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Walt Weiskopf

Saxophonist, composer and author Walt Weiskopf began his New York career performing with the Buddy Rich Big Band in 1981 at the age of 21. Since then, he has made an impressive mark as both a leader and sideman with 20 critically-acclaimed CDs and countless sideman credits, including performing and recording with Buddy Rich, Frank Sinatra, Steely Dan, Donald Fagen, Boz Scaggs and Michael McDonald.

A dynamic player with enormous technical prowess, Walt is equally well regarded as a composer. His recordings as leader contain predominantly original work with unique interpretations of standards always in the mix. Walt’s seven books on jazz improvisation are among the most respected in the field.

Whether for quartet, nonet, or any configuration in between, Walt’s compositions and arrangements have attracted fans and critical notice.

Simplicity (Criss Cross Jazz-1993), met with immediate success. It was number one on Eurojazz radio for four straight weeks and inspired Mel Martin of Saxophone Journal to write: “Walt Weiskopf’s prime influence as a player appears to be John Coltrane, but he is no slavish imitator. He gets to musical matters in a powerful and positive way, asserting a definite viewpoint… He displays much technical accomplishment, yet makes it sound basic and accessible.”

Walt’s Song for My Mother (Criss Cross Jazz-1996), was awarded four stars in Downbeat Magazine. Bret Primack of Jazz Central Station listed Song for My Mother as one of the ten best jazz albums of 1997 and Crusader Magazine chose this recording as its number one Jazz Pick of the Year.

Walt’s subsequent recordings, from A World Away in 1994 (Criss Cross Jazz) to the most recent Fountain Of Youth (Posi-tone-2017), have also caused a critical stir.

In the September 1997 issue of JazzTimes, Bill Milkowski counted Walt among his “five most underrated players;” by 2000, Milkowski found that Walt had fulfilled his early promise, and is “…a major talent…a monster tenor saxophonist as well as a prolific composer and accomplished arranger.” Blaine Fallis’ review of Open Road (Posi-tone 2015) in All About Jazz said “Weiskopf is freed up to take off on an improvisatory spectacle that paints the story of his great talent.” About his most recent offering, a 2017 review in the New York City Jazz Record stated “…Fountain of Youth (Posi-tone 2017) could only have come from someone with broad experience in music and life…Weiskopf understands it all.”

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Liner Notes

Joel Weiskopf: New Beginning

Read "Joel Weiskopf: New Beginning" reviewed by C. Andrew Hovan


For better or worse, it seems that any artistic endeavor that involves the true expression of raw human experience and emotion is destined to have appeal to only a small and select audience. This dilemma becomes even more daunting for the artist in today's technology-laden society where electronic communication has taken the place of face-to-face conversation. Where the musician or painter seeks to express himself by exposing passion in its natural form, so many in today's society function at a ...

5
Album Review

Walt Weiskopf European Quartet: Diamonds and Other Jewels

Read "Diamonds and Other Jewels" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Two distinct types of jazz album have emerged in the difficult Covid pandemic times: the do-it-yourself statements, usually recorded in a home studio, often with internet sound swapping; and the pent-up energy, post-pandemic energy bursts, musicians getting together again after a year or more of minimal in-person collaboration. Diamonds And Other Jewels, from the Walt Weiskopf European Quartet, is of the latter type. Saxophonist Weiskopf, pianist Carl Winther, bassist Andreas Lang and drummer Anders Mogensen jump out of the speakers ...

7
Album Review

John Fedchock NY Sextet: Into The Shadows

Read "Into The Shadows" reviewed by Jack Bowers


If a sextet--or a group of any size--is to be measured by the sum of its parts, trombonist John Fedchock's NY Sextet succeeds with flying colors, as it embodies half a dozen of the finest jazz musicians the New York City area has to offer. As we know, however, an inclusive appraisal rests on far more than that, else the musicians could simply set their instruments onstage and await the applause. Yes, musical talent surely provides an ...

5
Album Review

John Fedchock NY Sextet: Into The Shadows

Read "Into The Shadows" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


Trombonist John Fedchock's fluid slide work, celebrated composing chops and arranger's ingenuity have been put to good use in settings both large and very small in recent years, with a big band set and two live quartet records dropping between 2015 and the present. But rather than choose one of those ensemble formats over the other this time around, he looks to a middle ground with his NY Sextet. Painting with a three-horn frontline and rhythm section, ...

