An expressive, harmonically daring jazz trumpeter, composer, and educator, John McNeil carved a distinctive path over his 50-year career, moving ably between post-bop jazz, standards, and more avant-garde-leaning productions. A California native, McNeil first arrived on the scene in New York in the '70s as a member of the Horace Silver Quintet. He caught the attention of SteepleChase Records, which signed him to a recording contract and released a handful of well-regarded standards-based albums beginning with 1978's Embarkation. Born with a rare genetic disorder that affected ...