SOUND PROJECTIONS
AN ONLINE QUARTERLY MUSIC MAGAZINE
EDITOR: KOFI NATAMBU
SUMMER, 2021
VOLUME TEN NUMBER TWO
MARVIN GAYE
Featuring the Musics and Aesthetic Visions of:
JUNIUS PAUL
(July 10-16)
JAMES BRANDON LEWIS
(July 17-23)
MAZZ SWIFT
(July 24-30)
WARREN WOLF
(July 31-August 6)
VICTOR GOULD
(August 7-13)
DANIEL BERNARD ROUMAIN
(August 14-20)
JESSE MONTGOMERY
(August 21-27
CHANDA DANCY
(August 28-September 3)
KAMASI WASHINGTON
(September 4-10)
FLORENCE PRICE
(September 11-17)
SEAN JONES
(September 18-24)
ALFA MIST
(September 25-October 1)
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/warren-wolf-mn0000346225/biography
Warren Wolf
(b. November 10, 1979)
Artist Biography by Matt Collar
Baltimore's Warren Wolf is an acclaimed jazz vibraphonist known for his sophisticated, exploratory, nearly acrobatic post-bop style that moved one critic to exclaim that "he plays the vibraphone like an electric guitar!" Since 2005, he has been recording as a leader and touring with his own groups. His debut, Incredible Jazz Vibes for M&I Jazz, garnered attention from critics all over the globe. In 2007 he became a member of bassist Christian McBride's Inside Straight quintet. In 2011, Wolf signed a deal with Detroit's Mack Avenue label, and delivered his widely celebrated self-titled offering. After touring with the bassist, being an in-demand session player, and leading his own groups on tours of clubs and festival stages, Wolf issued Convergence in 2016; its lineup included McBride (who also acted as co-producer), Jeff "Tain" Watts, John Scofield, and Brad Mehldau.
Born in Baltimore in 1979, Wolf first began playing music at age three, studying vibraphone, marimba, drums, and piano with his father, a teacher and amateur musician. Focusing on classical music in his youth, Wolf attended the Peabody Preparatory School, during which time he also took lessons with former Baltimore Symphony Orchestra member Leo LePage.
It wasn't until his teens, while attending the Baltimore School for the Arts, that Wolf became increasingly interested in jazz. After high school, he earned his undergraduate music degree at Berklee College of Music in Boston, studying privately with vibraphonist Dave Samuels. Also during his time at Berklee, Wolf befriended trumpeter, classmate, and future collaborator Jeremy Pelt. Pelt introduced the vibraphonist to other fellow Berklee notables, including Kendrick Scott, Walter Smith III, and trumpeter Jason Palmer, with whom Wolf would co-lead a band at local club Wally's for most of his time in Boston.
After graduating in 2001, Wolf continued to gig around Boston, while also working as a percussion instructor at Berklee. In 2005 he returned to Baltimore, where he quickly established himself as an in-demand performer and bandleader. As a sideman, Wolf has performed and/or recorded with such luminaries as Bobby Watson, Christian McBride, Wynton Marsalis, Christian Scott, Robert Glasper, Esperanza Spalding, and others.
Warren Wolf
Warren Wolf is a multi-instrumentalist from Baltimore, MD. From the young age of three years old, Warren has been trained on the Vibraphone/Marimba, Drums, and Piano. Under the guidance of his father Warren Wolf Sr., Warren has a deep background in all genres of music.
Beginning with classical music, Warren had studied classical composers from Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Paganini, Brahms, Vivaldi and Shostakovich. Warren also studied ragtime music learning music from the songbooks of Scott Joplin, Harry Brewer and Geroge Hamilton Green. In Jazz, Warren has studied artist and composers from Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Freddie Hubbard, Clifford Brown, Herbie Hancock, Oscar Peterson, Milt Jackson, Bobby Hutcherson, Cal Tjader, Return to Forever, Weather Report, Wynton Marsalis and many others.
Warren attended the Peabody Prepatory for eight years studying classical music with former Baltimore Symphony Orchestra member Leo LePage. During his high school years at the Baltimore School for the Arts, Warren studied with current Baltimore Symphony Orchestra member John Locke. After graduating from Baltimore School for the Arts in June of 1997, Warren headed north and enrolled at the Berklee College of Music in Boston,MA.
During his time at Berklee, Warren studied with Carribean Jazz Vibraphonist Dave Samuels for seven of eight semesters.One semester was spent with vibist Ed Saindon. During his time at Berklee, Warren began to explore deeper into jazz. Some musicians who've helped Warren reach his musical goal during his time at Berklee were musicians such as Jeremy Pelt, John Lamkin, Darren Barrett, Wayne Escoffery, Richard Johnson, Kendrick Scott, Walter Smith, Jason Palmer, Rashawn Ross and many others. Through those musicians Warren becamse an active performer around the Boston area, gigging frequently on the Vibraphone, Drums and Piano. One of the highlights of Warren's stay in Boston was co-leading a quintet with Boston-based trumpeter Jason Palmer at the historic jazz club Wallys Cafe. Warren was the house drummer at Wallys for two years, performing every Friday and Saturday.
After graduating from Berklee in May of 2001, Warren became an active musician on the Boston local scene. Warren was hired in September of 2003 to become an instructor in the percussion department at Berklee College of Music. Warren taught private lessons on the Vibraphone and Drums, as well as teach a beginners keyboard class for entering freshman drumset majors.
After two years of teaching at Berklee College of Music, Warren headed back to Baltimore to start his main goal of becoming a full time performing musician. Since leaving Berklee as a teacher, Warren has landed the piano duties performing in the Rachael Price Group. Recording and touring with Rachael, Warren has had the opportunity to tour throughout the entire Unites States of America. Warren is currently the drummer of choice for Alto Saxophonist Tia Fuller, who tours with internationally renowned pop star Beyonce Knowles. Warren is also a member of the Donal Fox Group which includes bassist John Lockwood and drummers Dafnis Preito and Terri Lyne Carrington. Also, Warren tour and perform with Bobby Watson's “Live and Learn” Sextet, Karriem Riggins “Virtuoso Experience” and Christian McBride & “Inside Straight”. With these three groups Warren has traveled the world. Warren has performed throughout the United States of America, South America, Canada, Italy, Spain, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Scotland, London, Greece, Singapore, Thailand, Jarkata, Bangkok, Tokyo, Paris, Moscow and many other countries.
Warren has several recordings as a leader. Warren's first two records are on the M&I label which is based in Japan. The first record is titled “Incredible Jazz Vibes” which features Mulgrew Miller on Piano, Vicente Archer on Bass and Kendrick Scott on Drums. The second record is titled “Black Wolf”. That record features Mulgrew Miller on Piano, Rodney Whitaker on Bass and Jeff “Tain” Watts on Drums. Warren has a self produced CD which is titled “RAW”. That record features Darren Barrett on Trumpet, Walter Smith on Tenor Saxophone, Jason Palmer on Trumpet, Plume on Alto Saxophone, Kris Funn on Bass, Peter Slavov on Bass, Lawrence Fields on Piano/Fender Rhodes and Charles “Dogg” Haynes on Drums. On “RAW” Warren performs on both the Vibraphone and Drums. The fourth recording is titled Warren “Chano Pozo” Wolf. On this recording, Warren performs on the Vibraphone,Drums/Fender Rhodes and Piano. This recording features Tim Green on Alto Saxophone, Lawrence Fields on Piano/Fender Rhodes, John Lamkin on Drums, Dana Hawkins on Drums, Kris Funn on Bass, Louis Cato on Electric Bass, Delandria Mills on Flute, Tabreeca Woodside on Vocals and Integriti Reeves on Vocals. Warren has recently signed to the Mack Ave recording label. A future record will be released in the near future.
Musicians that Warren has played with or recorded with are Wynton Marsalis and The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Jeremy Pelt and “Creation”, Nicholas Payton, Tim Warfield, Adonis Rose, Donal Fox, Anthony Wonsey, Aaron Goldberg, Cyrus Chestnut, Lewis Nash, Willie Jones, Eric Reed, Mulgrew Miller, Terri Lyne Carrington, Yoron Israel, Larry Willis, David “Fathead” Newman, Stefon Harris, Reuben Rogers, Kevin Eubanks, Curtis Lundy, Steve Davis, Duane Eubanks, Ron Carter, Wycliffe Gordon, Robert Glasper, Esperanza Spaulding and many other
“I'll always remember my first semester, when I met (vibraphonist and faculty member) Dave Samuels,” says Wolf, who was raised in Baltimore, Maryland. “The first thing we did was play a duet, and he said I didn't build anything in my solo. He said, 'You did five choruses, and that was cool, but they all sounded the same.'”
Tough talk, but coming from Samuels, whose musical partners have included Pat Metheny, Oscar Peterson, and Spyro Gyra, Wolf took it to heart. He hit the practice room and began a productive eight-semester student-teacher relationship with Samuels.
You can hear the outcome of that hard work on “Lake Nerraw Flow,” which Wolf wrote for a band led by schoolmate and saxophonist Walter Smith. In addition to displaying his vibraphone virtuosity, the tune—one of about 60 Wolf has written—reveals the composer's desire to veer from approaches often taken by jazz writers.
“I love swing. I'm always going to do that, but I also like trying to move in another direction,” says Wolf. “I like grooves. This one is somewhat of a shuffle, but it's like an r&b beat with a jazzy-type flow. I wanted something that would make the drummer open up more.”
“Lake Nerraw Flow” allows all of the performers to stretch out, with open sections in the head of the tune designed to allow one or more of the players to improvise until the written melody returns. Part of Wolf's philosophy of writing for an ensemble comes from being a multi-instrumentalist. In addition to vibraphone, drums, and other percussion instruments, Wolf is also an accomplished piano player and can even fill in on bass in a pinch.
During his student years, Wolf developed confidence as a player and band leader when he landed a gig at nearby jazz club and Boston landmark, Wally's Cafe. “When I started playing Wally's, there were tons of musicians down there,” says Wolf. “It was like New York. A lot of musicians in the corner with their horns out, ready to play. I just keep meeting people throughout the years.”
Through either Wally's, Berklee, or other connections, Wolf has played with musicians such as Roy Haynes, Lewis Nash, and Milt Jackson. Through such opportunities, he's been developing a sense of what it takes to be a master.
“I want to be a person who's trying to take music to another level,” Wolf says, when asked to reflect on his future. A lofty goal for most, but for a musician who had already collected a lifetime of experience at an age when others were just beginners, anything seems possible. —>
Source: Rob Hochschild
http://www.warrenwolfmusic.com/bio
Warren Wolf is a multi-instrumentalist from Baltimore,MD. From the young age of three years old, Warren has been trained on the Vibraphone/Marimba, Drums, and Piano. Under the guidance of his father Warren Wolf Sr., Warren has a deep background in all genres of music.
