Suresh Singaratnam

Suresh Singaratnam is a trumpeter of uncommon breadth - unique not only for the small crowd he inhabits as a virtuoso of both classical and jazz styles but also for the continuity and clarity of his voice across both idioms. When he began to study the trumpet at age nine, it never occurred to him that he might have to choose between the two.

After one year at the University of Toronto Singaratnam transferred to Manhattan School of Music in New York City, a move whose tremendous impact on his life and psyche he chronicles in his debut jazz album: "Lost in New York". Even though Singaratnam focused on the classical style in his early lessons (probably because the technique came most naturally) it was jazz trumpet he went on to study as an undergraduate. Suresh studied with jazz great Lew Soloff but continued his classical trumpet studies with the New York Philharmonic's Vincent Penzarella.

"Lost in New York" was years in the making and literally narrates several years of the artist's life during his time in New York. The program is eclectic, ranging from intervalic and twelve-tonal to singable originals evocative of Strayhorn and Johnny Mercer. Jazz and classical trumpet are idioms with different techniques, assumptions, and histories, and unlike some other dual-idiomist trumpeters before him (admittedly a small group) Singaratnam approaches each on its own terms. Still, an aesthetic thread conjoins them: more a matter of taste than of technique or sound.

- Nathaniel Smith