JazzProphet

Chicago, IL, USA

Born in Chicago, Ill, jazz trumpeter Derrick Gardner quickly made his mark on the New York City jazz scene after arriving in the Big Apple in 1991. Derrick was a member of the Count Basie Orch. from 1991 to 1996. He has also worked with a tremendous litany of jazz artist and ensembles to include Frank Foster’s Loud Minority Band, Harry Connick Jr.’s Big Band, The Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orch., The Vanguard Jazz Orch. and Swiss tenor player Roman Schwaller’s European sextet. Derrick formed his sextet, The Jazz Prophets, in 1991, and 29 years later it continues to be the primary vehicle of his distinctive, hard-driving music. As jazz journalist Ken Franckling points out “Derrick is “a Clifford Brown disciple with tinges of Freddy Hubbard and Woody Shaw thrown in for good measure, all in service of a sound and a band that are extending the funky soul-swing evolution.”