Beginning with classical music, Warren had studied classical composers from Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Paganini, Brahms, Vivaldi and Shostakovich. Warren also studied ragtime music learning music from the songbooks of Scott Joplin, Harry Brewer and Geroge Hamilton Green. In Jazz, Warren has studied artist and composers from Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Freddie Hubbard, Clifford Brown, Herbie Hancock, Oscar Peterson, Milt Jackson, Bobby Hutcherson, Cal Tjader, Return to Forever, Weather Report, Wynton Marsalis and many others.
Warren attended the Peabody Prepatory for eight years studying classical music with former Baltimore Symphony Orchestra member Leo LePage. During his high school years at the Baltimore School for the Arts, Warren studied with current Baltimore Symphony Orchestra member John Locke. After graduating from Baltimore School for the Arts in June of 1997, Warren headed north and enrolled at the Berklee College of Music in Boston,MA.
During his time at Berklee, Warren studied with Carribean Jazz Vibraphonist Dave Samuels for seven of eight semesters.One semester was spent with vibist Ed Saindon. During his time at Berklee, Warren began to explore deeper into jazz. Some musicians who’ve helped Warren reach his musical goal during his time at Berklee were musicians such as Jeremy Pelt, John Lamkin, Darren Barrett, Wayne Escoffery, Richard Johnson, Kendrick Scott, Walter Smith, Jason Palmer, Rashawn Ross and many others. Through those musicians Warren becamse an active performer around the Boston area, gigging frequently on the Vibraphone, Drums and Piano. One of the highlights of Warren’s stay in Boston was co-leading a quintet with Boston-based trumpeter Jason Palmer at the historic jazz club Wallys Cafe. Warren was the house drummer at Wallys for two years, performing every Friday and Saturday.
After graduating from Berklee in May of 2001, Warren became an active musician on the Boston local scene. Warren was hired in September of 2003 to become an instructor in the percussion department at Berklee College of Music. Warren taught private lessons on the Vibraphone and Drums, as well as teach a beginners keyboard class for entering freshman drumset majors.
After two years of teaching at Berklee College of Music, Warren headed back to Baltimore to start his main goal of becoming a full time performing musician. Since leaving Berklee as a teacher, Warren has landed the piano duties performing in the Rachael Price Group. Recording and touring with Rachael, Warren has had the opportunity to tour throughout the entire Unites States of America. Warren is currently the drummer of choice for Alto Saxophonist Tia Fuller, who tours with internationally renowned pop star Beyonce Knowles. Warren is also a member of the Donal Fox Group which includes bassist John Lockwood and drummers Dafnis Preito and Terri Lyne Carrington. Also, Warren tour and perform with Bobby Watson’s “Live and Learn” Sextet, Karriem Riggins “Virtuoso Experience” and Christian McBride & “Inside Straight”. With these three groups Warren has traveled the world. Warren has performed throughout the United States of America, South America, Canada, Italy, Spain, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Scotland, London, Greece, Singapore, Thailand, Jarkata, Bangkok, Tokyo, Paris, Moscow and many other countries.
Warren has several recordings as a leader. Warren’s first two records are on the M&I label which is based in Japan. The first record is titled “Incredible Jazz Vibes” which features Mulgrew Miller on Piano, Vicente Archer on Bass and Kendrick Scott on Drums. The second record is titled “Black Wolf”. That record features Mulgrew Miller on Piano, Rodney Whitaker on Bass and Jeff “Tain” Watts on Drums. Warren has a self produced CD which is titled “RAW”. That record features Darren Barrett on Trumpet, Walter Smith on Tenor Saxophone, Jason Palmer on Trumpet, Plume on Alto Saxophone, Kris Funn on Bass, Peter Slavov on Bass, Lawrence Fields on Piano/Fender Rhodes and Charles “Dogg” Haynes on Drums. On “RAW” Warren performs on both the Vibraphone and Drums. The fourth recording is titled Warren “Chano Pozo” Wolf. On this recording, Warren performs on the Vibraphone,Drums/Fender Rhodes and Piano. This recording features Tim Green on Alto Saxophone, Lawrence Fields on Piano/Fender Rhodes, John Lamkin on Drums, Dana Hawkins on Drums, Kris Funn on Bass, Louis Cato on Electric Bass, Delandria Mills on Flute, Tabreeca Woodside on Vocals and Integriti Reeves on Vocals. Warren has recently signed to the Mack Ave recording label. A future record will be released in the near future.
Musicians that Warren has played with or recorded with are Wynton Marsalis and The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Jeremy Pelt and “Creation”, Nicholas Payton, Tim Warfield, Adonis Rose, Donal Fox, Anthony Wonsey, Aaron Goldberg, Cyrus Chestnut, Lewis Nash, Willie Jones, Eric Reed, Mulgrew Miller, Terri Lyne Carrington, Yoron Israel, Larry Willis, David “Fathead” Newman, Stefon Harris, Reuben Rogers, Kevin Eubanks, Curtis Lundy, Steve Davis, Duane Eubanks, Ron Carter, Wycliffe Gordon, Robert Glasper, Esperanza Spaulding and many others.
https://downbeat.com/news/detail/warren-wolf-early-personal-path-forward
Warren Wolf Explores Early, Personal Influences To Chart a Path Forward
Vibraphonist Warren Wolf wanted to do “something completely different” for his Mack Avenue album, Reincarnation. (Photo: Steven Parke)
There’s no question that Baltimore-bred vibraphonist Warren Wolf can swing. His previous three albums on Mack Avenue—stretching back to a self-titled 2011 effort—showcase his locked-in grooves, originality as an improviser and a sensitive, artful touch akin to masters Milt Jackson and Gary Burton.
But on the heels of his 40th birthday, Wolf was stirred to broaden listeners’ conception of what jazz can be and explored different facets of his musicality for Reincarnation, which was released Feb. 28.
On the Mack Avenue effort, Wolf revised his sound by revisiting old inspirations close to his heart: the vintage r&b of his youth (D’Angelo and Prince), as well as his family (his musical parents, his dancer wife and his five children). Drawing on those motivations, Reincarnation is an upbeat, grooving celebration of love and life that marks Wolf embarking on fresh musical explorations. As guest Marcellus “Bassman” Shepard says on the album’s final track, “This brother laid it out on multiple levels. If you didn’t know, now you know.”
The following has been edited for length and clarity.
Your father was your first music teacher, and he wanted you to be adept at a variety of styles. What did he play, and why was versatility so important to him?
My dad, Warren Wolf Sr., he played vibes. Not for a living; he was a history teacher for Baltimore City Public Schools. But he’s always had a love for music. He bought a vibraphone right around November 1978, and I was born in November 1979. I would say, once I got through the first couple years of my life, I started to go downstairs and listen to my dad [play vibes] with his band, Wolf Pac, in the basement. That was the first time, to my knowledge, I saw the vibraphone.
He wanted me to a be a complete musician. So, even though I played the vibes, he had me playing all sorts of music. Growing up, he had me playing not only jazz—because he wanted me to have an idea of improv—but we’d play The Temptations, The Yellowjackets, and then we’d flip the script and play some Bach, Beethoven and Shostakovich.
From age 7 through high school, your main focus was classical music and you were playing with the Baltimore Symphony. When did jazz start to come into view?
It’s like if you had all these different styles lined up at the starting line and you shoot the gun and say, “Go!”—eventually, the classical style was winning. So, I was leaning more toward a career in classical music. I was good at it: I toured with the Baltimore Symphony. Most of my gigs came from playing with the Baltimore Symphony from the age of 7 or 8, until the time I graduated from high school.
Somewhere in the middle of that, around the age of 11 or 12, jazz was in the background saying, “I’m catching up with you, classical music.” By the time I was 17, I was in it.
Warren Wolf - "For Ma" (Official Audio).
"For Ma" by Warren Wolf, off the album Reincarnation on Mack Avenue Records. January 10, 2020
You then went on to Berklee College of Music and studied with the late vibraphonist Dave Samuels. What was the most impactful thing he taught you?
Dave just wanted me to play differently. One of my first lessons, he said, “You sound great, but you’re not saying anything. You’re pretty much just playing what Milt Jackson or Charlie Parker would play. What do you have to say?”
“For Ma” is dedicated to your mother, who loved Motown. Tell me what it was like writing that song and the impact she had on your career.
So, my mother, Celeste Wolf, she passed away about four years ago. When she retired from her job, she had early retirement and she was trying to figure out, “OK, what am I doing now?” One thing she and my dad did very often is, they’d go down into our rehearsal studio and put on all the tunes from when they were young—lots of Motown—and she wanted to learn how to play piano. In the last two years of her life, she got really good, and I’m not just saying that because I’m her son. She would play along with the recordings of groups like The Four Tops. So, I decided to do this track for her as a party song, something that’s upbeat, and feels good and brings in the Motown sound—particularly the tambourine feel.
That track is just one of several dedicated to your family on Reincarnation—like the song for your kids, “Sebastian And Zoë,” and the song for your wife, “Come Dance And With Me.” What about turning 40 compelled you to give your listeners a more personal look into your life?
Well, I turned 40 in November 2019, and I wanted to do something completely different. With my last three Mack Avenue records and a few other independent records before this, they were pretty much in the straightahead jazz vein. So, I had some friends who would call me and say, “Warren, listen, you’ve been swinging for the past 20 years and it’s not going anywhere. Why don’t you try something else? Nobody can out-swing you. But we all know there’s another side of you that’s always been there; you just haven’t unleashed it yet.”
So, I started thinking to myself—and I was scared. I was like, what about my fans? What if they don’t like it? But my friends would say, “Well forget them. You may lose them, but you will gain some more by creating something simple people can enjoy.”
Overall, Reincarnation is about the things that made you and still continue to mold you. In revisiting the various musical and personal influences of your youth, has it transformed the way you look at jazz?
No, I don’t think it transformed anything. I respect most people and what they’re doing. If anything, I’d like for people to just go ahead and try stuff. But, to be honest, this record is still jazz. I just switched a couple things around. I’m upfront with the vibes, but the one thing you won’t hear is a pile of vibraphone solos. I was trying to go for more of a group sound and music that people can just turn on and say, “OK, this feels good.”
Something that I thought about when I was creating this was, what would my wife think? That was, honestly, the main thing. If I turn this on in the car and we’re on a date, will she really sit there and dissect every solo I have and say, “Wow, that lydian scale you used right there ... .” First of all, she doesn’t know what the hell that is. So, I was concentrating more on sound and feel, like, let’s get these vocals in here, the correct lyrics, let’s make a nice melody and solo a little bit. I wanted to treat it like a live show.
What do you hope people take away from Reincarnation?
