Song:U.M.M.G. (Upper Manhattan Medical Group)
Album:This Side Of Strayhorn
Trumpeter Terell Stafford made his name in the early 90s as part of sax player Bobby Watson's band. He started recording as a leader in 1995 and now he is a favourite of the jazz festival circuit. This tribute to the legendary Billy Strayhorn was released in 2011. He was born Feb. 25, 1966 in Miami but he grew up in Chicago and Silver Spring, MD. He started playing trumpet at age 13. Stafford was studying classical music at the University of Maryland in 1988 when he happened to meet Wynton Marsalis. Marsalis suggested he study with Dr. William Fielder at Rutgers to get a well rounded education in the trumpet. Stafford says his big influences are Clifford Brown and Lee Morgan. Stafford became known to jazz fans for his five years as part of sax player Bobby Watson's band. Organist Shirley Scott was in that band and she became musical director on Bill Cosby's You Bet Your Life. Stafford was in that band. It's where he met sax player and long time collaborator Tim Warfield. Stafford was also in McCoy Tyner's Latin All Star Band. He made his debut as a leader with the 1995 album Time To Let Go on Candid Records. U.M.M.G. is from Stafford's 2011 CD This Side Of Strayhorn on MAXJAZZ. This album came out of Stafford's participation in Dayton, OH's Celebrating Billy Strayhorn festival. of course Strayhorn was a songwriter and arranger with Duke Ellington. Musicians are Tim Warfield on sax, Bruce Barth on piano, Peter Washington on bass and Dana Hall on drums. The same band appears on Stafford's latest CD Brotherlee Love: Celebrating Lee Morgan released June 2015. Stafford is currently the Director of Jazz Studies at Boyer College of Music and Dance at Temple University. Stafford and Warfield usually tour together. But Stafford is also a member of the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra which is the house band at New York's Village Vanguard. And he is also touring with The Clayton Brothers. Here's Terell Stafford with Tim Warfield on sax, Keith DeStefano on bass, Anam Owili-Eger on piano and Joe Falcey on drums performing U.M.M.G. at the 2015 OutBeat Jazz Fest in Philadelphia.
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