Biography
Vince Mendoza stands out as a versatile arranger and composer who has earned multiple Grammy Awards through his sophisticated work that draws from post-bop jazz, classical music, and pop while embracing crossover elements both musically and culturally. He first gained notice during the 1980s through arrangements supplied for Joni Mitchell, Charlie Haden, and additional artists. For many years he served as chief conductor of the Dutch Metropole Orkest, during which time he issued his own recordings and partnered with Elvis Costello and John Scofield. Among his leader projects are the 1999 release Epiphany and the 2011 album Nights on Earth. He led the Czech National Symphony Orchestra on the 2021 project Freedom Over Everything and rejoined the Metropole Orkest for the 2023 recording Olympians.
Mendoza was born in 1961 in Norwalk, Connecticut, where he began classical guitar and piano studies at age six. His interest in jazz and soul music prompted a switch to trumpet during high school, after which he attended Ohio State University to pursue composition while also learning drums and bass and performing with various jazz and concert groups. He later completed graduate studies in composition at the University of Southern California. Settling in Los Angeles, he secured studio assignments writing for television and film, and during those years he formed connections within the pop and jazz communities that led to arrangement work on albums by drummer Peter Erskine, bassist Charlie Haden, singer-songwriter Rickie Lee Jones, and others.
He soon earned recognition for skill in combining acoustic and electric instruments, a quality evident on his 1990 debut Start Here, which included saxophonist Joe Lovano along with guitarists John Scofield and Ralph Towner. Subsequent releases maintained a similarly wide-ranging crossover approach, among them 1991’s Instructions Inside with Lovano, saxophonist Bob Mintzer, and trumpeter Randy Brecker; 1993’s Sketches with saxophonist David Liebman, drummer Erskine, and the WDR Big Band; and 1999’s Epiphany, featuring the London Symphony Orchestra plus jazz soloists such as Lovano, trumpeter Kenny Wheeler, and others.
In the late 1990s Mendoza assumed the role of chief conductor with the Dutch Metropole Orkest. Over roughly the following two decades he divided his time between Los Angeles and Europe while providing arrangements for an array of artists that included Björk, Chris Botti, and Joni Mitchell. He also produced several well-regarded albums with the Orkest, such as 2006’s My Flame Burns Blue with Elvis Costello, 2007’s The Look of Love: Burt Bacharach Songbook with Trijntje Oosterhuis, and 2010’s Fast City: A Tribute to Joe Zawinul. That same year the Orkest issued the album 54, which featured John Scofield on guitar and earned Mendoza a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement on the opening track “Carlos.” He followed with the widely praised solo album Nights on Earth in 2011 and, two years later, Perfect Vision: The Esquivel Sound, marking the conclusion of his tenure with the Metropole Orkest.
After leaving the Orkest, Mendoza resumed solo and session projects, delivering arrangements for Andrea Bocelli, Madeleine Peyroux, Diana Krall, and many additional artists. His own 2017 release Homecoming involved original material developed in collaboration with the WDR Big Band. In 2019 he joined trumpeter Terell Stafford, saxophonist Dick Oatts, and the Temple University Studio Orchestra on the Grammy-nominated Constant Renaissance, which presented original compositions reflecting Philadelphia’s jazz legacy. During 2020 he arranged and conducted the WDR Big Band behind drummer-composer Antonio Sanchez on Channels of Energy.
In 2021 Mendoza issued Freedom Over Everything, recorded with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra and jazz soloists that included Joshua Redman. The collection contained expansive original works reflecting on the United States following the 2016 election, the killing of George Floyd by police officers, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the pacifist civil-rights principles of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The album received international praise and strong sales. He returned to the Metropole Orkest for the 2023 release Olympians, presenting original compositions written for the ensemble across twenty-eight years and featuring soloists such as saxophonists Chris Potter and David Binney, vocalists Cecile McLorin Salvant and Dianne Reeves, percussionist Alex Acuña, and guitarist-charango player Ramón Stagnaro.
Mendoza was born in 1961 in Norwalk, Connecticut, where he began classical guitar and piano studies at age six. His interest in jazz and soul music prompted a switch to trumpet during high school, after which he attended Ohio State University to pursue composition while also learning drums and bass and performing with various jazz and concert groups. He later completed graduate studies in composition at the University of Southern California. Settling in Los Angeles, he secured studio assignments writing for television and film, and during those years he formed connections within the pop and jazz communities that led to arrangement work on albums by drummer Peter Erskine, bassist Charlie Haden, singer-songwriter Rickie Lee Jones, and others.
He soon earned recognition for skill in combining acoustic and electric instruments, a quality evident on his 1990 debut Start Here, which included saxophonist Joe Lovano along with guitarists John Scofield and Ralph Towner. Subsequent releases maintained a similarly wide-ranging crossover approach, among them 1991’s Instructions Inside with Lovano, saxophonist Bob Mintzer, and trumpeter Randy Brecker; 1993’s Sketches with saxophonist David Liebman, drummer Erskine, and the WDR Big Band; and 1999’s Epiphany, featuring the London Symphony Orchestra plus jazz soloists such as Lovano, trumpeter Kenny Wheeler, and others.
In the late 1990s Mendoza assumed the role of chief conductor with the Dutch Metropole Orkest. Over roughly the following two decades he divided his time between Los Angeles and Europe while providing arrangements for an array of artists that included Björk, Chris Botti, and Joni Mitchell. He also produced several well-regarded albums with the Orkest, such as 2006’s My Flame Burns Blue with Elvis Costello, 2007’s The Look of Love: Burt Bacharach Songbook with Trijntje Oosterhuis, and 2010’s Fast City: A Tribute to Joe Zawinul. That same year the Orkest issued the album 54, which featured John Scofield on guitar and earned Mendoza a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement on the opening track “Carlos.” He followed with the widely praised solo album Nights on Earth in 2011 and, two years later, Perfect Vision: The Esquivel Sound, marking the conclusion of his tenure with the Metropole Orkest.
After leaving the Orkest, Mendoza resumed solo and session projects, delivering arrangements for Andrea Bocelli, Madeleine Peyroux, Diana Krall, and many additional artists. His own 2017 release Homecoming involved original material developed in collaboration with the WDR Big Band. In 2019 he joined trumpeter Terell Stafford, saxophonist Dick Oatts, and the Temple University Studio Orchestra on the Grammy-nominated Constant Renaissance, which presented original compositions reflecting Philadelphia’s jazz legacy. During 2020 he arranged and conducted the WDR Big Band behind drummer-composer Antonio Sanchez on Channels of Energy.
In 2021 Mendoza issued Freedom Over Everything, recorded with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra and jazz soloists that included Joshua Redman. The collection contained expansive original works reflecting on the United States following the 2016 election, the killing of George Floyd by police officers, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the pacifist civil-rights principles of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The album received international praise and strong sales. He returned to the Metropole Orkest for the 2023 release Olympians, presenting original compositions written for the ensemble across twenty-eight years and featuring soloists such as saxophonists Chris Potter and David Binney, vocalists Cecile McLorin Salvant and Dianne Reeves, percussionist Alex Acuña, and guitarist-charango player Ramón Stagnaro.
Albums
