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 David Berger, the Captain Black Big Band, the CTI All-Star Band, Orrin Evans, Pedro Giraudo, Slide Hampton, Jimmy Heath, the Mambo Legends Orchestra, matchbox twenty, Christian McBride, the New York City Ballet, Chico O’Farrill, Valery Ponomarev, Bobby Sanabria, Bruce Springsteen, Charles Tolliver, Bebo Valdéz, Max Weinberg, and many others. Recent tours include a trip to Taiwan with the Charles Tolliver Sextet and an extended US tour with Max Weinberg.

Todd keeps busy as a composer & arranger writing for many projects including the Captain Black Big Band, & the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra. He received an excellent review in the NY Times for an arrangement of Wave written for Slide Hampton. In July 2009 Todd arranged all of the music for the CTI All-Star Band premiered at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, & released on a blu-ray DVD. In Feb. 2011 the NY Times reviewed one of Todd's arrangements for the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra. In Dec. 2011 Todd arranged six movements of The Nutcracker for an all-star sax section featuring Branford Marsalis, Steve Wilson, Mark Gross and many others and also did all of the arrangements and transcriptions for a performance by Ballet Hispanico and the Afto Latin Jazz Orchestra at the Apollo Theater. Todd's arrangements can often be heard with the Captain Black Big Band.

Recent recordings of Todd include the 2011 Grammy nominated The Good Feeling - Christian McBride Big Band, Cordoba - Pedro Giraudo Jazz Orchestra, Ven Baila Conmigo - the Latin Giants of Jazz, and Emperor March: Live at the Blue Note - Charles Tolliver. Todd teaches Jazz Analysis at Queens College.