Charlie Porter is a GRAMMY Award–winning jazz trumpeter and composer who has been active on the international jazz scene for over two decades. He has released six albums as a leader, including Immigration Nation, which was named one of the Best Albums of the Year by DownBeat. As a performer and bandleader, Porter has appeared at major jazz festivals worldwide and at leading New York venues including The Blue Note, Smalls, Dizzies Club, Birdland, and The Jazz Gallery among many others.

 

Porter has collaborated and performed with a wide range of artists across generations of jazz, including Joe Zawinul, Orrin Evans, Chuck Israels, Kenny Washington, Paquito D’Rivera, Winard Harper, and the Dizzy Gillespie All-Stars, among many others. His work emphasizes long-form composition, ensemble interplay, and concept-driven projects. DownBeat has described his playing as “fluid, expressive, and magnificent.” In addition to his work as a recording artist, he continues to develop new projects that explore the evolving language of modern jazz.

 

Charlie's current work includes the upcoming release of his seventh album as a leader, Sci-Fi Standards, Vol. 1: The Future We Knew, due this summer. The project reimagines music from classic science-fiction cinema through an original jazz lens, blending composition, improvisation, and ensemble interplay. The album’s release will coincide with tours throughout the East Coast, West Coast, and Asia.

 

Porter holds degrees from The Juilliard School and Manhattan School of music in jazz and classical performance. He was also a Fulbright Scholar at the Paris Conservatory. Before his college studies, he attended the Palm Beach County School of the Arts. Among many awards to his credit, Charlie was the first trumpeter to win 1st place in both the classical and jazz divisions of the National Trumpet Competition. As a composer, he has been commissioned by Chamber Music America and the Doris Duke Foundation. 

 

Some of Charlie’s most influential music mentors have included Wynton Marsalis, George Davis, Tony York, Sy Pryweller, Randy Sonntag, Wayne Miller, Raymond Mase, Mark Gould, Guy Touvron, Laurie Frink and Cecil Bridgewater.

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Charlie is currently a professor of trumpet at New York University.