Born In Chicago and raised in East St Louis Illinois, Russell Gunn is a Pan-African Composer, producer and Trumpeter. While his initial musical interest was American Hip-Hop, he has been celebrated as a Jazz trumpeter from his early years to this day. In High School Gunn was named best all around trumpet player in the country, in a field that included college and professional players. Gunn declined scholarships from major universities, including Berklee School Of Music, to attend Jackson State University, a historically Black University.
In 1993 Russell moved to New York, performing as a member of the Wynton Marsalis Big Band, Known now as Jazz At Lincoln Center. He was in the trumpet section with Marcus Printupo and Roger Ingram on the Pulitzer Prize winning Jazz Oratorio ‘Blood On The Fields’ (composed By Marsalis). His first recording was with the great alto Saxophonist and St Louis native Oliver Lake on the album ‘Tribute to Eric Dolphy’.
Russell Gunn has performed with the best in contemporary music: Oliver Lake, Branford Marsalis, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Maxwell, DʼAngelo, Angie Stone, Jimmy Heath, Roy Hargrove big band, Lou Reed, Cee Lo Green, Ne-Yo, Marcus Miller, Benny Golson, Young Jeezy, Joi, Les Nubian, and Harry Connick Jr. and many more. He has achieved two Grammy nominations for the albums Ethnomusicology Vol 1 and Vol 2
Gunn is the founder, composer, and director of contemporary big band ‘The Royal Krunk Jazz Orkestra’, with two releases to date - Get It How You Live, and Pyramids. Get It How You Live introduces us to the band, expressing their contemporary style and leading us toward Gunn's seminal work, a trilogy that represents the artist’s search to tell the expansive story of the African diaspora and the rich history it carries. Pyramids is the first in a three album set that carries us further into Gunn's world of discovery and expression. Pyramids delves (musically) into the true splendor of the Kemetic and Nubian peoples, whose accomplishments have been buried through years of rewritten European history.
In the second album, titled 'The Sirius Mystery'. Russell Gunn goes further into the concept of oral tradition that has been overwritten by the European technology. Following an ancestry tracing, Gunn found his roots in Mali, which piqued his interest in the country and specifically the Dogon (Kaado) people. People whose knowledge of space and planetary positions has stunned other African peoples, and has brought forth the ire of Euro-centric scholars eager to dispute that any knowledge could have pre-dated theirs. The intent is serious; Gunn is on a mission to contribute his knowledge, through art, to our further understanding for the world we have inherited.