long left musician Terence Blanchard with little doubt that music would be a part of his future.

He began playing the piano at the tender age of five.

He also idolised two of jazz's greatest -- the late Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis.

So by the time he reached junior high he knew -- with firm persuasion from his father who was against him playing football -- music would be the focus of his life.

But the 30-year-old composer, writer and musician from the original sound track of the movie `Malcolm X', yesterday told The Royal Gazette he never dreamed he would personally get to know Davis and Gillespie.

Blanchard, who is on the Island to perform in a tribute to Gillespie and Davis tonight at Southampton Princess, yesterday recalled meeting both men in Italy for the first time in the mid 1980s.

He said Davis, who had seen a televised performance of Blanchard's band at a jazz festival in Florida, greeted him as a friend.

"It was very flattering for me because he's a person I grew up listening to, who I emulated.'' And at another occasion in Italy, Blanchard said Dizzy invited him to play a ballad with him.

So without hesitation, Blanchard said, he came to Bermuda for the first time to participate in the tribute.

Meeting the likes of Davis and Gillespie was just one of the many highlights in Blanchard's young life.

The well-known trumpeter has also been working with movie producer Spike Lee since `School Daze'.

But it was not until Lee's `Mo Better Blues', starring Denzel Washington as a jazz artist married to his music, that Blanchard began recording sound tracks for movies.

In fact, perfectionist Lee was so impressed with Blanchard's work that he called him in to work on `Jungle Fever' and his recent box office hit `Malcolm X'.

Blanchard, whose arrangements can be heard throughout the movie, said he began studying the script in September, 1991 and was allowed to review shoots.

While admitting that initially the thought of working on something relating to the outspoken civil rights leader was "overwhelming'', Blanchard said after talking with the movie's set designer he was able to look at his job as a project -- one he thoroughly enjoyed.

SALUTING JAZZ GREATS -- Composer, writer and musician of the original `Malcolm X' sound track, Mr. Terence Blanchard and his Quintet, will perform tonight at the Southampton Princess in a tribute to the late jazz greats Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis.