Ryan Porter, the trombonist who anchored the West Coast Get Down, a Los Angeles jazz collective that revitalized American jazz in the 2010s, died Saturday from injuries sustained in a car crash on April 28. He was 46.
Porter's trombone defined the sound of that movement. He appeared on crucial recordings by saxophonist Kamasi Washington, including the landmark 2015 album "The Epic." His horn also graced Kendrick Lamar's albums, bringing jazz orchestration to hip-hop in ways that felt organic rather than ornamental. That crossover work made Porter visible to audiences far beyond the jazz world, even as he remained rooted in the Los Angeles scene that produced him.
The West Coast Get Down emerged from the Leimert Park neighborhood around 2010, a grassroots jazz revival that rejected the New York establishment and insisted that jazz could sound contemporary without abandoning its foundations. Washington's group became the movement's flagship, but Porter's trombone gave that music its warmth and its swing. He played on Washington's subsequent albums and toured extensively, becoming one of the scene's most visible and audible figures.
Porter's work demonstrated how jazz could function in multiple contexts simultaneously. His technical facility and emotional depth served Washington's ambitious orchestrations. His presence on Lamar's records showed that jazz musicians could collaborate with hip-hop without surrendering artistic credibility. That flexibility, combined with his generosity as a bandmate, made him essential to the ecosystem around him.
The Los Angeles Times reported his death. Porter joins a long line of musicians taken too early, his loss felt acutely by the jazz community he helped rebuild.