Bennie Wallace (born November 18, 1946) is an American jazz

tenor saxophonist The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while th ...

Biography

He was born in

Chattanooga, Tennessee Chattanooga ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. Located along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia, it also extends into Marion County on its western end. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, ...

, United States. Wallace began playing in local clubs with the encouragement of

East Ridge, Tennessee East Ridge is a city in Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 22,167. East Ridge is bordered by Chattanooga to the west, north, and east, and the Georgia state line to the south. It is part ...

High School band director and drummer Chet Hedgecoth and professional reed player Billy Usselton, who appeared as a guest at a stage band festival, and heard Wallace with the East Ridge High School Swing Band. After studying clarinet at the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state, ...

, Wallace settled in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

in 1971 with the encouragement of

Monty Alexander Montgomery Bernard "Monty" Alexander (born 6 June 1944) is a Jamaican jazz pianist. His playing has a Caribbean influence and bright swinging feeling, with a strong vocabulary of bebop jazz and blues rooted melodies. He was influenced by Louis ...

, who hired him and recommended him to the

American Federation of Musicians The American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada (AFM/AFofM) is a 501(c)(5) labor union representing professional instrumental musicians in the United States and Canada. The AFM, which has its headquarters in New York City, ...

local, which virtually guaranteed his entry. Wallace played with

Barry Harris Barry Doyle Harris (December 15, 1929 – December 8, 2021) was an American jazz pianist, bandleader, composer, arranger, and educator. He was an exponent of the bebop style. Life and career Harris was born in Detroit, Michigan, on December ...

Buddy Rich Bernard "Buddy" Rich (September 30, 1917 – April 2, 1987) was an American jazz drummer, songwriter, conductor, and bandleader. He is considered one of the most influential drummers of all time. Rich was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York ...

Dannie Richmond Charles Daniel Richmond (December 15, 1931 – March 16, 1988) was an American jazz drummer who is best known for his work with Charles Mingus. He also worked with Joe Cocker, Elton John and Mark-Almond. Biography Richmond was born Charles ...

. His debut recording was done with

Flip Phillips Joseph Edward Filippelli (March 26, 1915 – August 17, 2001), known professionally as Flip Phillips, was an American jazz tenor saxophone and clarinet player. He is best remembered for his work with Norman Granz's Jazz at the Philharmonic conce ...

and Scott Hamilton in 1977. He has cited

Sonny Rollins Walter Theodore "Sonny" Rollins (born September 7, 1930) is an American jazz tenor saxophonist who is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. In a seven-decade career, he has recorded over sixty albums as a ...

and

Coleman Hawkins Coleman Randolph Hawkins (November 21, 1904 – May 19, 1969), nicknamed "Hawk" and sometimes "Bean", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.Yanow, Scot"Coleman Hawkins: Artist Biography" AllMusic. Retrieved December 27, 2013. One of the first p ...

among many major saxophone influences. He recorded on the revived

Blue Note In jazz and blues, a blue note is a note that—for expressive purposes—is sung or played at a slightly different pitch from standard. Typically the alteration is between a quartertone and a semitone, but this varies depending on the musical co ...

label in 1985; the label's earlier issues provided much of the most influential music of his formative years, and the eclectic cast on the album ''Twilight Time'' reflects the mix of musical styles he encountered in the local club scene of Chattanooga, such as the Blue Room, the AmVets Club and Katie's Four O'Clock Club. Country and western, western swing, and rock and roll all required familiarity with

key signature In Western musical notation, a key signature is a set of sharp (), flat (), or rarely, natural () symbols placed on the staff at the beginning of a section of music. The initial key signature in a piece is placed immediately after the clef at ...

s and repertoire favored by guitarists. Wallace toured and recorded with trombonist Ray Anderson, whose technical skills allowed both musicians to explore a broad repertoire not always associated with

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

music. Wallace has provided original music for

Ron Shelton Ronald Wayne Shelton (born September 15, 1945) is an American film director and screenwriter and former minor league baseball infielder. Shelton is known for the many films he has made about sports. His 1988 film ''Bull Durham'', based in part on ...

's films '' Blaze'' and ''

White Men Can't Jump ''White Men Can't Jump'' is a 1992 American sports comedy film written and directed by Ron Shelton. It stars Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson as streetball hustlers. The film was released in the United States on March 27, 1992, by 20th Century ...

