Artist biography

About Freddie

A career shaped by jazz tradition, contemporary rhythm, collaboration, education and the Baltimore–Washington music community.

Trumpeter Freddie Dunn Jr. was born and raised in northern New Jersey and came of age musically in the New York/New Jersey scene of the late 1980s. He later returned to Maryland to complete work toward a degree in classical trumpet and became a fixture in the Baltimore–Washington music circuit.

Over the years, Dunn has toured internationally with Fertile Ground, Lafayette Gilchrist’s New Volcanoes and his own projects. His trumpet and flugelhorn can be heard in settings ranging from soul-jazz and straight-ahead jazz to dance music, hip-hop and jazz-funk fusion.

He is prominently associated with Fertile Ground and appears on Spiritual War, Seasons Change and Black Is…. He also appears with Lafayette Gilchrist & The New Volcanoes on Soul Progressin’.

Since making Washington, DC his home, Dunn has expanded his work as an educator, clinician and community artist while continuing to perform, record and collaborate.

Close-up of Freddie Dunn playing trumpet outdoors
Career path

Selected highlights

1990s–present
Freelance trumpeter, studio musician, bandleader and featured soloist throughout the Baltimore–Washington corridor and beyond.
Fertile Ground
Member and recording trumpeter on multiple releases, combining jazz language with soul and groove.
New Volcanoes
Longtime collaborator with pianist Lafayette Gilchrist in a hard-driving jazz-funk setting.
Education
Instrumental teaching, band direction, clinics, private instruction and community jazz education.