Jon Faddis

Jon Faddis (born July 24, 1953; Oakland, California) is an American jazz trumpet player, conductor, composer, and educator, celebrated for his virtuosic command of the upper register and for his role in preserving big band jazz traditions.

Early Life

Faddis was born in Oakland to Faddis Sr., a musician and civil rights activist, and Mildred "Millie" Marie Faddis, a musician, and was raised alongside his sisters Dora and Yvonne in a household that regularly welcomed jazz figures including Dizzy Gillespie and Ella Fitzgerald.

He began playing trumpet at around age seven or eight, inspired by a television appearance by Louis Armstrong on "The Ed Sullivan Show." He played in the Oakland Symphony's Youth Chamber Orchestra under composer Robert Hughes, and in 1970 took part in the ensemble's touring programme "The Black Composer in America," later recorded on the Desto label.

Three years after taking up the trumpet, his teacher Bill Catalano, a former Stan Kenton band member, introduced him to the music of Dizzy Gillespie, and by his mid-teens Faddis had met Gillespie in person at the Monterey Jazz Festival and sat in with his combo at San Francisco's Jazz Workshop, beginning a mentorship and friendship that lasted nearly three decades.
 

Career

Two days before his eighteenth birthday, Faddis joined Lionel Hampton's big band as a featured soloist and relocated from Oakland to New York. Shortly afterwards, he was invited to sit in with the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra at the Village Vanguard, quickly becoming the band's lead trumpeter and touring internationally with the group, including a tour of the Soviet Union, while also briefly studying at the Manhattan School of Music.

In his early twenties, he performed with Charles Mingus and established himself as a leading New York studio musician, recording with artists including Dizzy Gillespie, George Benson, Anthony Braxton, Kenny Burrell, Gil Evans, Les McCann, Brother Jack McDuff, Oscar Peterson, and Lalo Schifrin. He went on to direct several notable ensembles, including the Grammy-winning United Nation Orchestra, the Dizzy Gillespie 70th Birthday Big Band, and the Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All-Stars. From 1992 to 2002, he led the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, conducting more than forty concerts featuring over 135 musicians and premiering works by more than 35 composers and arrangers. In 1997, he composed the jazz opera Lulu Noire, presented in Charleston, South Carolina, and at the American Music Theater Festival in Philadelphia.

Faddis appeared as a trumpeter with The Louisiana Gator Boys in the 1998 film Blues Brothers 2000, and released the Grammy-nominated album Remembrances in 1999, featuring arrangements by Carlos Franzetti, alongside earlier solo recordings Into the Faddisphere (1989) and Hornucopia (1991). In 2004, he was appointed artistic director of the Chicago Jazz Ensemble at Columbia College Chicago, a post he held until 2010, while continuing to lead the Jon Faddis Jazz Orchestra of New York, formed in 2003. He has also appeared as guest conductor with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.

At the 2026 Grammy Awards, Faddis received a nomination for Best Latin Jazz Album as a featured trumpet soloist on The Original Influencers: Dizzy, Chano & Chico, a live recording by Arturo O'Farrill & The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra also featuring Pedrito Martinez, Daymé Arocena, Donald Harrison, and Melvis Santa.
 

Personal Life

Faddis has been married to Laurelyn Douglas since 2001, and the couple have a son, Tyler John, born in 2010. He is the uncle of hip hop producers Madlib and Oh No. In 1999, Faddis became the first Artist-in-Residence at Purchase College, SUNY, where he continues to serve as Professor of Music and Director of Jazz Performance at the Conservatory of Music, and he holds an honorary doctorate in jazz from the Manhattan School of Music. He has long championed jazz education, serving on the boards of organisations including the Jazz Foundation of America, the International Trumpet Guild, and the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation, and the Jon Faddis Award for Musical Excellence is presented annually to a promising young jazz trumpeter in the New York area. His decades-long friendship with Dizzy Gillespie, and his continued championing of Gillespie's music and legacy, remain a defining thread in his career and influence on generations of trumpet players.
 

Current Activities

Faddis continues to teach as Professor of Music at Purchase College, SUNY, and remains active as a performer and clinician, with confirmed 2026 appearances including the Mid Atlantic Jazz Festival in February and the USC Jazz Studies Essentially Ellington Regional as guest artist.