Russell Gunn & Blackhawk - Current Project

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Russell Gunn born October 20, 1971 in Chicago Il. USA and raised in East St. Louis Il. USA Is an American-African, Pan–African contemporary composer, producer, and trumpeter. He has produced two Grammy nominated recordings, Ethnomusicology vol. 1 and Vol.2 on the Atlantic Records and Justin Time labels.

His initial musical interest was the American-African Gospel music of his paternal Grandmothers church and later Hip Hop/Rap Music of the 1980’s before being introduced to “Jazz” at age 14.

In 1989 while still in high school in East St. Louis, IL. Gunn was named the best all around trumpet player in the country in a field that included college and professional trumpet players by Music Fest USA sponsored by Downbeat magazine. 

Even though Gunn had scholarship offers to many major universityʼs including Berklee School of Music, Russell decided to attend the Historically Black University, Jackson State University in Mississippi, where he was a music major and marched in the award winning marching band the “Sonic Boom of The South”. 

Gunn moved to New York from the St. Louis area in 1993 where he became a member of the Wynton Marsalis big band now known as Jazz At Lincoln Center and was in the trumpet section with Marcus Printup and Roger Ingram on the Pulitzer Prize winning Jazz Oratorio composed by Wynton “Blood On The Fields” 

Gunn is the founder, composer, and director of the contemporary big band, ‘The Royal Krunk Jazz Orkestra’, which has three releases to date, “Get It How You Live”, “Pyramids”, and “The Sirius Mystery” on the Ropeadope Label.

Gunn was commissioned by The Apollo Theater of New York to compose “The Blues and It’s People”, a commemoration of Amiri Baraka’s seminal text “Blues People” and was performed in February of 2023 and The Apollo Theater and in May of 2023 at Symphony Hall in Atlanta, Ga.

His first recording as a sideman was in 1993 with the great Alto saxophonist and native of St. Louis, The founder of the World Saxophone Quartet, Oliver Lake. With a “Tribute to Eric Dolphy”. 
 

As a trumpet player Russell has performed and toured with a whoʼs who in contemporary music including Oliver Lake, Branford Marsalisʼ Buckshot LeFonque, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Maxwell, DʼAngelo, Jimmy Heath, Roy Hargrove big band, Lou Reed, Cee Lo Green, Ne-Yo, Marcus Miller, Benny Golson, Young Jeezy, Les Nubian, and Harry Connick Jr. among others.