I hope they take this product and just sit back and relax. I hope they can say something like, “Wow, we realize Warren Wolf is more than just a jazz musician,” because a lot of us, we’re stuck in this box. I want to be that person that can do everything. I love music in general. I am a musician. DB
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Wolf_(musician)
Warren Wolf
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Warren Wolf Jr. (born November 10, 1979) is an American jazz vibraphonist from Baltimore, Maryland.[1
Biography
Under the tutelage of his father, Warren Wolf Sr., Warren began his music studies at the age of three, learning the vibraphone, marimba, drums, and piano. A classically trained musician, he attended the Peabody Institute's preparatory program for eight years. He attended high school at the Baltimore School for the Arts, from which he graduated in 1997, and subsequently attended the Berklee College of Music, where he studied under jazz vibraphonist Dave Samuels for seven of eight semesters, the remaining semester being spent receiving instruction from vibraphonist Ed Saindon. During his time at Berklee Wolf was an active member of Boston's jazz scene, playing the vibraphone, drums, and piano, and with his friend, trumpeter Jason Palmer he co-led a group at Wally's Cafe, the legendary Boston jazz venue, where he worked as house drummer. He graduated from Berklee in 2001 and remained active on the Boston jazz scene as a local musician. In September 2003 Wolf became an instructor in the percussion department at Berklee, giving private lessons on the vibraphone and drums, as well as teaching a beginners' keyboard class for entering freshmen majoring in drum performance.
Since leaving Berklee in 2005 for Baltimore, Wolf has been active on the international jazz scene, touring with Bobby Watson's "Live and Learn" Sextet, Karriem Riggins' "Virtuoso Experience", Donal Fox's Scarlatti Jazz Suite Project, Christian McBride & "Inside Straight", and with his own group of young musicians, "Wolfpack". His reputation as a gifted jazz lion is acknowledged by respected jazz critics such as the New York Times′s Ben Ratliff, who favorably reviewed Wolf's performance of November 16, 2011, at the 92nd Street Y's 92YTribeca venue,[2] a performance that was featured by NPR with a 60-minute video on its website.[3]
Wolf has made several recordings as a leader and a sideman. His recent effort, the eponymous Warren Wolf (2011), features Christian McBride on bass, Peter Martin on piano, Greg Hutchinson on drums, Tim Green on alto and soprano saxophones, and Jeremy Pelt on trumpet. In the New York Daily News on October 15, 2011, Greg Thomas[4] wrote of the CD: "To say that Warren Wolf's Mack Avenue debut is auspicious would be an understatement. No doubt, this is one of the best of the year in jazz."[5] Wolf's other notable recordings as a leader are Incredible Jazz Vibes (2005) (featuring Mulgrew Miller on piano, Vicente Archer on bass, and Kendrick Scott on drums), and Black Wolf (2009) (featuring Mulgrew Miller on piano, Rodney Whitaker on bass, and Jeff "Tain" Watts on drums).
Wolf is also an avid weightlifter and the father of five children.[citation needed]
Discography
| Titles | Year | Label |
|---|---|---|
| Warren Wolf | 2011 | Mack Avenue |
| Wolfgang | 2013 | Mack Avenue |
| Convergence | 2016 | Mack Avenue |
| Reincarnation | 2020 | Mack Avenue |
| Christmas Vibes | 2020 | Mack Avenue |
Compilations
- It's Christmas on Mack Avenue (Mack Avenue, 2014)
- Live from the Detroit Jazz Festival, 2013 (Mack Avenue, 2014)
With Christian McBride
- Kind of Brown (Mack Avenue, 2009)
References
- Greg Thomas (October 15, 2011). "Warren Wolf makes debut with 'Warren Wolf,' while Dominick Farinacci returns with 'Dawn of Goodbye'". NY DAILY NEWS.
External links
https://peabody.jhu.edu/faculty/warren-wolf/
Warren Wolf
Lecturer
Jazz
Warren Wolf is a multi-instrumentalist who lives in Baltimore. Since a very young age, Wolf has been playing many different instruments which include the vibraphone/marimba, drumset/percussion, and the piano/keyboards. As a youth, Warren attended the Peabody Preparatory, where he studied with former Baltimore Symphony Orchestra member Leo LePage. While at Peabody, Wolf played many popular styles of music which included classical, jazz, and ragtime.
After graduating from the Baltimore School for the Arts in the spring of 1997, Wolf headed north and enrolled at Berklee College of Music. At Berklee, he studied with Caribbean Jazz Project Vibist Dave Samuels and he began to experiment with many different music styles, outside of jazz and classical, such as hip-hop, r&b, drum-n-bass, funk, rock, gospel, world music, Latin, and many others.
During his time at Berklee, Wolf had the opportunity to play and co-lead at the legendary jazz club Wally’s Café with trumpeter Jason Palmer, as a drummer.
Wolf is a former faculty member at Berklee College of Music, teaching there from September 2003 to December 2004. He has taught in the college percussion department teaching piano classes for entering freshman drummers. He has also taught private lessons at Berklee for drummers and mallet students. He is also the former chair of jazz studies at the Baltimore School for the Arts. He is currently an adjunct professor at Temple University in Philadelphia and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
At Berklee, Wolf had the chance to play and record with many of the world’s best musicians, including Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Christian McBride and Inside Straight, Nicholas Payton, David Sanborn, Aaron Diehl, Tia Fuller, Sean Jones, Aaron Diehl, The SFJAZZ Collective, Joey DeFrancesco, Terri-Lyne Carrington, Bobby Watson, and many others.
Wolf has recorded seven records as a leader to date. Incredible Jazz Vibes was recorded on the Japanese label M & I Records. The record features Mulgrew Miller on piano, Vicente Archer on bass, and Kendrick Scott on drums. The second recording is entitled Raw. On that record, Wolf performs on both the vibraphone and drum set. It features musicians such as Darren Barrett on trumpet, Walter Smith on tenor saxophone, Lawrence Fields on piano, and a host of others. The third record is titled Warren “Chano Pozo” Wolf where Wolf is featured on vibes, drums, and piano. The fourth, Black Wolf, features Mulgrew Miller on piano, Jeff “Tain” Watts on drums, and Rodney Whitaker on bass. The fifth record is titled Warren Wolf, and it was released on the Mack Ave label. That record features Christian McBride on bass, Peter Martin on piano, Greg Hutchinson on drums, Tim Green on alto/soprano sax, and Jeremy Pelt on trumpet. The sixth record is titled Wolfgang, which is also on the Mack Ave label. That record features Benny Green, Aaron Goldberg, and Aaron Diehl on piano, Christian McBride and Kris Funn on bass, and Lewis Nash and Billy Williams on drums. The seventh record on the Mack Ave label is titled Convergence which features Brad Mehldau on piano, John Scofield on guitar, Christian McBride on bass, and Jeff “Tain” Watts on drums.
Wolf is a member of Christian McBride’s group Inside Straight and is featured on the Inside Straight recordings Kind of Brown and People Music. He is also a member of the all star jazz group, The SFJazz Collective. Wolf is the leader of the group Warren Wolf & WOLFPACK.
Wolf is a Mack Ave. recording artist, Open Studio Network artist, Malletech endorser, and is represented by the Paradigm Talent Agency, AMI Agency & Guessworks, Inc.
https://chicagopresents.uchicago.edu/people/warren-wolf-vibraphone
Warren Wolf, vibraphone
Warren Wolf is a multi-instrumentalist from Baltimore, MD. From the young age of three years old, Warren has been trained on the Vibraphone/Marimba, Drums, and Piano. Under the guidance of his father Warren Wolf Sr., Warren has a deep background in all genres of music.
Beginning with classical music, Warren had studied classical composers from Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Paganini, Brahms, Vivaldi and Shostakovich. Warren also studied ragtime music learning music from the songbooks of Scott Joplin, Harry Brewer and George Hamilton Green. In Jazz, Warren has studied artist and composers from Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Freddie Hubbard, Clifford Brown, Herbie Hancock, Oscar Peterson, Milt Jackson, Bobby Hutcherson, Cal Tjader, Return to Forever, Weather Report, Wynton Marsalis and many others.
Warren attended the Peabody Prepatory for eight years studying classical music with former Baltimore Symphony Orchestra member Leo LePage. During his high school years at the Baltimore School for the Arts, Warren studied with current Baltimore Symphony Orchestra member John Locke. After graduating from Baltimore School for the Arts in June of 1997, Warren headed north and enrolled at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA.
During his time at Berklee, Warren studied with Caribbean Jazz Vibraphonist Dave Samuels for seven of eight semesters. One semester was spent with vibist Ed Saindon. During his time at Berklee, Warren began to explore deeper into jazz. Some musicians who've helped Warren reach his musical goal during his time at Berklee were musicians such as Jeremy Pelt, John Lamkin, Darren Barrett, Wayne Escoffery, Richard Johnson, Kendrick Scott, Walter Smith, Jason Palmer, Rashawn Ross and many others. Through those musicians Warren became an active performer around the Boston area, gigging frequently on the Vibraphone, Drums and Piano. One of the highlights of Warren's stay in Boston was co-leading a quintet with Boston-based trumpeter Jason Palmer at the historic jazz club Wallys Cafe. Warren was the house drummer at Wallys for two years, performing every Friday and Saturday.
After graduating from Berklee in May of 2001, Warren became an active musician on the Boston local scene. Warren was hired in September of 2003 to become an instructor in the percussion department at Berklee College of Music. Warren taught private lessons on the Vibraphone and Drums, as well as teach a beginners keyboard class for entering freshman drumset majors.
After two years of teaching at Berklee College of Music, Warren headed back to Baltimore to start his main goal of becoming a full time performing musician. Since leaving Berklee as a teacher, Warren has landed the piano duties performing in the Rachael Price Group. Recording and touring with Rachael, Warren has had the opportunity to tour throughout the entire United States of America. Warren is currently the drummer of choice for Alto Saxophonist Tia Fuller, who tours with internationally renowned pop star Beyoncé Knowles. Warren is also a member of the Donal Fox Group which includes bassist John Lockwood and drummers Dafnis Preito and Terri Lyne Carrington. Also, Warren tour and perform with Bobby Watson's "Live and Learn" Sextet, Karriem Riggins "Virtuoso Experience" and Christian McBride & "Inside Straight". With these three groups Warren has traveled the world. Warren has performed throughout the United States of America, South America, Canada, Italy, Spain, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Scotland, London, Greece, Singapore, Thailand, Jakarta, Bangkok, Tokyo, Paris, Moscow and many other countries.
