Gerard Presencer

English jazz trumpeter (born 1972)

Gerard Presencer (born 12 September 1972) is an English jazz trumpeter.

Presencer showed his first interest in what was to become his chosen instrument, the trumpet, at the age of nine. He attributes his early determination to become a trumpeter to hearing Roy Eldridge's solo from a Jazz at the Philharmonic concert. He has cited Dizzy Gillespie, Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard, Kenny Wheeler, Woody Shaw, and Clifford Brown as early influences. When Presencer was 11 years old, he became the youngest trumpeter with the National Youth Jazz Orchestra. At the age of 18, he began playing with pianist Stan Tracey, in his big band, octet, septet, and in duo, playing a live concert at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall, later released on Blue Note Records. Presencer worked with British musicians Peter King, John Dankworth, John Taylor, Ronnie Scott, Norma Winstone, and Mike Gibbs, as well as with international musicians, including Johnny Griffin, Chris Potter, Mark Turner, Niels Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Randy Brecker, Red Rodney, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, John Abercrombie, and Bob Berg. Pesencer is a member of Charlie Watts' various jazz groups, with which he has recorded five albums, and was a featured soloist on US3's Cantaloop, Blue Note's biggest selling album of the 1990s. He has also released albums as a band leader. In January 2010, Presencer was as a soloist with the Danish Radio Big Band for the opening of the Danish National Concert Hall. Later the same year, he became a regular member of the big band and moved to Copenhagen.

Presencer has collaborated frequently with contemporary classical music composer Siobhan Lamb as an improvising soloist. Two albums were released in 2012 by the Naxos label Proprius: Meditations and The Nightingale and the Rose. As a session musician, Presencer has recorded with Sting, Jamiroquai, Zero 7, James Brown, Ray Charles, Joni Mitchell, and Jonny Greenwood. Presencer is the featured soloist on the 2011 BAFTA Award winning score for the computer game L. A. Noire, which features Mark Turner, John Taylor, David Freidman, Jeff Ballard, and Larry Grenadier.

Presencer was the Head of the Jazz Department at the Royal Academy of Music from 1999 until 2010 and was Head of the Brass Department at The Jazz Institute, Berlin, from 1999 to 2016. He has given workshops in European jazz conservatories (including Amsterdam, Helsinki and Copenhagen). In 2015, his book about the technical requirements of trumpet playing in improvised music was released by Warwick Music.