Walt Weiskopf
Walt Weiskopf (born July 30, 1959 in Augusta , Georgia ; full name Walter David Weiskopf ) is an American post-bop musician ( tenor saxophone , soprano saxophone , clarinet ) and music teacher.
Live and act
Weiskopf grew up in Syracuse , attended Jamesville-DeWitt High School in the New York suburb of DeWitt and graduated from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester . He first played the alto saxophone; when he was offered a job in the big band of Buddy Rich , he switched to tenor; In 1981 and 1982 he played with Buddy Rich ( Concert for the Americas with Frank Sinatra ). He then became a member of Toshiko Akiyoshi's Jazz Orchestra featuring Lew Tabackin in New York , with whom he a. a. on the albums Ten Gallon Shuffle (1984) and Wishing Peace (1986), as well as their performance at Carnegie Hall in 1992. For a long time he was also a member of Roland Vazquez's quintet .
With the rhythm section of his younger brother, the pianist Joel Weiskopf , he recorded his first albums under his own name in 1989/90, Exact Science , followed by Mindwalking . He caused a sensation in Europe with the album Simplicity , which was recorded with an expanded line-up and was released on Criss Cross and contained his own compositions such as Subordination and Brazilia . Since then Weiskopf has been working on his own projects - such as in the nonet for Song for My Mother in 1995 and 1999 for Siren - with Billy Drummond , Drew Gress , Conrad Herwig , Joe Locke , Tony Reedus , Scott Robinson , Renee Rosnes , Jim Snidero , among others . In 2002 he began working with trombonist John Mosca and alto saxophonist Andy Fusco ( Sight to Sound ) in his new sextet. In 2019 Weiskopf led a quartet consisting of Peter Zak (piano), Paul Gill (bass) and Steve Fidyk (drums).
Weiskopf also worked as a classical clarinetist and performed the Clarinet Concerto by Aaron Copland with the Gothham Chamber Orchestra . Session musician u. a. with Toshiko Akiyoshi on her solo album ( Night and Dream , 1994), Andy LaVerne and Fritz Renold . In 2003 he worked on the album Everything Must Go by the fusion band Steely Dan , as well as on Donald Fagens Morph the Cat (2006).
Weiskopf wrote the books Coltrane: A Player's Guide to His Harmony and The Augmented Scale in Jazz with his former saxophone teacher Ramon Ricker in 1990 . In 1994 Weiskopf published the textbook Intervalic Improvisation . He is a professor at Princeton University .
The authors Richard Cook and Brian Morton see Walt Weiskopf's postbop style of playing in the tradition of John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins , with echoes of the Jan Garbarek / Bobo Stenson Quartet of the 1970s.
Discographic notes
- 1990: Mindwalking (Iris, with Joel Weiskopf, Jay Anderson , Jeff Hirshfield)
- 1993: Simplicity (Criss Cross, with Conrad Herwig)
- 1995: Night Light (Criss Cross, with Joel Weiskopf)
- 1995: Song for My Mother (Criss Cross), nonet
- 1999: Anytown (Criss Cross, with Renee Rosnes)
- 1999: Siren (Criss Cross), nonet
- 2002: Man of Many Colors (Criss Cross)
- 2003: Sight to Sound (Criss Cross), sextet
- 2004: Tea for Two (Criss Cross), sextet
- 2005: Tea For Two ( Criss Cross Jazz with Andy Fusco , Joel Weiskopf , Paul Gill, Billy Drummond )
- 2008: Day In, Night Out ( Criss Cross Jazz with Andy Fusco , Michael Leonhart , John Mosca , Gary Smulyan , Peter Zak , Doug Weiss , Kendrick Scott )
- 2010: See The Pyramid ( Criss Cross Jazz with Peter Zak, Doug Weiss, Quincy Davis )
- 2011: Live ( Capri with Renee Rosnes , Paul Gill , Tony Reedus )
- 2014: Overdrive ( Posi-Tone with Yotam Silberstein, Behn Gillece, Peter Zak, Dave Wong , Don Edwards )
literature
- Richard Cook & Brian Morton: The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings , Penguin, London, 2006 (8th ed.); ISBN 0-141-02327-9 .
- Leonard Feather , Ira Gitler : The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz. Oxford University Press, New York 1999, ISBN 0-19-532000-X .
- Martin Kunzler : Jazz Lexicon. Volume 2: M – Z (= rororo-Sachbuch. Vol. 16513). 2nd Edition. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-499-16513-9 .
Web links
- Allmusic
- Walt Weiskopf at Discogs (English)
personal data | |
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SURNAME | Weiskopf, Walt |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Weiskopf, Walter David (full name) |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American post-bop musician (tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, clarinet) and music teacher |
DATE OF BIRTH | July 30, 1959 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Augusta , Georgia , USA |