Canadian trumpet and flugelhorn player and composer Rachel Therrien has released five albums. She was the winner of the 2015 TD Grand Prize Jazz Award at the Montreal International Jazz Festival and the 2016 Stingray Jazz Rising Star Award. Therrien has performed with the likes of Claudio Roditi, Paquito D’Rivera, Lee Konitz and Ken Peplowski, and participated in the 2012 Banff Center Jazz and Creative Music workshop helmed by Dave Douglas and Vijay Iyer.
We asked Rachel Therrien to share the albums that shaped her career:
FREDDIE HUBBARD AND WOODY SHAW – THE ETERNAL TRIANGLE (1987): This album has been in my favorites playlists since the very beginning of me listening to jazz. I am a huge fan of each of them and I always admired the fact that two soloist trumpet players would collaborate on a record. I worked a long time studying the piece “The Eternal Triangle,” because I played it in my undergrad concert in 2010 and I really wanted to play it at the same speed, which was just insane for me back then! I also deeply love the tune “Tomorrow’s Destiny.” I think Woody’s solo on this track is beautiful! Finally, I love the groove and composition of “Nostrand and Fulton,” and it was funny after a couple years to realize that the title meant a street corner in Brooklyn very close to where I actually lived.
GIRALDO PILOTO – KLIMAX AND FRIENDS (2002): This album stands as one of my favorites still. I had the chance to play this music while I was doing my undergrad in Montreal, with part of Geraldo Piloto’s band and the university big band. Still today, some part of this music is the hardest I’ve played, and yet some of the most beautiful! This album practically changed my life, as the opportunity to play this music with them made me decide to move to Cuba to study music there for a year – and since, everything in my life has been influenced by it. My favorite pieces in the album are “Melena Obbatalá,” “Torre de Cali” and “Sinfonía de Metales.”
ARCHIE SHEPP – WO!MAN (2011): I just love this approach to duo. I am a big fan of Archie Shepp, and I really love what he did with this album. I go back to it often when I have to get in the mindset to play duo! I discovered this album when I was looking for another version of the piece “Lonely Woman” by Ornette Coleman. Through this research, I really got to discover Archie Shepp’s art and universe. I love many of his albums, but still, the interaction between Shepp and Joachim Kühn on this record gets me into deep listening mode every time.
PEDRITO MARTINEZ GROUP – THE PEDRITO MARTINEZ GROUP (2013) This album has been in my personal favorite playlist since its release in 2013, especially the piece “La Luna.” The virtuosity of every musician on this album keeps inspiring me over and over. I admire the arrangements, and it raises the bar for a good actual Latin jazz album. I really love the interaction between each musician (Pedrito Martinez, Ariacne Trujillo, Alvaro Benavides and Jhair Sala) and this format of musicians playing together makes, so far, this album my favorite of all his many productions.
- Dave Bainbridge of Downes Braide Association: The Albums That Shaped My Career - October 9, 2024
- Greg Cahill of Special Consensus: Albums That Shaped My Career - September 16, 2024
- Narada Michael Walden: The Albums That Shaped My Career - September 9, 2024