''.

Discography

As leader

* ''The Fourteen Bar Blues'' (Enja, 1978) * ''Live at the Public Theater'' (Enja, 1978) * ''The Free Will'' (Enja, 1980) * ''Bennie Wallace Plays Monk'' (Enja, 1981) * ''The Bennie Wallace Trio & Chick Corea'' (Enja, 1982) * ''Big Jim's Tango'' (Enja, 1983) * ''Sweeping Through the City'' (Enja, 1984) * ''Twilight Time'' (Blue Note, 1985) * ''The Art of the Saxophone'' (Denon, 1987) * ''Mystic Bridge'' (Enja, 1987) * ''Bordertown'' (Blue Note, 1988) * ''Brilliant Corners'' (Denon, 1988) * ''The Old Songs'' (AudioQuest, 1993) * ''The Talk of the Town'' (Enja, 1993) * ''Bennie Wallace'' (AudioQuest, 1998) * ''Someone to Watch Over Me'' (Enja, 1999) * ''Bennie Wallace in Berlin'' (Enja, 2001) * ''Moodsville'' (Groove Note, 2001) * ''The Nearness of You'' (Justin Time, 2004) * ''Disorder at the Border'' (Enja, 2006)

As sideman

Mose Allison Mose John Allison Jr. (November 11, 1927 – November 15, 2016) was an American jazz and blues pianist, singer, and songwriter. He became notable for playing a unique mix of blues and modern jazz, both singing and playing piano. After moving to N ...

, ''Ever Since the World Ended'' (Blue Note, 1987) *

Franco Ambrosetti Franco Ambrosetti (born 10 December 1941) is a jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist and composer. He was born in Lugano, Switzerland; his father, Flavio, was a saxophonist who once played opposite Charlie Parker.Close Encounter In ufology, a close encounter is an event in which a person witnesses an unidentified flying object. This terminology and the system of classification behind it were first suggested in astronomer and UFO researcher J. Allen Hynek's 1972 book ''T ...

'' (Enja, 1978) * Solomon Burke, ''Don't Give Up On Me'' (Fat Possum, 2002) *

Art Farmer Arthur Stewart Farmer (August 21, 1928 – October 4, 1999) was an American jazz trumpeter and flugelhorn player. He also played flumpet, a trumpet–flugelhorn combination especially designed for him. He and his identical twin brother, double ...

, ''Round About Midnight'' (Jugoton, 1981) *

George Gruntz George Gruntz (24 June 1932 – 10 January 2013) was a Swiss jazz pianist, organist, harpsichordist, keyboardist, and composer known for the George Gruntz Concert Big Band and his work with Phil Woods, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Don Cherry, Chet Baker ...

, ''GG-CJB'' (MPS, 1979) *

Chuck Marohnic Chuck Marohnic is an American jazz pianist and educator, known for his association with Chet Baker. He received his B.A. from Bellarmine College and a Masters in Music from the University of Miami. Early in his career, Chuck also worked as a sidema ...

, ''Copenhagen Suite'' (SteepleChase, 1979) *

Mighty Sam McClain Samuel McClain (April 15, 1943 – June 15, 2015), billed as Mighty Sam McClain, was an American soul blues singer and songwriter. Life and career He was born in Monroe, Louisiana. As a five-year-old, he began singing in his mother's Gospel ...

, ''Give It Up to Love'' (AudioQuest, 1993) *

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

, ''Friends'' (Vanguard, 1977) * Eric Watson, ''Full Metal Quartet'' (Owl, 2000) * Anthony Wilson, ''Anthony Wilson'' (Mama, 1997) * Anthony Wilson, ''Goat Hill Junket'' (Mama, 1998) *

Akiko Yano is a Japanese pop and jazz musician and singer born in Tokyo and raised in Aomori and later began her singing career in the mid-1970s. She has been called "one of the major musical talents of the Japanese popular music world", and her vocals an ...

, ''Granola'' (Midi, 1987)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wallace, Bennie 1946 births Living people American jazz tenor saxophonists American male saxophonists Swing saxophonists Post-bop saxophonists People from Chattanooga, Tennessee Enja Records artists Avant-garde jazz saxophonists 21st-century American saxophonists Jazz musicians from Tennessee 21st-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians