Alum trombonist's music career soaring

Wynton Marsalis thought he heard something in trombonist Wycliffe Gordon.

And Gordon has proved him right.

Gordon 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.

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