A temporary gig turns into a career fortrombonist Wycliffe Gordon

 

Wynton Marsalis thought he heard something in trombonist Wycliffe Gordon.

And Gordon has proved him right.

Gordon, who leads a band at the Blue Room on Saturday, was still in school when Marsalis thrust him into the spotlight. They’d met when Gordon was a sophomore at Florida A&M University and Marsalis came to give a lecture.

“He got there early and came to our jazz band rehearsal,” Gordon recalls. Marsalis liked what he heard from the trombonist and decided to stay in touch.

“He called me for a gig in February 1988. … I was utterly unprepared,” Gordon says. “But I left there with a lot of information. And he called me again about 10 months later for a gig at Blues Alley in Washington, D.C.”

Soon Gordon was recording with the Marsalis band, going on tour and writing for them.

“It was a temporary deal that turned into my career,” he says. “I was there from 1989 to 2000.”

If you didn’t hear the trombonist with Marsalis, there’s still a good chance you’ve heard him. Gordon, 42 and a Georgia native, is heard on National Public Radio every day, literally — and has been since 1995.

At the beginning of each “All Things Considered” broadcast, you hear the theme in his arrangement, and that’s his horn anchoring the ensemble. (Gordon is modest about this achievement: “They probably asked Wynton to do it, and he had so much on his plate he asked me to do it.”)

Now he’s establishing a wide-ranging solo career. He has 13 CDs as leader to his credit, along with a film score and an instructional DVD.

He’s writing prolifically.

“I’m writing all the time. I’m trying to publish all my music now. … Big-band music, choir music, concert music, gospel music, small-group things. And I’m working on my method book, my method of teaching trombone and improvisation.”

And he’s touring abundantly, playing shows and teaching.

“I was home four days last month, five days the month before. This month it’s eight days.”

With all that experience, he isn’t worried about taking the stage in Kansas City with a group of musicians he’s never played with before, assembled for the occasion by Gerald Dunn.

“I’ll bring some music with me,” he says. “I’ll know from the first conversation what we can do and what we can’t.”