Primary Instrument: Composer/conductor/leader
Ryan Truesdell is a composer of diverse musical tastes and influences with a healthy reverence for jazz tradition and an ever-broadening sonic palette. He received his Masters degree in Jazz Composition at the New England Conservatory of Music and immersed himself in a broad range of musicals styles while studying composition with Bob Brookmeyer and Lee Hyla. He composes and arranges music for an eclectic variety of ensembles ranging from small ensembles to big bands, wind ensembles to string quartets. Recent commissions include arrangements for trumpeter Ingrid Jensen with the U.S. Air Force Band of the Pacific, new music for pianist Frank Kimbrough with the University of Minnesota’s Jazz Ensemble, and a new piece for Bob Brookmeyer’s 80th birthday concert at the Eastman School of Music. Ryan was also awarded the First Music commission from the New York Youth Symphony’s Jazz Band Classic, and conducted its premiere at the Allen Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center in 2009.
Ryan is also an accomplished and in-demand copyist. He is Maria Schneider’s primary copyist and also copies for Jim Hall, Geoffrey Keezer, Bob Brookmeyer, Luciana Souza, and Miles Evans and the Gil Evans Estate, among others. His work has been published in Rutgers University’s Annual Review of Jazz Studies and Chamber Music America’s Chamber Music magazine.
As a producer, Ryan has already distinguished himself as a valuable resource in the studio. In 2004, he served as production assistant for Maria Schneider’s record, Concert in the Garden, which won a Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble. He co-produced Schneider’s next recording in 2007, Sky Blue, which has received unanimous praise, including the honor of “Jazz Album of the Year” from the Village Voice Critics Poll, a Choc Award in France, and was one of only two albums to receive a five-star review from Downbeat in 2007. It was also nominated for two Grammy Awards, and won the category of “Best Instrumental Composition” (”Cerulean Skies”). Most recently, Ryan traveled to Hamburg, Germany to produce a recording with Bob Brookmeyer and the Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) Big Band, recording both new and old works from Bob’s catalog.
Currently, Ryan is embarking on an extensive project, in cooperation with the Evans family, to unearth and bring to light some of the lesser known music of Gil Evans. Throughout this process, he has discovered more than forty works of Evans’ that were never before recorded or released. In celebration of the upcoming centennial of Evans’ birth, Ryan will produce a record of the very best of these previously unheard works, to be released May 13, 2012 (Evans’ 100th birthday) through ArtistShare®. To follow the process of this recording or for more information, please visit www.GilEvansProject.com.
Source: Ryan Truesdell