11
Album Review

Walt Weiskopf: Worldwide

Read "Worldwide" reviewed by C. Andrew Hovan


Back in 1992, saxophonist Walt Weiskopf made his first date for Criss Cross Jazz, Simplicity. It is one of the most daring new recordings of the period, featuring Weiskopf's incendiary playing and stellar compositions. Over the course of the next ten albums for Criss Cross culminating with 2010's See the Pyramid, Weiskopf forged an amazingly varied catalog of music. The fact that so many jazz fans slept on these releases is still totally inexplicable. Since 2002, ...

3
Album Review

Walt Weiskopf European Quartet: Worldwide

Read "Worldwide" reviewed by Jakob Baekgaard


These days a lot of jazz records seem to require a musical concept or an idea that unites the compositions on the album, but it doesn't have to be so complicated. After a tour in January 2019 with his European Quartet, tenor saxophonist Walt Weiskopf went into a studio in Copenhagen with the band, and a few hours later the music on the album Worldwide was in the can. It sounds simple, but it also says something ...

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In Pictures

Hard Boppin' at Smalls

Read "Hard Boppin' at Smalls" reviewed by Dave Kaufman


Smalls Jazz Club in Greenwich Village is a remarkably vibrant music venue that enjoys considerable international renown. It is not the most mannered of clubs with loud and boisterous audiences. Nor is it the most decorous, but does offer a rather distinctive look. The club has a great vibe and is committed to treating its audience to a great and generous music experience. For example, on weekends, the first shows commence at 4 PM and end with jam sessions at ...

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Recording

Tenor Saxophonist Walt Weiskopf Reconvenes His Celebrated European Quartet On 'Diamonds And Other Jewels,' Arriving August 19 On Amm Records

Tenor Saxophonist Walt Weiskopf Reconvenes His Celebrated European Quartet On 'Diamonds And Other Jewels,' Arriving August 19 On Amm Records

Source: Terri Hinte Publicity

Waylaid by the COVID-19 pandemic, tenor saxophonist Walt Weiskopf and his European Quartet return with a vengeance on Diamonds and Other Jewels, set for an August 19 release on AMM Records. A collection of Weiskopf originals (and one standard), it demonstrates the powerful chemistry Weiskopf shares with pianist Carl Winther, bassist Andreas Lang, and drummer Anders Mogensen—matched by their audible relish at being back together. The album is the sixth release by the acclaimed quartet, assembled by Weiskopf in winter ...

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Recording

Walt Weiskopf's Quartet Captured Live and Fired Up

Walt Weiskopf's Quartet Captured Live and Fired Up

Source: Gapplegate Music Review by Grego Edwards

Walt Weiskopf occupies a place among the very best but perhaps lesser-known post-Trane tenors. That does not mean that he (or the others) sound like Trane in a direct way. They just have an essential quality to their playing that has some of the Trane hardness, speed of inventive thought and intensity. There's his first live album, called rather appropriately Live (Capri 74109-2), that's been out a few months. It was recorded at the University of South Carolina in 2008, ...

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Recording

One Track Mind: Walt Weiskopf, "Love for Sale" (2011)

One Track Mind: Walt Weiskopf, "Love for Sale" (2011)

Source: Something Else!

Saxophonist Walt Weiskopf's first-ever in-concert recording Walt Weiskopf Quartet: Live, issued earlier in the month on Colorado-based Capri Records, is special in another personal way. It's dedicated to drummer Tony Reedus, who died from a pulmonary embolism less than a year after this show was recorded in April 2008 on the campus of the University of South Carolina. He was just 49. After learning of Reedus' passing, Weiskopf returned to the South Carolina show, part of the bi-annual North American ...

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Performance / Tour

Walt Weiskopf Quartet Wed Jan 16 at 46 Lounge

Walt Weiskopf Quartet Wed Jan 16 at 46 Lounge

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services


Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Into The Shadows

Summit Records
2020

buy

Worldwide

Orenda Records
2019

buy

Fountain Of Youth

Posi-Tone Records
2017

buy

The Way You Say It

Posi-Tone Records
2016

buy

Open Road

Posi-Tone Records
2015

buy

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