Kirk Whalum

Kirk Whalum (2007)

Whalum at a festival in Nashville (2007)

Kirk Whalum (born July 11, 1958 in Memphis , Tennessee ) is an American fusion musician ( tenor and soprano saxophone , flute ) who has emerged in particular in the field of smooth jazz . It has been nominated twelve times for the Grammy and won it in 2011 in the category Best Gospel Song with the title It's What I Do , which he wrote with Jerry Peters.

Live and act

Whalum comes from a musical family and sang in his father's gospel choir , a Baptist clergyman; two of his uncles played in jazz bands. After attending Melrose High School , where he switched from drums to saxophone, he received a scholarship to Texas Southern University , where he formed a band in 1979 that played with the local clubs. In 1984 he played in the opening act for Bob James in Houston, who invited him to participate in his album 12 and to tour with him. In 1985 he got the opportunity to record his own debut album, which was followed by other albums. With Jean Michel Jarre he appeared in place of the unfortunate astronaut Ron McNair in 1986 at several NASA concerts . In 1987 he moved to Pasadena and worked with Larry Carlton , and for the next few years also with Babyface , Nancy Wilson , Al Jarreau , Luther Vandross , Barbra Streisand , Kevin Mahogany , Al Green and Quincy Jones . He appeared worldwide as the opening act for Whitney Houston , on whose successful cover single I Will Always Love You (1992) he played the saxophone solo.

His album Caché (1993) brought him the breakthrough; it was at the top of the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Chart for five weeks. In recent years he has mainly presented concept albums: In his album Into My Soul (2003) he dealt with the music of his hometown, Memphis Soul ; Isaac Hayes , Maurice White ( Earth, Wind & Fire ) and Whalum's child friend, drummer Blair Cunningham, were involved as guest musicians . In 2005 Whalum recorded his Babyface Songbook (2005) with a selection of well-known songs by Babyface . He also brought other smooth jazz musicians such as trumpeter Rick Braun, saxophone colleague Dave Koz and the guitarists Norman Brown and Chuck Loeb into the studio. Other albums deal with the music of Donny Hathaway and the connections between jazz and gospel music.

Whalum has continued to perform as a studio musician on a number of film scores such as The Prince of Tides , Boyz n the Hood , The Bodyguard , Grand Canyon, In the Heart of the City, and Affair .

From 2006 to 2008 he was the first artist in residence at the Stax Music Academy in his hometown.

Discography

Albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)		Remarks
		US	R&B
1988	And you know that!	US142 (10 weeks) US	-
1993	Caché	-	R&B42 (21 weeks) R&B
2000	Unconditional	-	R&B86 (4 weeks) R&B
2003	Into My Soul	-	R&B44 (8 weeks) R&B
2005	Kirk Whalum Performs The Babyface Songbook	-	R&B60 (4 weeks) R&B
2010	Everything Is Everything: The Music Of Donny Hathaway	-	R&B41 (4 weeks) R&B

More albums

• 1985: Floppy Disk
• 1989: The Promise
• 1995: In This Life
• 1996: Joined at the Hip
• 1997: Colors
• 1998: Gospel According to Jazz: Chapter 1
• 2001: Hymns in the Garden
• 2001: The Christmas Message
• 2002: The Best of Kirk Whalum
• 2002: Gospel According to Jazz: Chapter 2
• 2007: round trip
• 2010: The Gospel According to Jazz Chapter III
• 2012: Romance Language
• 2019: Humanité

Singles (selection)

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)		Remarks
		US	R&B
1988	Love Is A Losing Game	-	R&B51 (8 weeks) R&B	feat. Jevetta Steele

Web links

• Web presence
• Kirk Whalum at Allmusic (English)
• Soul Comes Home . Jazz times
• Kirk Whalum at Discogs (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Kirk Whalum in the Internet Movie Database (English)
2. ↑ entry (grammy.com)
3. ↑ portrait. In: All About Jazz . Retrieved December 29, 2019 . 
4. ↑ ^{a b} Chart sources: US