Warren has several recordings as a leader. Warren's first two records are on the M&I label which is based in Japan. The first record is titled "Incredible Jazz Vibes" which features Mulgrew Miller on Piano, Vicente Archer on Bass and Kendrick Scott on Drums. The second record is titled "Black Wolf". That record features Mulgrew Miller on Piano, Rodney Whitaker on Bass and Jeff "Tain" Watts on Drums. Warren has a self produced CD which is titled "RAW". That record features Darren Barrett on Trumpet, Walter Smith on Tenor Saxophone, Jason Palmer on Trumpet, Plume on Alto Saxophone, Kris Funn on Bass, Peter Slavov on Bass, Lawrence Fields on Piano/Fender Rhodes and Charles "Dogg" Haynes on Drums. On "RAW" Warren performs on both the Vibraphone and Drums. The fourth recording is titled Warren "Chano Pozo" Wolf. On this recording, Warren performs on the Vibraphone, Drums/Fender Rhodes and Piano. This recording features Tim Green on Alto Saxophone, Lawrence Fields on Piano/Fender Rhodes, John Lamkin on Drums, Dana Hawkins on Drums, Kris Funn on Bass, Louis Cato on Electric Bass, Delandria Mills on Flute, Tabreeca Woodside on Vocals and Integriti Reeves on Vocals. Warren has recently signed to the Mack Ave recording label. A future record will be released in the near future.
Musicians that Warren has played with or recorded with are Wynton Marsalis and The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Jeremy Pelt and "Creation", Nicholas Payton, Tim Warfield, Adonis Rose, Donal Fox, Anthony Wonsey, Aaron Goldberg, Cyrus Chestnut, Lewis Nash, Willie Jones, Eric Reed, Mulgrew Miller, Terri Lyne Carrington, Yoron Israel, Larry Willis, David "Fathead" Newman, Stefon Harris, Reuben Rogers, Kevin Eubanks, Curtis Lundy, Steve Davis, Duane Eubanks, Ron Carter, Wycliffe Gordon, Robert Glasper, Esperanza Spaulding and many others.
Warren Wolf: A Before & After Listening Session
The multi-instrumentalist talks mallets, oscillators, pickups, and treating the song like a vibe
After a year of lockdown, it’s getting hard to tell if someone is naturally gregarious, or if the need for conversation and interaction is driving the urge to speak in longer bursts. With Warren Wolf, who’s been at home in Baltimore since the start of the pandemic, a jovial spark and conversational flow come across as his normal groove.
“It’s funny,” he says when asked how he’s been faring. “Next week will be about one year since the lockdown started and honestly, I’ve continued to perform. Maybe not worldwide like I would normally, but I’ve been bouncing between two venues here in Baltimore, An Die Musik and Keystone Korner Baltimore. Also doing a lot of home recordings, home master classes, some performances virtually from home, and a lot of teaching for the Peabody Conservatory and San Francisco Conservatory of Music. I had my first out-of-town gig last week, performing at the Manship Theatre in Baton Rouge, Louisiana with my quartet. It was a great feeling to travel and actually play for some people again.”
Whew. Is that all? “Well, I just got a didgeridoo!” Wolf exclaims, and the multi-instrumentalist—most known for his vibraphone playing but respected as a drummer and a pianist as well—hustles to a corner of his home studio to show off his new acquisition. Not leaning on the wall, not stuffed into a gig bag, but in its own road case. Impressive. Anything else going on?
“I have two recent records out—my last one was titled Christmas Vibes, that came out in September, and the one before that was Reincarnation, my tribute to all of that soul music of the ’80s and ’90s I heard coming up: Roy Ayers, Anita Baker, Yellowjackets, I was such a fan of that style of music. I’m trying to figure out what I want to do next. I have my heart set on doing a Latin record, something in the range of Cal Tjader and Tito Puente, but I’m not sure yet. I got a lot of options there.”
One more question before we launched into the Before & After, Wolf’s first for JazzTimes: Now that vaccinations are underway, what do you expect will happen next? “I’m really not sure but I think the music is going to come back strong. Somebody said this to me a few days ago, about jazz going through that weird period in the ’70s. Then it had that resurgence in the ’80s when Wynton and Tain and that whole crew came out. I look at that compared to this, and I say, ‘It’s okay. Let’s just relax and see what’s going to come.’ I know some clubs have closed, but you know, clubs come and go. I think somebody else will always step up to the plate, and meanwhile we’ll be there. The musicians will always be right there.”
Listen to a Spotify playlist featuring most of the tracks in this Before & After session:
1. Herbie Hancock
“It’s Only a Paper Moon” (The Other Side of ’Round Midnight, Columbia). Bobby Hutcherson, vibraphone; Hancock, piano; Pierre Michelot, bass; Billy Higgins, drums. Recorded in 1985.
BEFORE: For some reason I was going to say either Bob Cranshaw or Buster Williams on bass, or it could have been Rufus Reid. One of those three. As far as the vibes go, at first I was going to say Milt Jackson but it’s definitely not him, so either Bobby Hutcherson or Jay Hoggard. Bobby plays tunes like that, but the one reason I didn’t think it was Bobby is because Bobby typically would play a lot more on that vamp, that F suspended chord. The reason I did think it was Bobby is because of the sound he typically gets from the mallets he uses. They’re pretty much the same on all of his recordings from the ’70s on, and he pretty much plays in a higher register when he’s soloing.
I didn’t recognize the tune but the performance was cool. The drummer could have been Joe Chambers, but I was expecting more from the drums, which would have brought the song out a bit more. It’s a good song but I would have liked for the band just to be—I won’t say tighter—just stronger. One thing is that the vibes solo never happens, but you expect it. There were some flurries of notes and then all of a sudden he pulled back. So it’s kind of like they treated the song like a, no pun intended, vibe: “Let’s have fun on this chord a little bit.”
AFTER: I would have never guessed Herbie! Herbie would typically play a lot more. I figured that was Bobby. Good recording. This was like Miles’ “Nefertiti” the way they played it—those two tunes are very similar. They’re both in the same key, I mean just far less chords. That little hit section, I’ve heard Bobby actually do that on “Paper Moon,” because I played that arrangement with him a few years ago for his 70th birthday party in San Francisco. So that’s always been in his repertoire.
Bobby is one of the all-time masters of the vibes. This is not to take away from any of the others, but he took the vibes from what Milt Jackson was doing and came out with the whole four-mallet thing, playing modal, with giants like Freddie [Hubbard] and Eric Dolphy and Jackie [McLean]. People were not used to hearing the vibes being played like that. It was like, “Wait, what’s this new sound?” Awesome player.
2. Sasha Berliner
“Foreword/San Francisco (Interlude)” (live at NYC Winter JazzFest, YouTube video).
Berliner, vibraphone; Chris McCarthy, piano; Morgan Guerin, EWI; Leonor
Falcón Pasquali, violin; Lucas Saur, cello; Kanoa Mendenhall, bass;
Jongkuk Kim, drums. Recorded in 2020.
BEFORE: [Wolf averts eyes from laptop screen] Very interesting. Computer music with a lot of sounds and everything else. Based around the vibraphone, which is interesting. There are a handful of players who are, to my knowledge, doing this stuff right now. One is Simon Moullier. He’s French and lives in New York, and went to Berklee. I know he’s been experimenting with all types of sounds. I’ve seen some videos of him with Darren Barrett’s ensemble and was blown away by the stuff that he was doing. Also, Christos Rafalides and Manhattan Vibes, he uses these kinds of sounds a lot. And then there’s a young vibist from San Francisco, Sasha Berliner, so it would probably be one of those three. I actually saw Sasha in person at SFJazz playing something that was similar to this. If I had to pick it would probably be either her or Simon.
The music was really good—I enjoyed it. A lot of flavors there, a lot of colors. I could not tell what was what, like maybe a keyboard player was playing some pads, or if it was an electric bass or upright. I couldn’t tell any of that. I didn’t recognize anybody’s playing, so it would definitely be some younger players that I’m just not hip to. I don’t hear too many musicians my age or older doing things like that. I’m sure there are, but not too many.
AFTER: [Watches screen as performance replays] Oh yeah, that’s Sasha. You know the thing I like about her? Her progress has been amazing. This is year six or seven for me in the SFJazz Collective, and I think I met her in my third year, four years ago, when she was still a senior in high school. Most players out of high school, before they even try to get into this style of composition, they’re just trying to swing. Sasha can do that, but it’s so cool to hear somebody at this age taking her own approach to this style of music. Speaking for myself, I can play this but I don’t hear it—I don’t write music like this but I’ll go check it out. I also like that she can showcase the vibes for even younger people and help keep this instrument going. I know she’s been doing work with Tyshawn Sorey sometimes, but outside of that, it’s her own thing.
That’s another thing—not many people want to hire a vibes player because the vibraphone is not a normal thing. Trust me, if somebody is getting you to play vibes in their band, they really want you and they’re willing to take on everything that comes along with that: Somebody has to rent or borrow a set or ask the promoter to come up with more money, and not all vibes will be the best. I mean, I work with Christian McBride and SFJazz and had stints in other people’s bands, but for the most part I had to start my own band and come out by myself, and Sasha is doing the same thing. And to do that as a younger leader [Berliner is 22], that’s awesome.
So there’s not a Musser waiting in the backroom of every club by now?
[Laughs] There’s only been two clubs where I’ve seen a set of vibes always there, and you don’t have to bring anything: Smalls [in New York City] and Marian’s Jazz Room in Berne, Switzerland. And I think they have a set in the Jazz Showcase in Chicago, but I haven’t played there yet. But anywhere else, you better be bringing some vibes with you.
3. Stefon Harris
“Sunset and the Mockingbird” (African Tarantella, Blue Note).
Anne Drummond, flute; Greg Tardy, clarinet; Steve Turre, trombone;
Harris, vibraphone; Xavier Davis, piano; Derrick Hodge, bass; Jonah
Chung, viola; Louise Dublin, cello; Terreon Gully, drums. Recorded in
2005.
BEFORE: A musician like me, a multi-instrumentalist, I never really listen to a lot of vibraphone players. But when I do, I listen to everything because I like playing drums, bass, piano. I study horns, everything. So that was Stefon Harris, and honestly I knew it from the drums. Terreon Gully has a great sound and a very particular sound. I talk to my students about this: What is your identity? You don’t want to come out sounding like everybody else. And Terreon has a particular style—he’ll be swinging but the way he tunes his drums and the way he does certain fills, that gives him away quickly. If you’re a fan of Terreon you’ll know this. Bass, it’s either Ben Williams or Derrick Hodge. On piano I’m assuming that was Marc Cary, but I’m not really sure.
What gave it away as Stefon was when it first started—and I’m not being funny—I was like, “When did I do this record?” There’s a certain thing that a lot of vibes players don’t do nowadays; they don’t really add the whole blues effect to it. But Stefon is one of those guys who does that very well. So yeah, I just automatically knew that was him.
Also one minor thing—minor but major when it comes to Stefon Harris’ playing—his singing gives it away. You can hear it in some of his recordings and I heard just a tad of it in this one, somebody singing in the background. He has a medium singing voice and he talks a little bit higher than me, but when he plays the vibes and starts singing he can go super-high if he’s singing a soprano line. It really sticks out, which is cool.
