The mentorship ethos that guides Blanchard's band is also central to the Monk Institute, which established its two-year performance program in 1995. Unique in jazz education, it admits just seven students at a time, bringing them into regular contact not only with Blanchard but also legends like Hancock, the institute's chairman. Each class works as a band and participates in an outreach with area high schools. Among the program's success stories is Loueke.
When the institute's contract was ending at USC, a number of prestigious universities indicated their interest. Blanchard campaigned for Loyola, where he met his first trumpet teacher and gave his senior recital, partly on the basis of its existing commitment to music. Of course its location had some resonance too.
"It's a means for us to give back to the community, and to have this continuing love affair with the city," he said of the move, during an impromptu tour of the facilities. "But to do it in this way in particular is what I'm most proud of, because we're not trying to create something from scratch. We're taking something that has already worked, and bringing it here. It's like putting a beautiful orchid in some seriously fertilized soil."
That metaphor could apply to Blanchard. It's been more than 25 years since he left New Orleans to pursue his career, more than a decade since he moved back to be near his two other children, Terence and Olivia, after his first marriage ended.
Now, though he keeps an apartment in Los Angeles and tours often, his roots have clearly been reinforced. He knows well the problems still facing New Orleans - a natural topic of conversation at dinner with Garland Robinette, the talk-radio host who famously broadcast through the storm - but he's committed to its renewal.
Together with Burgess and their daughters, he awaits the renovation of their new house uptown, which will include a cavernous attic studio, soundproofed and wired, where he can work on film music. It will be a five-minute walk from the Monk Institute, where he sees at least one facet of the city's future brimming with promise.
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