Biography
Trumpeter Cindy Bradley has built a dual career as a recording artist and educator with a focus on smooth jazz and instrumental pop. Her first full-length project arrived in 2007 under the title Just a Little Bit, and the following release, Bloom, marked her initial summit of the Billboard smooth jazz chart. Subsequent projects kept her visible on the broader jazz rankings, where Bliss in 2014 and the R&B-tinged The Little Things from 2019 both reached the Top Five.
She entered the world in North Tonawanda, New York, in 1977. Piano study occupied her early years, yet by age nine she had joined her school band on trumpet. Jazz captured her attention during adolescence, prompting enrollment in the jazz studies curriculum at Ithaca College in New York State. After completing that program she earned a second credential in jazz trumpet performance from the New England Conservatory in Boston. Since finishing her training, Bradley has balanced live performance and recording with classroom work, serving as an elementary band instructor in New Jersey whenever her schedule permits.
Her independent debut, Just a Little Bit, appeared in 2007 and was followed two years later by Bloom. Grammy Award-winning producer Michael Broening helmed the sessions, and the album climbed to number one on the Billboard smooth jazz chart. Unscripted arrived in 2011, returning her to the smooth-jazz summit while also landing inside the Top 20 of the overall jazz chart. Bliss, her fourth studio album and again produced by Broening, reached the Top Five of the Billboard Jazz Albums chart in 2014. Natural, issued in 2017 as her fourth project for the Trippin 'n' Rhythm label and fifth album in total, peaked at number six. A further collaboration with Broening yielded 2019’s The Little Things, which advanced to number four on the jazz chart and remains her highest placement to date.
She entered the world in North Tonawanda, New York, in 1977. Piano study occupied her early years, yet by age nine she had joined her school band on trumpet. Jazz captured her attention during adolescence, prompting enrollment in the jazz studies curriculum at Ithaca College in New York State. After completing that program she earned a second credential in jazz trumpet performance from the New England Conservatory in Boston. Since finishing her training, Bradley has balanced live performance and recording with classroom work, serving as an elementary band instructor in New Jersey whenever her schedule permits.
Her independent debut, Just a Little Bit, appeared in 2007 and was followed two years later by Bloom. Grammy Award-winning producer Michael Broening helmed the sessions, and the album climbed to number one on the Billboard smooth jazz chart. Unscripted arrived in 2011, returning her to the smooth-jazz summit while also landing inside the Top 20 of the overall jazz chart. Bliss, her fourth studio album and again produced by Broening, reached the Top Five of the Billboard Jazz Albums chart in 2014. Natural, issued in 2017 as her fourth project for the Trippin 'n' Rhythm label and fifth album in total, peaked at number six. A further collaboration with Broening yielded 2019’s The Little Things, which advanced to number four on the jazz chart and remains her highest placement to date.
Albums
Singles
