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 ...
saxophonist
The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pr ...
,
flutist
The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with Reed (instrument), reeds, a fl ...
, and
bass clarinet
The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B (meaning it is a transposing instrument on which a written C sounds as B), but it plays notes an octave bel ...
ist.Allmusic biography of Myron Walden /ref>
Biography
Born in Miami, Florida, Walden moved to
The Bronx
The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
at the age of 12. His interest in the
alto saxophone
The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in E, smaller than the B tenor ...
developed when he witnessed the close attention his uncle paid to the
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz saxophonist, band leader and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of bebop, a form ...
record ''One Night In Washington''. Walden was able to procure an alto sax from his middle school music appreciation teacher, and a saxophone player who lived in his building gave him an instruction book. Walden was self-taught until he enrolled in the LaGuardia High School of Music & Art, where he met frequent collaborators
Dwayne Burno
Dwayne Allen Burno (June 10, 1970 – December 28, 2013) was an American jazz bassist born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania who became a first-call musician on the New York City jazz scene.Tamarkin, Jeff. "Bassist Dwayne Burno Dies at 43." ''JazzTim ...
and Eric McPherson. Walden went on to attend the
Manhattan School of Music
The Manhattan School of Music (MSM) is a private music conservatory in New York City. The school offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition, as well as a bachelor's in mu ...
, and in 1993 won first place in a Charlie Parker competition, which earned him a guest spot with
Wynton Marsalis
Wynton Learson Marsalis (born October 18, 1961) is an American trumpeter, composer, teacher, and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. He has promoted classical and jazz music, often to young audiences. Marsalis has won nine Grammy Awar ...
and the
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra
The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra is an American big band and jazz orchestra led by Wynton Marsalis. The Orchestra is part of Jazz at Lincoln Center, a performing arts organization in New York City.
History
In 1988 the Orchestra was formed a ...
.Myron Walden: Kind of a Comeback /ref>Panken, Ted. "Windows Wide Open." ''Downbeat'' 77.2 (2010): 46-49. Print.
Walden began his professional career playing with
Roy Hargrove
Roy Anthony Hargrove (October 16, 1969 – November 2, 2018) was an American jazz musician and composer whose principal instruments were the trumpet and flugelhorn. He achieved worldwide acclaim after winning two Grammy Awards for differing styles ...
's big band at the Jazz Gallery in 1995, then performed at
Smalls
Smalls may refer to:
* Smalls (surname)
* Camp Robert Smalls, a United States Naval training facility
* Fort Robert Smalls, a Civil War redoubt
* Smalls Creek, a northern tributary of the Parramatta River
* Smalls Falls, a waterfall in Maine, US ...
with artists such as
Kurt Rosenwinkel
Kurt Rosenwinkel (born October 28, 1970) is an American jazz guitarist, keyboardist, composer, bandleader, producer, educator and record label owner.
Biography
A native of Philadelphia, Rosenwinkel attended the Philadelphia High School for the ...
Kevin Hays
Kevin () is the anglicized form of the Irish masculine given name (; mga, Caoimhghín ; sga, Cóemgein ; Latinized as ). It is composed of "dear; noble"; Old Irish and ("birth"; Old Irish ).
The variant ''Kevan'' is anglicized from , an ...
, Stephen Scott, Greg Hutchinson and Eric Harland before earning a regular gig on Wednesday nights with his Apex Trio, featuring McPherson (drums) and Burno (bass). Walden primarily played his own original compositions with the Apex Trio, and recorded four solo albums between 1996 and 2005. During this period, he became a member of
Brian Blade
Brian Blade (born July 25, 1970) is an American jazz drummer, composer, session musician, and singer-songwriter.
Early life
Blade was born and raised in Shreveport, Louisiana. The first music he experienced was gospel and songs of praise at ...
's Fellowship Band and
The New Jazz Composers Octet
The New Jazz Composers Octet is an all-acoustic jazz ensemble founded by trumpeter/arranger David Weiss in 1996. NPR's Josh Jackson described them as "part New York hustle and part writer's workshop, all of it redolent with the aroma of newnes ...
