Donald Walden

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Donald Walden (* July 1938 in St. Louis , † 6. April 2008 in Detroit ) was an American jazz - Tenor saxophonist , composer and music teacher and university lecturer.

Live and act

Donald Walden grew up in Clarksville (Tennessee) and from 1946 in Detroit ; as a teenager he played the saxophone. He attended the Larry Teal School of Music and the Detroit Community Music School ; he studied improvisation with Barry Harris and Yusef Lateef . In 1960 he moved to New York City , where he played a. a. with Grant Green , Joe Chambers , Booker Ervin, and Sun Ra . After his return to Detroit in 1966 he worked with local musicians and played five years in the backing band of Aretha Franklin ; he also toured with Stevie Wonder , The Temptations and The Four Tops .

In the years that followed, he taught in public schools and performed regularly at the New World Stage, which he founded, in Detroit's Harmonie Park District . In 1990 he performed a Charlie Parker tribute at the Detroit International Jazz Festival with a big band and a choir; Soloists on this Yardbird Suite included Walden, Dizzy Gillespie , Charles McPherson and Barry Harris. This eventually resulted in his repertoire band Detroit Jazz Orchestra . In the 1990s he taught at Michigan State University , Oberlin College in Ohio and finally at the University of Michigan , where he was appointed professor. His students included u. a. Rodney Whitaker , Geri Allen , Robert Hurst and Regina Carter . Under his own name, he presented several self-produced albums, including two tribute albums about Thelonious Monk , Charles Mingus and Tadd Dameron . Most recently, he directed the Free Radicals ensemble with Cassius Richmond and Marion Hayden . In 2006 he was a guest musician on Geri Allen's album Timeless Portraits and Dreams . He died of prolonged cancer at the age of 69.

Award

Walden received the Michigan Governor's Arts Award in 1985 for his work with the Detroit Jazz Orchestra ; In 1996 he received an honorary degree in Jazz Master from Arts Midwest.

Discographic notes

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michigan Jazz Masters - Urban Griots at Discogs
personal data
SURNAME Walden, Donald
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz musician and film composer
DATE OF BIRTH July 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Louis
DATE OF DEATH April 6, 2008
Place of death Detroit