The song was beautiful, it had a nice groove but then it went to that nice slow swing. A lot of musicians don’t swing that hard. Stefon and the whole band were swinging like the MJQ times 10, like, “We’re bringing this into the 21st century.” I’m going to guess this was recorded recently, sometime around 2018 to now.
AFTER: [Wolf looks at image of album cover] I’m going to ask Stefon about this cover, like, “Tell me that was a fake spider on your head.” Me, you couldn’t pay me to do that.
4. Milt Jackson
“I’m Not So Sure” (Olinga, CTI). Jimmy Heath, soprano
saxophone; Jackson, vibraphone; Cedar Walton, electric piano; Ron
Carter, electric bass; Mickey Roker, drums. Recorded in 1974.
BEFORE: I was trying to guess the rhythm section. This is definitely in the ’70s. The bass player sounds like somebody who played with the Temptations.
James Jamerson?
Yeah. Then I thought that was Bob Cranshaw on the electric bass. I was thinking Lenny White on drums or Mickey Roker on drums. Soprano saxophone, for some reason Gary Bartz came to mind, and keyboard players are tricky, I don’t really know that. But this particular vibist is one who played around with a lot of people—that was Milt Jackson, definitely. He plays the same way in any style or sound. It can be a Latin record, it can be this funk track we just heard, or if he was playing with one of those all-star groups with Ray Brown, or the MJQ. Even in his later years, Milt has an identity—the way he set the oscillator [on the vibraphone] was pretty much always the same. He used the same mallets all the time and had the same attack consistently with each stroke on the bars.
Milt Jackson was one of the vibes players my dad introduced me to when I was just a five- or six-year-old kid. The record that my dad played a lot was called The Last Concert [1975, Atlantic], which was before the MJQ got back together.
AFTER: Nice E-flat minor funk. I have never even heard of this record. I was going to say CTI but I didn’t want to be wrong. Part of me was going to say Ron Carter but I know how much he despised the electric, so I left it alone. Jimmy Heath, okay. See, to my knowledge Milt never had one set group. I’m sure he had particular people he liked playing with.
5. Mulgrew Miller
“The Eleventh Hour” (Wingspan, Savoy). Kenny Garrett, alto
saxophone; Miller, piano; Steve Nelson, vibraphone; Charnett Moffett,
bass; Tony Reedus, drums. Recorded in 1987.
BEFORE: [Smiles broadly] That was Mr. Steve Nelson. I forget the name but I know the tune. It’s by Mulgrew Miller and that was his group Wingspan. When it started, before hearing the melody, I heard the bass sound and I was like, “Okay, this is an ’80s tune.” But then after listening to the song I was like, “Okay, this is the late ’90s or early 2000s,” and I had a question—because obviously somebody put the bass in direct and a lot of bass players nowadays hate that sound.
This is from ’87.
Really? Oh wow. Okay, but that was definitely Steve Nelson and I think that was Steve Wilson on alto. The drums, I was going to say Rodney Green, but Rodney was not playing with Mulgrew at that time. I’m curious to know.
Steve has a particular way about playing the vibes. He brings thunder with the instrument, kind of like the Bobby Hutcherson of today, if you know what I mean. A lot of harmony, a lot of soul, a lot of passion. Again, it’s a certain style of playing that you don’t hear from too many of today’s artists. There’s very few who still like to play this hard bop style on the vibes.
Steve Nelson is a beautiful cat, man. I think the last time I sat in with him was when he was playing with his group featuring Terell Stafford. They were at Smoke and, from what I’ve heard, Steve doesn’t like people to sit in, but I went up there and asked him. I said, “Bro, let me play a tune with you,” and he was like, “All right, let’s do it.” So we played on one instrument, split a blues, played a couple choruses. And nobody got hurt. [Laughs]
AFTER: Mulgrew and Kenny Garrett were best friends, and Kenny is tremendously unique with his sound. But for some reason what I heard I thought was Steve WilsonWarren Wolf: A Before & After Listening Session
The multi-instrumentalist talks mallets, oscillators, pickups, and treating the song like a vibe
6. Bill Ware
“Caravan” (Sir Duke, What’s New?). Ware, vibraphone; Marc Ribot, guitar. Recorded in 2001.
BEFORE: Okay, so I got the first few right, now I’m going to get this one wrong. The song is “Caravan.” Let me start with the guitarist—the only person that came to mind was Julian Lage. I cannot tell when this was recorded. I’m going to go with sometime around 2005 to 2010, but it stumps me. The one vibraphone player that came to mind, and I know it’s not him, was Mike Mainieri. I’m trying to think of somebody else who would use pickups on the vibes and who comps a little more than usual.
I like the way the guitarist was comping, like an old-school vibe, like Charlie Christian, but again times 10. You could tell the guitarist and vibist were having a lot of fun with the interplay, just jamming along on a popular song. They didn’t do anything special to arrange it, which is actually not a bad thing. I could tell they were probably in the studio saying, “Let’s just have some fun and see what happens.” It had a Brooklyn vibe to it‚ guys messing around in Brooklyn having fun. But I have no idea who that was.
AFTER: Bill Ware, okay. I was going to say him eventually. That was actually cool, man. That definitely sounds like some Brooklyn stuff to me. He’s one of the vibraphone players I honestly have not checked out like I should have. I need to do more research on him.
7. Steps
“The Aleph (alternate take)” (Paradox—Live at Seventh Avenue South,
Better Days). Michael Brecker, tenor saxophone; Mike Mainieri,
vibraphone; Dan Grolnick, keyboards; Eddie Gomez, bass; Peter Erskine,
drums. Recorded in 1981.
BEFORE: That was a lot of fun. Very energetic. Let’s see—awww man, I don’t think you’d play the same artist twice, but if I had to really guess honestly I was going to say that was Bobby Hutcherson again, and that sounded like Tony Williams on the drums because of the way he was swinging. There’s not too many drummers that play quarter notes on the hi-hat when they’re swinging. Could be Herbie, and on bass, Ron Carter. If it wasn’t Ron, Buster Williams. I don’t know the song, but they were definitely playing free or they just decided to take it somewhere free. I don’t think that was Bobby because of the pickup system, not unless the sound guy EQ’d the hell out of it.
Another part of me was going to say Mike Mainieri, again because of the pickups on the vibes, and Steps Ahead because I heard a horn player in there. Not 100% sure on this one.
AFTER: Again, you don’t hear too many vibraphonists playing tricky melodies like that, and when I heard the tenor sound it wasn’t necessarily a Brecker sound for me, but I was thinking, “Okay, what group would actually feature a vibraphone player with this type of melody?” The whole rhythm-section component of it threw me off. I was like, “Steps Ahead,” and in this case it’s Steps—but at the same time I was like, “That’s Tony Williams …” So, Peter Erskine and Eddie Gomez. I was totally off, but I did get that it was Mike Mainieri. Cool.
8. Jason Marsalis and the 21st Century Trad Band
“Bourbon Street Ain’t Mardi Gras” (Melody Reimagined: Book 1, Basin Street). Marsalis, vibraphone; Austin Johnson, piano; Will Goble, bass; Dave Potter, drums. Recorded in 2017.
BEFORE: I like the track. I like the vibes player.
He was swinging and playing the changes. The one thing I did not like is
that he quoted so many songs. I’m not a fan of that. He quoted
“Stablemates,” I heard Stevie Wonder or something, any tune he could
think of he just played it. But whoever this person is can play. The
drummer played a particular fill that reminded me of Jeff “Tain” Watts,
but I don’t think that was Jeff. The bass stumped me there. Piano I
didn’t really hear enough of to know. But a fun song—it was bouncing, it
felt good to play. I would actually love to play that song with my
group.
The first person that came to mind, but I know it’s not him, was Gary Burton. I’m trying to think who would play like this. Oh, what is his name—Christian Tamburr? I don’t think that’s him. I’m not sure.
Here’s a hint. He’s as much known for his drumming as playing vibes.
So it’s probably Jorge Rossy?
AFTER: There you go. He would have been my third choice. I should have guessed Jason. Jason is so swinging, all around: drummer, vibes player, and he likes playing this style of music. Maybe I’ll ask him one day, but I don’t understand why he would do all of these quotes in here. Really good recording and I thought the band was swinging really hard. I know those guys, not very well but I’ve played with them. They’ve been playing with Jason for a while.
9. George Shearing and the Montgomery Brothers
“Double Deal” (George Shearing and the Montgomery Brothers,
Jazzland). Wes Montgomery, guitar; Shearing, piano; Buddy Montgomery,
vibraphone; Monk Montgomery, bass; Walter Perkins, drums. Recorded in
1961.
BEFORE: You’re picking these tricky tracks. It’s definitely from sometime in the ’50s or ’60s. I like the song a lot, very simple, just chill, everybody’s playing the right chords, it felt great. The vibes player was great. He had a sense for playing chords, all the changes were there. Great feel. I was going to say Lionel Hampton but the oscillator wasn’t up high enough for it to be Hamp, so I took him off the list. Because of the Latin section at the end, I was going to say Cal Tjader, but probably not. And then if it wasn’t him, probably Roy Ayers, because I know he was swinging a lot at one point before he went pop and funk and hip-hop. I have no idea who the band was, no idea. The guitarist I would say was Wes Montgomery, but I’m probably way off on that one. The pianist sounds like George Shearing.
AFTER: Wow. Buddy Montgomery. Definitely not a record I would know. I got to check that out.
10. Roy Ayers Ubiquity
“Green and Gold” (Virgin Ubiquity: Unreleased Recordings 1976-1981, BBE). Ayers, vibraphone; Bobby Lyle, electric piano; Nathaniel Phillips, bass; Bruce Carter, drums. Recorded in 1978.
BEFORE: Very nice. Definitely that’s Roy Ayers. What gave that away is the funk sound. There isn’t one [other] vibist during that time who came out with a solid groove like that, you know, just straight. [Wolf looks behind him, distracted by his daughter jumping on the bed] Sorry about that, my daughter is behind me …
She’s bouncing to the beat.
She hasn’t seen me all day [laughs]. There are a lot of vibe players who had vamps in their music, but not that solid R&B-radio feel. Plus, Roy was one of those guys who came out pretty much the same time as Bobby Hutcherson—they’re both from Los Angeles—and Roy was a great jazz player, just swinging and playing all types of chord changes, but then he completely went in another direction. “I’m going to stick with these vamps”—playing on one chord, and he started singing as well.
But no matter what he’s done or what style he went into, Roy’s still a vibes player, you know. He’s still one of us. I think Roy will always be one of the greatest vibes players, and they say he’s one of the most sampled musicians of all time. He actually put the instrument on the national map. A lot of people were and probably still are like, “What is this thing?” and still associate that instrument with the bells that they played in elementary school. So when people heard “Searching,” “Everybody Loves the Sunshine,” all of those classics that he wrote, they were introduced to the vibes. I’ll put it like this: There’s been times I’ve taken my instrument out of a club and some random dude on the street will see what I’m moving and be like, “Man, you know who Roy Ayers is? That’s the cat right there.” That’s a tremendous thing.
