Todd Bashore was born in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He received his bachelor’s degree in music from Duke University where he studied saxophone, composition and arranging with Paul Jeffrey. Upon graduation, Todd moved to New York City to study with jazz legends Jimmy Heath and Roland Hanna at Queens College, where he received his master’s degree in 1996.

Todd has been active in the New York jazz scene ever since, performing and recording with Toshiko Akiyoshi, David Berger, the CTI All-Star Band, the Duke Ellington Orchestra, Orrin Evans, the Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All-Star Band, Pedro Giraudo, Slide Hampton, Jimmy Heath, the Latin Giants Orchestra, matchbox twenty, Christian McBride, the Mingus Big Band, the New York City Ballet, Chico O’Farrill, Ken Peplowski, Charli Persip, Valery Ponomarev, Bobby Sanabria, Bobby Short, Charles Tolliver, Bebo Valdéz, Howard Williams, Zen Zadravec and many others. He recently completed tours of France, South Africa and Morocco with the Latin Giants Orchestra, Macau with Pedro Giraudo, several tours of Europe and Japan with Charles Tolliver, and performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival with the CTI All-Star Band. Todd also performs at Birdland in New York City every Sunday with the Chico O’Farrill Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra.

Todd keeps busy as a composer and arranger and has written for HBO’s Sex and the City, for Slide Hampton’s recording Spirit of the Horn, and over fifty big band arrangements for The Supper Club in New York. He received an excellent review in the NY Times for an arrangement of Wave he was commissioned to write for Slide Hampton’s band.In 2008 & 2009 Todd was commissioned to write eleven arrangements for reed and mouthpiece manufacturer Vandoren. In July 2009 Todd arranged all of the music for the CTI All-Star Band which was premiered at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, and will be released on a forthcoming blu-ray DVD.

Recent (2009) recordings of Todd include El Viaje by the Pedro Giraudo Jazz Orchestra, Ven Baila Conmigo by the Latin Giants of Jazz, and Emperor March: Live at the Blue Note by Charles Tolliver where Todd is a featured soloist on the title track. 2010 releases will include recordings with Christian McBride, Orrin Evans, Pedro Giraudo, and the CTI All-Star Band.