, which made three recordings as a unit and two with
Freddie Hubbard
Frederick Dewayne Hubbard (April 7, 1938 – December 29, 2008) was an American jazz trumpeter. He played bebop, hard bop, and post-bop styles from the early 1960s onwards. His unmistakable and influential tone contributed to new perspectives fo ...
(with whom they performed several times at the
Iridium
Iridium is a chemical element with the symbol Ir and atomic number 77. A very hard, brittle, silvery-white transition metal of the platinum group, it is considered the second-densest naturally occurring metal (after osmium) with a density of ...
). Walden took a nearly five-year break from recording as a leader in order to develop his skills on the
tenor
A tenor is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The lo ...
and
soprano
A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...
saxophones while composing specifically for those instruments. In 2009, he hired
Shore Fire Media
Shore Fire Media is a public relations firm based in Brooklyn, New York that specializes in entertainment and popular culture. According to ''Variety,'' at 21 nominations, Shore Fire Media had the largest number of Grammy Award nods of any public r ...
to promote his new projects, playing five Wednesday nights with five different bands in September at the Jazz Gallery (with all proceeds going to the non-profit venue), and releasing seven albums on his new record label, Demi Sound, over the course of 2009 and 2010.
Playing style and critical reception
According to ''
JazzTimes
''JazzTimes'' is an American magazine devoted to jazz. Published 10 times a year, it was founded in Washington, D.C. in 1970 by Ira Sabin as the newsletter ''Radio Free Jazz'' to complement his record store.
Coverage
After a decade of growth ...
'', Walden "plays with a Phoenix-like virtuosity and an attention to rhythmic detail rarely heard among saxophone players". ''All About Jazz'' cites him as "one of the true bright stars of his generation" who "has a very distinctive sharp tone with a rounded nasaly-inflection" and "has shown the ability to develop solos with both an incisive logic and an organic level of invention.""Myron Walden: Higher Ground (2002)" ''All About Jazz'', September 18, 2002. Accessed January 18, 2014. Describing his performance on tenor sax, writer John Kelman said that Walden was "as thoughtful yet fiery a player on the bigger horn as he is on alto" and called his 2009 release ''Momentum'' "a document of one of the modern mainstream's most provocative saxophonists, composers, and bandleaders," favorably comparing Walden's composition "Like a Flower Seeking the Sun" to
Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter (born August 25, 1933) is an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Shorter came to prominence in the late 1950s as a member of, and eventually primary composer for, Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. In the 1960s, he joined Miles Davi ...
's title track from
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of music ...
's album ''
Nefertiti
Neferneferuaten Nefertiti () ( – c. 1330 BC) was a queen of the 18th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, the great royal wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten. Nefertiti and her husband were known for a radical change in national religious policy, in whic ...
''.Kelman, John "Myron Walden: Momentum (2009)" ''All About Jazz'', November 23, 2009. Accessed January 18, 2014. Writing in ''
Down Beat
' (styled in all caps) is an American music magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond", the last word indicating its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chi ...
'' magazine,
Ted Panken
Ted Panken is an American jazz journalist who has written for ''Down Beat'', ''Jazziz'', and ''Jazz Times''.
From 1985 to 2008, he broadcast jazz and creative music on radio station WKCR. He has written more than 500 liner notes and has contribu ...
describes Walden as "a widely respected musician's musician with a keening, instantly recognizable voice." Walden frequently plays in a pianoless trio or quartet format, though his 2010 album ''Countyfied'' featured an organ trio, the sound of which Walden described as "Southern-fried soul meets a little blues and rock 'n' roll," and his dual ''In This World'' releases took a "harmonically fortified quiet storm" approach (according to Panken) with a quintet featuring guitarist
Mike Moreno
Mike Moreno (born October 8, 1978) is a jazz guitarist and composer from Houston, Texas.
According to an NPR interview in 2008,Jackson, Josh, (Feb. 5, 2008).Mike Moreno: Jazz Guitar 'Between the Lines'. NPR. Retrieved Jan. 28, 2013. Moreno's ma ...