Warren, we’ve got to get you back to the family. Thanks for being so generous with your time—this has been fun.
I enjoyed it. It was a good chance for me to hear some different music I’m not aware of. The way I was raised by my dad, he didn’t play a lot of vibraphone music around the house because he wanted me to have an individual thing. The one vibes player that a lot of people don’t play too often was my teacher at Berklee, Dave Samuels.
Ha! That was going to be mystery track 12.
What would that have been?
“The Long Way Home” from Del Sol.
Dave was the deal for me but eventually I had to get away from him, so I started to listen to more horn players and other people in order to—again, the one thing I keep saying is—have your own identity. I mean, as much as I respect every one of these players you’ve played, I never wanted to be like Milt Jackson or Dave Samuels or anybody else. I wanted to have my own voice. But it’s still good to hear them and know a lot has been done for this particular instrument.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR/INTERVIEWER:
Ashley Kahn is a Grammy award winning American music historian, journalist,
producer, and professor. He teaches at New York University’s Clive
Davis Institute for Recorded Music, and has written books on two
legendary recordings—Kind of Blue by Miles Davis and A Love Supreme by John Coltrane—as well as one book on a legendary record label: The House That Trane Built: The Story of Impulse Records. He also co-authored the Carlos Santana autobiography The Universal Tone, and edited Rolling Stone: The Seventies, a 70-essay overview of that pivotal decade.
https://www.baltimoremagazine.com/section/artsentertainment/warren-wolf-is-the-jazz-great-next-door/
Arts & Culture
Big Bad Wolf
When he’s actually home, Warren Wolf is the jazz great next door.
This past December, there was a buzz in the air at An die Musik Live!—the tiny, 90-seat jazz haven perched on the second floor of a Mount Vernon townhouse. Onstage, a murderers’ row of locally reared jazz talent was assembling for a concert that would be part holiday show and part homecoming. In the midst of it all, exchanging warm greetings and playful ribbings, was vibraphonist Warren Wolf. Though raised in West Baltimore and a current resident of Reisterstown, Wolf doesn’t play his hometown all that often. As one of today’s most in-demand jazz musicians, you’re much more likely to find him gigging around the globe than tuning up in Timonium, or some such place. But he’s happy to be here tonight.
“You know, it’s good to leave home, and it’s good to come back,” Wolf says later. “You have to reconnect with your people regularly. There’s something about those DMV musicians, those players from D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. There’s a fire to how we play, and we like to play with each other, because we share that.”
Tonight, Wolf has formed a quartet with three fellow Baltimoreans-turned-jazz-hotshots—drummer Quincy Phillips, bassist Kris Funn, and pianist Alex Brown. As the set begins, Wolf, wearing a close-trimmed Afro, thin goatee, and dark blazer over an open-collar white shirt, demonstrates the skills that led the voters in DownBeat Magazine’s 2016 Critics Poll to name him one of the five best vibraphonists in the world.
As his two mallets begin their rapid up-and-down motion, the felt ball at the end of each stick multiplies into a blur. Aided by the whirring motors beneath the instrument’s wooden, xylophone-like keys, every note he strikes boasts the sustained vibrato that gives the vibraphone its signature chime. Out of that blizzard of notes emerges a strong melodic pattern that, once established, is endlessly restated in new variations. It’s that combination of physical dexterity and lucid musicality that has launched Wolf out of Baltimore’s local orbit and into the national galaxy of jazz stars.
“[Bassist/composer] Curtis Lundy turned me onto Warren 11 years ago,” says Bobby Watson, the legendary alto saxophonist. “Curtis said, ‘You have to hire this guy—he’s a beast.’ He’s another child prodigy. He’s such a nice person, but he’s always playing his butt off. . . . I always told him, ‘I’m glad I got you now, because you’ll be hard to get in the future.’”
In September, Wolf will unveil his new duo with fellow vibraphonist Joe Locke. And then in November, the same week he turns 38, Wolf will introduce his new quintet during shows in New York and Switzerland. Meanwhile, Wolf will continue to teach at Philadelphia’s Temple University.
“I hear people saying, ‘Oh, Warren’s big-time; he’s playing with all those famous people and making big money,’ but I don’t let that stuff affect me,” Wolf says. “I don’t mind going down to HomeSlyce Pizza here in Baltimore and playing for $60 and some free pizza at the Wednesday night jam session that Todd Marcus runs. I like the freedom of a situation like that, because a lot of the time when you’re touring, you don’t get to play as freely as you’d like. You have to stick to what you’re selling, so you have to play the latest record.”
“But who I am—and who my father trained me to be—is a complete musician.”
Wolf’s latest record, last year’s Convergence, is his third album with the high-profile jazz label Mack Avenue Records and the best proof yet of how high he has climbed in the jazz world. It features the young vibraphonist leading an all-star quartet comprised of pianist Brad Mehldau, guitarist John Scofield, drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts, and five-time Grammy Award-winning bassist Christian McBride.
“I sat down with my manager, Andre Guess, and Denny Stilwell, the president of Mack Avenue,” Wolf recalls, “and we agreed that as great as the first two records were, we wanted to do something that would put my name in a different context, that would raise the bar. So we decided to get some of the best players available. . . . It was time to show that Warren can hang with the best.”
Wolf acquitted himself just fine, writing six strong compositions that pushed his guests to work hard. He also showcased his talent for reinterpretation, arranging old standards by Stevie Wonder and even Frédéric Chopin.
“Sometimes you have to change it up,” Wolf says. “A lot of guys just want to play their own songs and don’t pay attention to what the audience wants. So much jazz is all this swing and a lot of drums over and over again. Okay, but let’s include something else, too.
“For this album, that ‘something else’ was Motown and classical music,” he continues. “When I was a child, I toured with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and we played John Corigliano’s Pied Piper Fantasy. Now I’m hearing all those styles inside me, and I want them all to come out in my music. A lot of people put me in this box called ‘a jazz musician’ because I play so fluently through changes. But who I am—and who my father trained me to be—is a complete musician.”
Wolf grew up in Edmondson Village in West Baltimore, running through the alleys where he and his friends would nail crates to the telephone poles and play basketball. From the very beginning, his musical diet was varied. He consumed ’80s R&B via his sisters, hip-hop with his friends, and just about everything else from his father, Warren Wolf Sr. The elder Wolf was a social studies teacher in Baltimore—working at Northern High School, Booker T. Washington Middle School, and Paul Laurence Dunbar Middle School, among others. But he was also a percussionist who led a group called Wolf Pac that played at local clubs such as the Sportsmen’s Jazz Lounge in Howard Park. He had always dreamed of becoming a full-time musician, and he wanted to make sure his son had that chance.
“When 5:30 hit, that’s when practicing started,” Wolf recalls. “From 5:30 to 6:30 it was piano. From 6:30 to 7:30 it was drums. From 7:30 to 8:30 it was vibraphone. It was like that five days a week from the time I was 5 until I was 17. It was hard, because what kid wants to be stuck in the basement practicing when he could be outside playing? But when I played a solo with the Rock Glen Middle School Band, people clapped and later came up to say, ‘Warren, you sound really good.’ I got off on that, so I kept practicing.”
One effective technique involved playing along to his father’s cassettes of classical concertos. “Those violinists can play really fast, but I was determined to keep up, wrong notes or not,” Wolf says. “That built up my speed.”
Though Wolf considers himself equally proficient on vibraphone, drums, and piano—and still plays all of them onstage and in the studio—he got the most attention for his vibes work, if only because there’s a lot less competition on that instrument.
“It’s important for me to . . . let the world know thata strong music culture comes from Baltimore.”
“Honestly, I think of myself as a vibraphonist-slash-drummer,” he told DownBeat in 2013. “But . . . the vibes have given me the most recognition, so I lean in that direction. . . . It’s an instrument you don’t see every time. At almost every show I play, at least one person comes up and says, ‘Wow, I’ve never seen a xylophone out front before.’ I say, ‘Thanks, but it’s not a xylophone.’”
All of his practice paid off when Wolf was accepted into the Baltimore School for the Arts and then the Berklee College of Music in Boston, pushing him out of the comfortable nest of Baltimore and into a give-and-take with some of the best college-age jazz musicians in the world—and with some of the world’s best working jazz musicians on the faculty. The education happened not just in the classroom but also at Wally’s Cafe, a Boston jazz venue where Wolf got to test himself against the best players of his generation. It’s an irreplaceable experience, and Wolf believes too many Baltimore musicians make a mistake in never leaving town to be challenged and heard in the wider jazz world.
“You just have to do it,” he says. “My sister said, ‘I’ve got to figure out how to get out of Baltimore and make some bigger connections.’ I told her, ‘There’s no secret; you just raise a little money and go do it.’”
Wolf graduated from Berklee in 2001 and stayed in Boston, teaching at Berklee, playing in a band led by Rachael Price—now the lead singer for the famed Americana quartet Lake Street Dive—and waiting for the phone to ring. It required some patience, but eventually the job offers started coming in from jazz luminaries, including—most crucially—Christian McBride.
The McBride connection—along with playing on a album by saxophonist Tia Fuller—got Wolf his record deal with Mack Avenue, which in turn gave him a visibility that led to guest appearances with established artists and an invitation to join one of the most unusual ensembles in jazz: the SFJazz Collective. SFJazz, San Francisco’s nonprofit jazz institution, sponsors a resident octet that each year records a two-CD, 16-track album devoted to one composer.
Each of the eight members contributes a new arrangement of a piece by that composer as well as an original composition in the composer’s style. Then, they play that music at the SFJazz Center and on national and international tours. Wolf has already participated in the albums devoted to Joe Henderson, Michael Jackson, and Miles Davis. Most unusually, the SFJazz Collective is provided with the rarest commodity in modern jazz: subsidized rehearsal time.
“That’s so important,” says Wolf. “Most of the time in jazz, someone brings in a lead sheet; you play the melody, then each person solos, you play the melody again and you’re done. Next song. It’s totally not like that with the SFJazz Collective; there’s time to create music that’s through-composed. It keeps the music fresh.”
Wolf left Boston in 2004 to return to the Baltimore area. After you get to a certain level in jazz, he points out, you’re traveling all over the world anyway, so it really doesn’t matter where you live, as long as you’re close to an airport. Wolf, his second wife, and their two children now live in Reisterstown, not only because Maryland is cheaper than Boston or New York, but also because he feels more comfortable being close to family and the community of musicians he grew up with. Those ties have seemed especially important since his mother, Celeste, died two years ago.
“My mom was the backbone of the family,” he says. “She treated everyone as they would want to be treated. When she retired as a supervisor for Baltimore Gas and Electric, she needed something to do, so she taught herself piano. My dad was always there for me, but he was all about the music. My mom taught me how to love, because she was a very loving person.”
