Trumpeter jaimie branch died one year ago this week, on August 22, 2022. The news hit the younger, hipper quarters of the jazz scene like a sledgehammer to the sternum. She'd already been on the scene for 15 years or more, but had really started to make an impact with the 2017 release of her first album under her own name, Fly Or Die. The album, which laid clarion-call trumpet lines atop thick grooves courtesy of bassist cellist Tomeka Reid, bassist Jason Ajemian, and drummer Chad Taylor, was old and new at once. The band's playing reminded me of the work of Julius Hemphill, and Branch herself had some of the abstraction of Bill Dixon, but she was much more in-your-face than he ever was. I chose Fly Or Die as the best jazz album of 2017, and I stand by that.
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Remembering jaimie branch