*''Hypnosis'' (NYC Music, 1996)
*''Like a Flower Seeking the Sun'' (NYC Music, 1999)
*''Apex Live: Volume One'' (Demi Sound, 1999)
*''Apex Live: Volume Two'' (Demi Sound, 1999)
*''Higher Ground'' ( Fresh Sound New Talent, 2002)
*''This Way'' (Fresh Sound New Talent, 2005)
*''Momentum'' (Demi Sound, 2009)
*''Momentum Live'' (Demi Sound, 2009)
*''In This World: What We Share'' (Demi Sound, 2010)
*''In This World: To Feel'' (Demi Sound, 2010)
*''Countryfied'' (Demi Sound, 2010)
*''Momentum Live; Our Sound'' (Demi Sound, 2014)
As sideman
*''Spirits in the Night'' -
Dan Faulk Dan Faulk (born 1969) is a jazz saxophonist, composer, and educator.
Biography
Faulk was born in 1969. In 1992, he recorded ''Focusing In'' for Criss Cross Jazz.Brian Blade Fellowship'' -
Brian Blade
Brian Blade (born July 25, 1970) is an American jazz drummer, composer, session musician, and singer-songwriter.
Early life
Blade was born and raised in Shreveport, Louisiana. The first music he experienced was gospel and songs of praise at ...
(
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 ...
, 1998)
*''First Steps into Reality'' -
The New Jazz Composers Octet
The New Jazz Composers Octet is an all-acoustic jazz ensemble founded by trumpeter/arranger David Weiss in 1996. NPR's Josh Jackson described them as "part New York hustle and part writer's workshop, all of it redolent with the aroma of newnes ...
(Fresh Sound New Talent, 1999)
*''Premonition'' - Jason Lindner ( MCA, 2000)
*''
Perceptual
Perception () is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sense, sensory information in order to represent and understand the presented information or environment. All perception involves signals that go through the nervous ...
'' - Brian Blade (Blue Note, 2000)
*''
New Colors
''New Colors'' is an album by jazz musician Freddie Hubbard recorded in 2000 and released on the Hip Bop Essence label in 2001.
Track listing
# "One of Another Kind" - 8:00
# "Blue Spirits" - 9:03
# "Blues for Miles" - 6:31
# "Dizzy's Co ...
'' -
Freddie Hubbard
Frederick Dewayne Hubbard (April 7, 1938 – December 29, 2008) was an American jazz trumpeter. He played bebop, hard bop, and post-bop styles from the early 1960s onwards. His unmistakable and influential tone contributed to new perspectives fo ...
(Hip Bop Essence, 2001)
*''Wise Children'' -
Tom Harrell
Tom Harrell (born June 16, 1946) is an American jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist, composer, and arranger. Voted Trumpeter of the Year of 2018 by ''Jazz Journalists Association'', Harrell has won awards and grants throughout his career, including mul ...
(
Bluebird
The bluebirds are a North American group of medium-sized, mostly insectivorous or omnivorous birds in the order of Passerines in the genus ''Sialia'' of the thrush family (Turdidae). Bluebirds are one of the few thrush genera in the Americas.
...
, 2003)
*''Walkin' the Line'' - The New Jazz Composers Octet (Fresh Sound New Talent, 2003)
*''Treats for the Nightwalker'' -
Josh Roseman
Josh Roseman (born 5 June 1967) is an American jazz trombonist. His nickname is "Mr. Bone". He studied in Newton North High School.
Roseman was born in Boston, and studied at the New England Conservatory of Music. Roseman toured Jamaica with The ...
(
Enja
Enja Records is a German jazz record company and label based in Munich which was founded by jazz enthusiasts Matthias Winckelmann and Horst Weber in 1971.
The label's first release was by Mal Waldron, and early releases included European and Ja ...
, 2003)
*''
Salt
Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quantitie ...
'' -
Lizz Wright
Elizabeth LaCharla Wright (born January 22, 1980) is an American jazz and gospel singer.
