Tuesday, November 3 @ 7:00 pm
National Jazz Museum in Harlem
Few musicians transformed the sound and possibilities of the trumpet as profoundly as Miles Davis. As part of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem’s Miles 100 series, curator Nabaté Isles brings together five distinctive trumpeters from different generations, Eddie Henderson, Jimmy Owens, Ralph Alessi, David Adewumi, and one final special guest, for a conversation exploring Miles’s influence, the evolution of the instrument, and what it means to develop an individual voice in jazz.
Eddie Henderson is a celebrated trumpeter, composer, and psychiatrist whose relationship with Miles was both musical and personal. Henderson first met Davis as a teenager in San Francisco, where Miles was a friend of his family and encouraged the young trumpeter to pursue music. Henderson went on to become a key member of Herbie Hancock’s groundbreaking Mwandishi ensemble and has built a career spanning decades.
Jimmy Owens is an NEA Jazz Master, trumpeter, flugelhornist, composer, educator, and longtime advocate for jazz musicians. As a teenager, Owens famously sat in with Miles Davis at Harlem’s Small’s Paradise, beginning a years-long acquaintance with Davis. His extraordinary career has included work with Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus, Max Roach, Lionel Hampton, and the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra.
Ralph Alessi is an acclaimed trumpeter, composer, ECM recording artist, and educator known for his adventurous approach to improvisation and composition. A prominent voice in contemporary jazz, he has performed and recorded with artists including Steve Coleman, Jason Moran, Ravi Coltrane, Fred Hersch, and Don Byron, while mentoring generations of improvisers through his teaching and the School for Improvisational Music.
David Adewumi is an award-winning trumpeter, composer, and educator whose work draws upon the tradition of Black improvisational music while pushing toward new musical possibilities. A graduate of the New England Conservatory and Juilliard, he was the first jazz musician to receive a Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans and won first prize in the Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Solo Competition. His collaborators have included Jason Moran, Dave Douglas, and Vijay Iyer.
Stay tuned for the final panelist:
Together, these artists span generations of jazz trumpet, from musicians who knew Miles personally to emerging artists encountering his legacy more than three decades after his passing. Their perspectives offer a unique opportunity to consider Miles not simply as an iconic trumpeter, but as an artist whose pursuit of sound, individuality, and constant reinvention continues to challenge and inspire musicians today.
Nabate Isles:
Nabaté Isles is a Grammy-winning trumpeter, composer, producer, and sports broadcaster born and raised in New York City. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music and New York University, he has performed, toured, and recorded with artists including Christian McBride, Sting, Yasiin Bey, Robert Glasper, Dianne Reeves, Gregory Porter, Angélique Kidjo, Jill Scott, and Chuck D. Isles appears on four Grammy-winning albums with the Christian McBride Big Band and has released two albums as a leader, Eclectic Excursions and En Motion.
Alongside his music career, Isles has built an extensive career in sports broadcasting and journalism, covering the NBA, NFL, MLB, NCAA basketball, and championship boxing. He served as a producer for SiriusXM NBA Radio and co-hosted the SiriusXM boxing program Going the Distance with Teddy Atlas and Wally Matthews. His work has included producing in-depth programs exploring basketball history and the intersections of sports, music, and culture. He also created and hosts the podcast Where They At, featuring conversations with prominent retired athletes and cultural figures.
Miles 100
One hundred years after his birth, Miles Davis remains one of the most influential and compelling figures in American music and culture. Curated by trumpeter Nabaté Isles, the National Jazz Museum in Harlem’s Miles 100 series brings together musicians, artists, writers, and cultural figures to explore Miles’s extraordinary legacy, restless creativity, and the people, ideas, and stories that shaped his life and work.
The National Jazz Museum in Harlem’s Miles 100 series is made possible in part with support from the National Endowment for the Arts.
We are your go-to venue for off-site meetings, receptions, film screenings, workshops, networking events, socials and more. Located in the heart of Central Harlem’s thriving culinary and entertainment district, The National Jazz Museum in Harlem is the perfect place to hold your next gathering.