Seneca Black

Seneca Black (born April 15, 1978) is an American jazz trumpeter. He is known for his work with Wynton Marsalis's Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Max Weinberg band, and Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra among many others.

Early life and education

Seneca Black was born on April 15, 1978, in Florida. Growing up in a musical family, Black was passionate about performing from a young age. Influenced by his sister, he started playing the trumpet at the age of nine. He became interested in jazz music after he was introduced to the works of celebrated American jazz musicians such as Wynton Marsalis and Duke Ellington.

Continuing with his passion, he enrolled at the New World School of the Arts school in Miami to study music. After graduating in 1996, he moved to New York City to study jazz music at the Manhattan School of Music, where he got to study with noted jazz trumpeter Lew Soloff.

Career

In 1997, after three semesters of studying jazz at the Manhattan School of Music, Black was recruited to be the lead trumpeter for "Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra" band. The band was led by Wynton Marsalis, who had been performing with the Lincoln Center since 1987. Black was 19 at the time. He made his debut at the Lincoln center on January 11, 1997, at the "Jazz for Young People: What is Swing?" event at Alice Tully Hall.

Over the following six years, Black toured with the band domestically and internationally several times. In the spring of 2004, he left the orchestra to pursue a solo career in jazz and has been a known figure in the New York City jazz scene since. He performs with his own groups in and around New York and performs solo concerts and workshops throughout the world.

He is currently a member of the Grammy-winning jazz group Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra. The group is led by Arturo O'Farrill (son of Cuban composer Chico O'Farrill) and Black plays the trumpet alongside Jim Seeley, Rachel Therrien, and Bryan Davis. He is also a member of Canadian musician Darcy James Argue's New York-based jazz ensemble The Secret Society Music group, where he shares the stage with fellow trumpeters Matt Holman, Nadje Noordhuis, Mike Rodriguez, and David Smith.

Black has also backed up a range of jazz vocalists including Bobby Short, Patti LuPone, and Jennifer Holliday and has performed/worked with several famed jazz musicians and ensembles including The Oliver Lake Big Band, The New York State of the Art Jazz Ensemble, Josh Evans, The Charlie Haden Liberation Music Orchestra, Carla Bley, Bob Belden, and The Mingus Big Band. He has also been a part of The Max Weinberg band. (Weinberg is a longtime drummer for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and was the bandleader for Conan O'Brien's late-night TV shows.)

He can also be heard on recordings with the Awakening Orchestra and with Darcy James Argue, with Michael Dease, with Steve Lippia, and with Idan Santhaus.

Between 1998 and 2018, he had been involved in over 40 recording sessions.

Black and Arturo O'Farrill  performing 'O Susanna' (The Greene Space, New York, February 2019)