For any artist from Baltimore, two big challenges are knowing when to leave, and knowing when to come back. Wolf feels he did both at just the right times, and that he now enjoys an international career because he never lost the special flavor of his Baltimore roots.
“It’s always important to know where home is, and for me that’s Baltimore,” Wolf reflects. “It’s important for me to bring the Baltimore music style to the world, to let the world know that a strong music culture comes from Baltimore. And it’s important for me to play a few local shows per year to always give my fans a world class show that the city doesn’t receive too much.”
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/warren-wolf-the-wizard-of-vibes-warren-wolf-by-rj-deluke.php
Warren Wolf: The Wizard of Vibes
His technique is immense. None other than the great bassist Christian McBride has said that he's excited beyond belief about Wolf, avowing, "His talent is so far off the radar screen. ... Everything you want in a musician: he has that, times 20." McBride met Wolf in 2000 and pledged that one day he would have a band that would include Wolf. That plan became a reality, and Wolf has been a regular member of McBride's band Inside Straight since its inception.
Wolf, however, is more than a vibes player. He's good enough that he could make a living as a jazz drummer, if he wanted to. Percussion is so innate with the man that his close friends and family don't even call him by his given name. "Warren," he admits, is more like a business name. His family and friends call him "Chano," a nickname given to him, as a boy, by his father, Warren Wolf Sr. The elder Wolf, though a teacher, was an amateur percussionist and a big fan of Latin rhythms, hence the nickname. Chano Pozo was the first conguero hired by Dizzy Gillespie when the legendary trumpeter began incorporating Latin rhythms into his music in the 1940s.
Wolf is also a fine pianist and has done jazz gigs on the ivories. He has that outstanding feel for harmony and melody. "Playing the vibes is something different. There's nothing that really attracted me. If I played trombone or saxophone, that attracts me, too. I think the vibraphone kind of sticks out compared to other instruments. You don't see it all the time. When you do see it, you're seeing these colorful mallets—depending on what color you decide to get—striking metal. It's pretty cool—like a drum, but it makes different tones," explains Wolf. "Vibes is my main axe, I would say, because of how people have labeled me. If I had to give my own label, I would say it's a mix between vibes and drums. I don't consider piano a main axe. It's definitely a mix, in my opinion. But I'm not going to argue with people.
Wolf wrote six of the 10 selections, but not specifically with the recording or band in mind. He did, however, specifically piece together a band, keeping the sound he wanted in mind. The result is a clear, straight jazz feel: a cool vibe throughout. It's played with soul and conviction, and should help spread the word on one of the baddest vibraharp cats around. As a whole, the record accomplished exactly what Wolf wanted.
"We had a lot of fun in the recording," said Wolf from New York City (Baltimore is his home) during a weeklong run with McBride's band at the Village Vanguard. "I wanted to keep it nice and fresh—keep it full of energy, not predictable. I wanted to keep it going as regular, straight-ahead jazz. Stuff you can tap your foot to and things like that. A lot of people nowadays, when they're playing this so-called music, jazz, they're playing a lot of different stuff. It's beautiful music. But in my humble opinion, I don't think it can relate to the normal person who's walking down the street. Jazz as a whole is very complex. I'm trying to make it as simple as possible so people can understand it—have some type of clear line, clear melody that somebody can somewhat remember."
Only a marimba part on Chick Corea's "Senor Mouse" was overdubbed. "That's how I like to do things—keep it live and real. For people who will probably never see my group, I try to give them the best possible live performance, except it's on CD. Or download—whatever people are doing nowadays."
As producer, McBride gave Wolf a very free rein. "He didn't say too much. I could see if this was my first time ever going into the studio as a leader. But, even though this Mack Avenue recording is my first worldwide release, this is not my first recording as a leader. ... I pretty much knew what I was doing. But it helped to have Christian throw his two cents in there when the time came. He was definitely a big help."
Wolf, 31, also acknowledges that McBride—one of the finest bass players anywhere and a tireless worker for jazz causes of all kinds—is a major influence. "He's very much an influence, not just musically," says Wolf. "Musically, yes. Definitely. From the way he plays, to the way he listens, to the way he develops his solos and things like that. But even off the bandstand, I listen to how he introduces the band members, how he tries to keep the audience engaged with us. He does a lot of different things like that, and I try to kind of model myself off that. Down to the way he dresses. He's a good all- around man who knows what he's doing."
Pelt, whose superb trumpet work spices up a couple of the tunes, is also an important figure in Wolf's life. "He was a guy I first met at Berklee College of Music in the fall of 1997. He helped me out in a lot of ways. He introduced me to the whole Wally's scene, Wally's Club up in Boston, which coincidentally is the opening track on the record, '427 Mass Ave.' That's the actual address of Wally's. Jeremy introduced me to that club and got me to a lot of musicians there. He took me around Berklee and got me playing with the best students. He also got me my first gig ever in New York, which was at that club on the Upper West Side, Cleopatra's Needle. He gave me my first exposure to the New York jazz scene."
Like so many kids his age, Wolf wanted to be outside running around, playing sports, hanging with friends—which he did do at times. But there was always the practice regimen that beckoned. Warren Wolf, Sr. saw that music was in his talented son's future, even if Chano wasn't aware. Wolf eventually attended Peabody Preparatory school in Baltimore, studying classical music with former Baltimore Symphony Orchestra member Leo LePage. At about the age of 11, he got a solo in one of the band recitals. There was applause, which was cool to the young lad. There was also some recognition from those of the opposite sex. Cooler yet. The sacrificing for practice began to make sense. With a chuckle, Wolf recalls, "I began to think there was something to this music thing."
Tim Warfield was his first big-gig, and mini-tour, opportunity. Wolf was still in Boston at the time. "He was the first guy to ever hire me, as far as jazz," recalls Wolf. "He was the first artist to give me a chance. We went down to St. Louis. We did four nights. I was about 20. I was living in Boston at the time that happened. When I moved back to the Baltimore-D.C. area, Tim was one of the first guys I called. He immediately called a lot of guys in D.C.; York, PA; and Harrisburg, PA. He called me up for a lot of gigs. He was a big help. I haven't played with him in quite a while, but I'd like to get back to it."
Warfield apparently bragged about Wolf to others, including pianist Mulgrew Miller. Miller "gave me a call the next day after Tim called. He gave me a chance to go to Japan. We did a two-week tour of Japan with his group Wingspan. I was subbing for Steve Nelson. He's always been very supportive of not just me but younger musicians, giving us a chance to play and work our stuff out. Also, he's come to work with me. I've called him to do a couple guest appearances when I was working at Berklee. He's come to Baltimore to play with me. He's done so much for me, I can't even describe it. Tremendous cat," Wolf says.
Bobby Watson was also among those to hear about Wolf's talent, and hired him sight unseen in his touring band, for a time. Playing with the young, talented singer Rachael Price helped keep Wolf busy as well, with recording and touring. He's played with the Donal Fox Group and has performed with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Pelt, Nicholas Payton, Aaron Goldberg, Terri Lyne Carrington, Ron Carter, Robert Glasper, Esperanza Spalding and others. He also occupied himself with his self-produced records, as well as the pair that was produced in Japan.
His efforts of late, especially after the 2011 Mack Avenue release, involve getting his own band out there, playing his music. In 2011, he did all of the pushing and promoting, but he's been developing a team to take that on and hopes it will gel in 2012. "I do realize it's a slow process. I do realize it takes patience. I can't expect to just jump over everybody else and be on top of the world," he says. "But everybody who's big right now were in my shoes at some point. It will come. ... I'm in the right position. My foot is in the door, being a leader. It just takes some time to blossom."
Wolf is pleased with where he stands, especially what he calls "the ultimate sideman job, in my eyes, with Christian McBride." He notes there may be another Inside Straight recording in 2012 that should lead to more touring. Meanwhile, he's also playing in a band with pianist Aaron Diehl. And with Diehl, he also performs some of the music of the Modern Jazz Quartet. So his docket looks full, a good thing in today's economy. And while he likes many styles of music, the pull of jazz is strong and it is the focal point of his career.
"For me, it's all about the freedom of it," says Wolf." "You're not restricted. That's what it is for me. You get to compose. You get to do your own compositions, but then again you get to turn them around and play them differently, any time you want to. Jazz is all about freedom to me."
Selected Discography:
Warren Wolf, Warren Wolf (Mack Avenue, 2011)
Christian McBride & Inside Straight Kind of Brown (Mack Avenue, 2009)
Warren Wolf, Black Wolf (M&I Japan, 2009)
Bobby Watson, From the Heart (Palmetto, 2008)
Warren Wolf, Warren "Chano Pozo" Wolf (Self-produced, 2008)
Warren Wolf, Raw (Self-produced, 2005)
Warren Wolf, Incredible Jazz Vibes (M&I Japan, 2005)
Photo Credits
Page 2: C. Andrew Hovan
All Other Photos: Courtesy of Warren Wolf
https://www.jazzartsgroup.org/warrenwolf/
Warren Wolf
Warren Wolf is a multi-instrumentalist who lives in Baltimore. Since a very young age, Warren has been playing many different instruments which include the vibraphone/marimba, drumset/percussion, and the piano/keyboards. As a youth, Warren attended the Peabody Preparatory of The John Hopkins Institute in Baltimore, MD where he studied with former Baltimore Symphony Member Leo LePage. After graduating from The Baltimore School for the Arts, Warren enrolled at Berklee College of Music. At Berklee, Warren studied with Caribbean Jazz Project Vibist, Dave Samuels.
Being at Berklee, Warren had the chance to play and record with many of the world’s best musicians including Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Nicholas Payton, David Sanborn, Aaron Diehl, Tia Fuller, and many others.
Warren has recorded six records as a leader. Warren is a member of Christian McBride’s group “Inside Straight” and is featured on the Inside Straight recordings “Kind of Brown” and “People Music.” He is also a member of the all-star jazz group, San Francisco Jazz Collective, David Sanborn/Joey DeFrancesco Group and the Aaron Diehl Quartet.
Warren is also the leader of the group “Warren Wolf & WOLFPACK.” Warren is a Mack Avenue recording artist, Malletech endorser and is represented by the AMI Agency & Guessworks, Inc.
Have You Checked Out Warren Wolf?
March 1, 2012
http://www.midatlanticjazzfestival.org presents Warren Wolf at the 2012 Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival featuring Warren Wolf (vibes, piano, bass, drums), Allyn Johnson, piano, Kris Funn, bass and John Lampkin drums
Source videos
https://sfcm.edu/faculty/warren-wolf
Warren Wolf
Roots, Jazz, and American Music | Jazz Vibraphone
wwolf@sfcm.edu
Education
BM, Berklee College of Music
Ensembles
SFJAZZ Collective
Wolfpack
Christian McBride and Inside Straight, 2009–2014
Awards and Distinctions
2015 & 2017, JJA Awards Mallet Man of the Year
What is your hometown?
