At the 2026 Grammy Awards, two Princeton faculty members won. Professor Todd Bashore is now a veteran of the awards. He sat down for an interview with The Daily Princetonian.
Princeton’s Director of the Creative Large Ensemble, Todd Bashore, is not new to the Grammys. With more than a dozen nominations for the Grammy and Latin Grammy awards, including eight wins for a range of Jazz albums, his most recent win two weeks ago at the 2026 Grammys only serves to reinforce Bashore’s continued prowess as a composer, saxophonist, and flutist.
This album featured Bashore on Christian McBride’s big band on the track “Without Further Ado, Vol. 1.” “Christian’s got the magic touch when it comes to Grammys,” Bashore said. “This was our fourth big band record, and all four have won Grammys.”
Getting to collaborate once more with “one of the greatest bass players in the world” gives him a joy beyond mere success, Bashore described. For him, “public success was just a chance to play.” While following his musical passion is more than enough for Bashore, his treatment of stage performance as his “religion” has earned wide critical acclaim. Even off-stage, in the recording studio, Bashore finds similar solace in the company of his bandmates. In a band setting, solos and flashiness take a back seat for the sake of the others, with Bashore specifically noting that “when you’re backing up a vocalist, your job is to make the vocalist sound good.”
Bashore and McBride have collaborated in the past on purely band-track albums, or albums without vocalists. But, the diversity of voices in “Without Further Ado,” Bashore notes, is part of what makes it so special.
However, Bashore also noted that Grammy wins don’t come purely from artistic success.
“There’s a political aspect, there’s Christian’s name,” he told the ‘Prince.’ Notoriety is what often secures the win, Bashore noted. “You can’t take it too seriously.” Many of the people who win are “the ones who are most proactive in promoting themselves” rather than genuinely being more accomplished than their competitors, he described. Bashore emphasized that despite this, the nominated musicians themselves are “all great musicians,” even if they lack necessary connections to win.
At Princeton, Bashore started directing the Creative Large Ensemble this fall. He says that he has already “done the real-world performance thing” and is now bringing that experience to the classes he teaches. Having studied music with big names in jazz like Paul Jeffrey, who had played with Thelonious Monk and Charles Mingus, at Duke University, Bashore brings a perspective as a student, professional, and now educator to those in his ensemble. Jeffrey had been a “very hard” teacher to Bashore, but that grit had put Bashore on the path to where he is now. He wants to bring this grit to his new teaching position, asserting that “students should be pushed to play at that level,” as he knows what they are capable of.
But before those names meant anything to Bashore, and before the Grammys were even in his mental ethos, he states that “it was never [his] goal to go out and win Grammys.” It was just to “play music and make a career out of it,” something that few people get to experience. “The bandstand is like your temple… to play music for a living is a blessing,” Bashore said.
Bashore’s final message to students looking to fulfill a musical performance dream?
“Practice. Don’t make excuses. Practice.”
Donnacha Dennehy, the other Grammy winner from Princeton, also sat for an interview with the ‘Prince.’ Read it here.
Devon Williams is a contributing writer for The Prospect and a member of the Class of 2028. She can be reached at dw9268[at]princeton.edu.
Please send corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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