Life and career
Wright was born in the small town of Hahira, Georgia, one of three children and the daughter of a minister and the musical director of t ...
(
Verve
Verve may refer to:
Music
* The Verve, an English rock band
* ''The Verve E.P.'', a 1992 EP by The Verve
* ''Verve'' (R. Stevie Moore album)
* Verve Records, an American jazz record label
Businesses
* Verve Coffee Roasters, an American coffee ho ...
, 2003)
*''Insight'' - Jeremy Pelt (
Criss Cross Jazz
Criss Cross Jazz is a Dutch record company and label specializing in jazz.
Criss Cross was established in 1980 by Gerry Teekens, a drummer and German language, German professor.
, 2003)
*''Mirror'' - David Weiss (Fresh Sound New Talent, 2004)
*''Attack of Wren: Wrenaissance Volume One'' -
Ray Barretto
Raymundo "Ray" Barretto Pagán (April 29, 1929 – February 17, 2006) was an American percussionist and bandleader of Puerto Rican descent. Throughout his career as a percussionist, he played a wide variety of Latin music styles, as well as Lati ...
(O+ Music, 2005)
*''Late August'' - Gregg August (Iacuessa, 2005)
*''Identity'' - Jeremy Pelt (
MAXJAZZ
Maxjazz (corporately styled MAXJAZZ) was an American jazz record label founded in 1998 by investment banker Richard McDonnell. Maxjazz recordings are generally regarded as a "straight-ahead" acoustic style of jazz. It was based in St. Louis, Miss ...
, 2005)
*''
The Source
''The Source'' is an American hip hop and entertainment website, and a magazine that publishes annually or . It is the world's longest-running rap periodical, being founded as a newsletter in 1988 by Jonathan Shecter. David Mays was the ma ...
'' -
Kendrick Scott
Kendrick Scott (born July 8, 1980 in Houston, Texas, United States) is an American jazz drummer, bandleader, and composer. He is the founder of the record label World Culture Music.
Biography
Kendrick A.D. Scott was born and raised in Houston. ...
Oracle (World Culture, 2007)
*''Metalix'' -
Matthias Lupri
Matthias Albrecht Lupri (born 29 October 1964 in Germany) is a jazz musician who plays the vibraphone.
History
Lupri grew up in Manhattan, Kansas, and Alberta, Canada. Initially he played the drums, and as a teenager played in blues, rock, and co ...
(
Summit
A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topography, topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous.
The term (mountain top) is generally used ...
, 2006)
*''Interwords'' - Dan McCarthy (2006)
*''Asking No Permission'' -
Omer Avital
Omer Avital (born May 13, 1971, Givatayim, Israel) is an Israeli-American jazz bassist, composer and bandleader.
Early life
Avital was born in the town of Givatayim to Moroccan and Yemeni parents.
At age 11, he began his formal training, s ...
(
Smalls
Smalls may refer to:
* Smalls (surname)
* Camp Robert Smalls, a United States Naval training facility
* Fort Robert Smalls, a Civil War redoubt
* Smalls Creek, a northern tributary of the Parramatta River
* Smalls Falls, a waterfall in Maine, US ...
, 2006)
*''Room to Grow'' - Omer Avital (Smalls, 2007)
*''One Peace'' - Gregg August (Iacuessa, 2007)
*''The Turning Gate'' - The New Jazz Composers Octet ( Motéma, 2008)
*'' Season of Changes'' - Brian Blade (Verve, 2008)
*''
On the Real Side
''On the Real Side'' is the final studio album recorded by American jazz musician Freddie Hubbard. The album was recorded in 2007 in Englewood, NJ to celebrate his 70th birthday in 2008 and released on the Times Square label in the same year as ...
'' - Freddie Hubbard (Times Square, 2008)
*''After Hours (Moonlamps & Other Ballads)'' - Matthias Lupri (Summit, 2010)
*''Landmarks'' - Brian Blade (Blue Note, 2014)
*''When Words Fail'' - David Weiss (Motéma, 2014)
*''Live and Direct'' -