronics) was born on January 10th, 1983, in Loveland, Colorado. Trinidad’s formal music training began at age nine, when his mother and father enrolled him in trumpet lessons at a local school in Denver, Colorado. This was a unique time for Joshua; he was introduced to artists such as Arturo Sandoval, Wynton Marsalis, Joshua Redman, and Hugh Ragin. It is clear that Joshua is heavily influenced by these artists and musical genres such as rock, rap, hip-hop, and electronica and world music along with these notable artists. Later Trinidad was introduced to artist such as Tony Bennett, The Temptations, Patsy Cline, Earth Wind & Fire, and Vicente Fernandez. Vikan Middle School in Brighton, Colorado at that time had an exceptional jazz program lead by local trumpeter Paul Weiss. Although Trinidad quickly became an accomplished trumpeter, he was often more interested in popular music than jazz. Experimenting with the trumpet and keyboards, he would seldom practice classroom music. The Brighton High School jazz band, directed by Ted Worth, won several competitions, with Joshua usually named the best soloist. Though he still didn’t practice classroom music, he was listening more and more, rediscovering the music of Lee Morgan, Donald Byrd and Miles and also absorbing styles of Lester Bowie, Wadada Leo Smith, Ron Miles, Cuong Vu, Roy Hargrove, Russell Gunn and others. Always a serious student, Joshua’s academic studies took precedence over music sometimes. With straight A’s throughout high school, he graduated in 2001, top 10% in his class. He wanted to become a musician and was accepted early admission to Western State College in Colorado. Colorado has always suited him well; he could be in a city with a strong music scene (Denver) and still concentrate on his studies. After transferring a year later to cool out, Joshua entered Metro State College in Denver Colorado in the fall of 2002 as a music education honors student majoring in trumpet.
While at Metro, Joshua played in the school jazz bands lead by notable artists such as Ron Miles, Fred Hess, Dave Devine, Hugh Ragin, Ron Bland, Diane Reeves and many other. However, during his summer breaks in Denver, Joshua spent most of his time hanging out with musicians in Denver and participated in jam sessions. His intense listening continued, with his influences expanding to other instruments; McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, Wynton Kelly, Elvin Jones, Sonny Rollins, Lester Young, etc. Trinidad graduated Summa Cum Laude in 2005 from The University of Colorado in Denver with a degree in music and music business, and was accepted to the graduate program at the same university with an emphasis in language studies. He was now on his way to a career in education both musically and linguistically, but before jumping in, he took another year to cool out. He wanted to check out the music scene some more - not as a career move, but to have a chance to concentrate on being creative again. In June of 2005, he moved to Denver as his home base and began to play with artists such as Lee Konitz, Bobby Shew, Victor Mendoza, The New York Voices, Edgar Meyer, Greg Gisbert, Larry Coryell, Lynn Baker, Dave Devine, Greg Harris, Fred Hess, Art Lande, Ron Miles, Momenterra, Hugh Ragin, Paul Riola, Marc Sabetella, Ken Walker and many others. He was also voted Best New Artist in 2005 along with receiving many awards from universities across the nation. He now resides in both Denver and Seoul, South Korea where he is an educator and musician.
”Joshua is changing the way the trumpet is played in our new millennium.” --Denver Post
”Not since the young lion’s movement have we heard a musician like Joshua Trinidad.” --JazzReview.com
Yanghwa (Bocumast LTD)
The Sputter EP (Bocumast LTD)
Invention (Gweedow LLC)
Disclaimer: All About Jazz is not responsible for the accuracy of the discographical data at the website(s) provided. If a link is no longer valid, please contact discography@allaboutjazz.com. Thank you.
