RISING STAR TRUMPETER & COMPOSER BRANDON WOODY RELEASES HIS STUNNING DEBUT ALBUM FOR THE LOVE OF IT ALL

09 MAY 2025 (TORONTO, ON) — Rising star trumpeter and composer Brandon Woody has released his stunning debut album, For The Love Of It All, which is out today on Blue Note Records. Joined by his band Upendo — Troy Long (piano, organ, Rhodes, keyboards), Quincy Phillips (drums), and Michael Saunders (bass) with special guests Imani-Grace (vocals), Vittorio Stropoli (aux synth) — the Baltimore-born and based artist extends an invitation into communion with a striking body of work that is a manifesto, a ritual, and a hymn to the enduring power of love.

Woody was named artist to watch in the Los Angeles Times, while profiles of the trumpeter have run in The New York Times and Washington Post. In a rave 4-star review, DownBeat exclaimed “There’s a lot to love in Brandon Woody’s trumpet playing, the sure-footed agility of his 16th notes, the conversational cast of his phrasing, the deft attention to dynamics – but it’s his tone that ultimately seals the deal. Rich and expressive… offering warmth and strength in equal measure… his writing is resolutely tuneful… his solos are blessed with a remarkable sense of narrative… A spectacular debut on all fronts.”

Woody is both an innovator and a griot, balancing technical mastery with a reverence for his roots. The album anchors itself in the past while reverberating forward, tethering listeners to something larger than themselves. Each song emits a lineage of perseverance, an inheritance of resilience passed down through intuitive memory. This project sews a tapestry of music that holds space for the unseen — love in its purest form: communal, generational, and radical. In every track, love is palpable, not idealized, but complex, textured, and human. This is music that carries, uplifts, and insists that survival is its own form of artistry, powered by the knowledge that love, in all its dimensions, is what binds us across generations and geographies.

BRANDON WOODY & UPENDO – TOUR DATES:
May 17 – Exit Zero Jazz Festival – Cape May, NJ
May 23 – Current Space – Baltimore, MD
May 26 – Atlanta Jazz Festival – Atlanta, GA
May 27 – Clay Center – Charleston, WV
June 14 – Blue Note Jazz Festival – Los Angeles, CA
June 15 – San Francisco Jazz Festival - San Francisco, CA
June 29 – Montreal International Jazz Festival – Montreal, QB
July 2-3 – Blue Note Tokyo – Tokyo, Japan
July 12 – The Parks at Walter Reed – Washington, DC
Sept. 27 – Monterey Jazz Festival – Monterey, CA
Nov. 9 – The Tarkington – Carmel, IN

FOLLOW BRANDON WOODY:
Website • Instagram

---