Ryan Porter, a trombonist who became a beloved fixture of the Los Angeles-based West Coast Get Down jazz scene and played on key albums by Kendrick Lamar and Kamasi Washington, has died, the Los Angeles Times reports. Porter passed away Saturday after injuries sustained in a severe car crash April 28. He was 46.
Porter's friend and fellow musician Tony Austin posted this tribute to Instagram:
It is with profound sorrow to announce that Ryan Keith Porter has passed. On Tuesday evening, April 28th, Ryan was involved in a severe car accident that resulted in life altering injuries. Despite the best medical care, his condition deteriorated. On May 16th Ryan took his last breath, peacefully surrounded by his loved ones.
Ryan was like a brother to me. We have been in each other’s lives since we were kids. Ryan’s love for music and his overall compassion for humanity was infectious and truly inspiring. He enriched my life in a way that I will carry with me forever. I can imagine that holds true for many of his friends, loved ones, and family. My heart is gutted, but I am thankful that his soul can now rest in peace in the heavens above.
Born in Los Angeles in 1979, Porter studied music under Reggie Andrews in the Multi-School Jazz Band in Watts. There, he forged connections with future collaborators like Kamasi Washington, Terrace Martin, Ronald Bruner, and Ronald's brother Stephen, aka Thundercat. He later studied under jazz trombonists Steve Turre and David Taylor at the Manhattan School of Music before returning to
That community of musicians fostered a bustling creative community that spilled over from jazz into the city's hip-hop scene and beyond. Late 2000s sessions in Washington's parents' garage, known as the Shack, led to regular gigs at the World Stage in Leimert Park. They also took part in a marathon 30-day session at Kingsize Soundlabs in December 2011 that yielded music for seven separate albums, including Washington's breakthrough triple album The Epic, which finally saw release in 2015.
The West Coast Get Down crew's playing on The Epic and Kendrick Lamar's 2015 jazz-rap freakout To Pimp A Butterfly led to a breakthrough moment for Porter and his community, drawing rave reviews and affirming the West Coast Get Down scene as a major factor in the jazz world. The attention opened the door for more ears on Porter's own work. After dropping the children's album Spangle-Lang Lane in 2017, he released three albums of his own, each with a relentlessly positive disposition: 2018's The Optimist, 2019’s Force For Good, and 2022’s Resilience, as well as the live album Live In Paris At New Morning.
Porter continued to be a fixture of Washington's albums, and the two of them regularly shared the stage. The trombonist also had credits with artists including Michael Bublé, Diana Krall, Leon Russell, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Quincy Jones, Gladys Knight, and more. In 2024, he released Resilience, a documentary about the free music education programs in Watts and greater Los Angeles that supported his own musical development. "In the inner city, you can be a gang member or drug dealer, but most kids want to take their best steps,” Porter told the LA Times that same year. "Friends and music teachers inspired me through their work ethic, giving us a place to perform where we could take advantage of that expertise. Now it’s our turn to take care of them for the next generation."