Baltimore, MD
What is your favorite recording?
D'Angelo: Voodoo.
What are you passionate about outside of music?
Family and exercise.
Who were your major teachers?
My dad, Warren Wolf Sr., current Baltimore Symphony percussionist John Locke, and former Baltimore Symphony percussionist Leo LePage.
What is a favorite quote that you repeatedly tell students?
"Go for it!!!!!!!"
What question do you wish students would ask sooner rather than later?
“How do you make it to the next level in your career?”
What was the defining moment when you decided to pursue music as a career?
Performing in front of my 7th grade class, I knew I was going to be a musician.
What was a turning point in your career?
Everyone to date, every opportunity to perform is a turning point.
If you weren't a musician or teacher, what do you think you would be doing now?
A personal trainer or fireman.
What is your daily practice routine?
I practice mentally versus touching the instrument. Everything is mainly mental.
If you could play only three composers for the rest of your life, who would they be?
Mozart, Terence Blanchard, and Michael Jackson.
What are your most important collaborations?
Aaron Diehl, Christian McBride, and SFJAZZ Collective.
Who have you had the privilege of teaching?
Ethan Fisher (Temple University) and Mike Mimura (Berklee).
What recordings can we hear you on?
SFJAZZ Collective: Music of Miles Davis
Christian McBride: Kind of Brown
Rachael Price: The Good Hours
Warren Wolf: Convergence
Bobby Watson: From the Heart
What is your unrealized project?
A gospel recording.
https://downbeat.com/news/detail/blindfold-test-warren-wolf
Blindfold Test: Warren Wolf
News, From the Magazine, Blindfold Test, Warren Wolf
by Gary Fukushima
September 17, 2020
Vibraphonist Warren Wolf’s most recent leader date
A classically trained musician who can play several instruments—including vibraphone, marimba, piano and drums—Warren Wolf has won acclaim as an accompanist and bandleader. He has toured with Christian McBride, Bobby Watson and Tia Fuller, and he currently is a member of the SFJAZZ Collective. His latest leader album, Reincarnation (Mack Avenue), mixes jazz with r&b influences. For this Blindfold Test, Wolf commented on the music via Zoom from his home in Baltimore.
Lionel Hampton
“Blue Moon” (Silver Vibes, Columbia, 1960) Hampton, vibraphone, xylophone, celeste; Tommy Flanagan, piano; George Duvivier, bass; Elvin Jones, drums.
I’m going to assume that’s Lionel Hampton. It was throwing me off for a minute, because I’m not used to Lionel playing anything outside of the key. I’m used to hearing him pretty much just swing out really hard over nice bop changes.
When the recording first started, I thought that’s definitely Lionel because of the vibrato in the vibraphone, and the way that he phrases. He has a particular sound—the mallets he uses to strike the instrument. But then, the thing that threw me off is the recording. I was like, “Wait a minute, this sounds a little bit ... newer.” Nice effect, Lionel on the xylophone [at the end]. I’ve never heard him play the xylophone.
Renee Rosnes
“Lucy From Afar” (Written In The Rocks, Smoke Sessions, 2016) Rosnes, piano; Steve Nelson, vibraphone; Peter Washington, bass; Bill Stewart, drums.
I have no idea who that is. I like the song, especially when it went to the vibes and the piano, just duo. It went to this sort of classical-like feeling, but there was a lot of interplay between the two.
[after] If that was Renee Rosnes, it can’t be Steve Nelson. It is? I never would have guessed that was Steve Nelson. Steve typically uses harder mallets. There are times when I’ve heard Steve play when he completely wails on the instrument, and I mean that as a good thing.
Steps Ahead
“Northern Cross” (Steps Ahead, Elektra, 1983) Michael Brecker, tenor saxophone; Mike Mainieri, vibraphone; Eliane Elias, piano; Eddie Gómez, bass; Peter Erskine, drums.
I know that’s Michael Brecker. Was it Mike Mainieri? OK, I was like, “Man, there’s a lot of reverb on this.” So, that’s Steps Ahead. It’s just nice to hear something in a major key. Mike was really going for it. He is one of the true masters of the instrument. I know he likes to do a lot of electronics in his music as well.
Joel Ross
“Ill Relations” (KingMaker, Blue Note, 2019) Ross, vibraphone; Immanuel Wilkins, alto saxophone; Jeremy Corren, piano; Benjamin Tiberio, bass; Jeremy Dutton, drums.
That is Mr. Good Vibes, Joel Ross. He’s my man, one of the new young voices of the vibes. He’s a great player. The thing about Joel—which he does on this recording—he likes to stretch outside the original changes, even if it’s his own composition. He’ll play ’em for a little bit, but he’s always trying to figure out how to raise the bar musically and see what else he can do to elevate the band.
He called me a while ago; he was like, “Dude, I need some new sticks.” He couldn’t find a good pair of sticks that would last. Joel is a really tiny dude. Joel weighs like, 45 pounds [laughs]. But he plays with so much force. When he really starts to get into it, he starts moving his body around, he starts singing some of the tune. He’s just trying to elevate anybody who’s around him, to make music, which is great.
Stefon Harris, he’s been such a great influence on Joel. And many others, but I think Stefon Harris has been his dude. That’s a great record.
George Duke
“That’s What She Said” (I Love The Blues, She Heard My Cry, MPS, 1975) Duke, keyboards; John Wittenberg, violin; Daryl Stuermer, guitar; Byron Miller, electric bass; Leon “Ndugu” Chancler, drums; Airto Moreira, percussion; Emil Richards, marimba.
I wasn’t too crazy about the track. Don’t get me wrong—I like fusion—but it just felt like the time was a little off for me. Typically, for my ears only, when I listen to jazz-fusion, I want to hear some type of vamp, over maybe four chords or something like that, but they were moving around a lot. I can respect it. But it wasn’t my thing.
[after] I’ve never heard of Emil Richards. I give him tons of credit for playing that melody. It was a lot of runs; typically, a lot of mallet players don’t play stuff like that.
Brad Mehldau
“Wave/Mother Nature’s Son” (Largo, Nonesuch, 2002) Mehldau, vibraphone; Darek “Oles” Oleszkiewicz, bass; Matt Chamberlain, drums; Jon Brion, guitar synthesizer, guitar treatments, percussion; Victor Indrizzo, drums, percussion; Justin Meldal-Johnsen, bass guitar, programmer.
I liked that. My only negative thing to say about that would be: Why only play the melody to “Wave,” and that was it? It’s a pretty melody, and he or she was playing it broken up over the time.
I would love to hear the rest of the record before I make this next statement: I cannot tell if this person has a strong vocabulary of improvisation. Part of me wants to say yes, because when it got to the section with the strings, it was moving into this classical-type harmony, and the vibraphonist was definitely playing [the harmony]. But the times when the strings were not being played, the vibraphone was demonstrating very basic improv. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but he was just kinda jamming over one note. He or she did not really spell chords a lot.
I have no idea who that was. [after] OK. I know that Brad has tons of harmony. That’s why I said earlier I would love to listen to the rest of [the album]. I recorded with Brad; he was on my record [Convergence].
Actually, you telling me it’s Brad is kinda cool, because there was one part when we got to that classical section—there’s a particular line that Brad plays that a lot of piano players and saxophone players play. Robert Glasper does it, my buddy from Baltimore Tim Green does it, Aaron Parks does it. There’s one particular line that he’s known for, and when he does it, he’ll play it in time, but then he’ll slow it down 5 or 10 knots. I would have said, “OK, this vibes player listens to Brad Mehldau,” but I would never think, “That’s Brad Mehldau” [laughs]. DB
The “Blindfold Test” is a listening test that challenges the featured artist to discuss and identify the music and musicians who performed on selected recordings. The artist is then asked to rate each tune using a 5-star system. No information is given to the artist prior to the test.
This story originally was published in the September 2020 issue of DownBeat. Subscribe here
Open Studio
Difference Between Blues Scales - Warren Wolf
2 Minute Jazz
Hey, this is Warren Wolf for two minute jazz and I'm here to talk about differences between using the major blue scale and the real blue scale. So, what you're hearing is basically the first one. You're hearing like a F pentatonic scale but you can always make it a little bit bluesier it just takes the third the A and drop it down to A flat. Then go to the third, the fifth to the sixth or 13th back to the root. But the one I like to do, we take the root take the third drop it half step the fourth, the eleventh. now here's the sharp eleven. Five, flat seven back to the root. So you have a choice to use between that one, what a regular blues scale and after that you know that's when you start using different rhythms. So here's one course of blues using the first example I gave you. One, two, a one, two, three. And here's one more course using: one, two, a one, two, three. And here's one more course just combining the two so you can really get that true blues effect. One two, one two three.
The song leading into and out of the interview is “Montara” performed by Warren Wolf and you can get it HERE.
Warren attended the Peabody Prepatory for eight years studying classical music with former Baltimore Symphony Orchestra member, the late Leo LePage. During his high school years at the Baltimore School for the Arts, Warren studied with current Baltimore Symphony Orchestra member John Locke. And then graduated from Baltimore School for the Arts in June of 1997.
Warren may be known for playing jazz and have started with classical music but, Warren had studied classical composers from Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Paganini, Brahms, Vivaldi and Shostakovich. Warren also studied ragtime music learning music from the songbooks of Scott Joplin, Harry Brewer and Geroge Hamilton Green. In Jazz, Warren has studied artist and composers from Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Freddie Hubbard, Clifford Brown, Herbie Hancock, Oscar Peterson, Milt Jackson, Bobby Hutcherson, Cal Tjader, Return to Forever, Weather Report, Wynton Marsalis and many others.
His dad introduced him to artists like Spyro Gyra, The Yellowjackets, Anita Baker, The Temptations and more!
Warren has a great ear and perfect pitch. He realized when he had it when some of his other classmates were trying to figure out “Real Love” by Mary J. Blige. Shout-out to drummer Gerald Hayward who toured with Mary.
Growing up in Baltimore, Warren has heard his fair share of references from “The Wire”, even though he has never seen one episode. Also, he hardly uses what is known as a Maryland staple, “Old Bay” Seasoning.
Warren brings up drummer Jarod Barnes from the Baltimore area as well, who played with Dru Hill and The Isley Brothers among others.
After graduating from high school, Warren headed north and enrolled at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. During his time at Berklee, Warren studied with Carribean Jazz Vibraphonist Dave Samuels for seven of eight semesters. One semester was spent with vibist Ed Saindon. During his time at Berklee, Warren began to explore deeper into jazz. Hearing Arturo Sandoval with the GRP Big Band was an inspiration for Warren wanting to go to school in Miami. But, his father helped convince him to attend Berklee while playing pool (billiards). Warren would put on the Spyro Gyra song, “Morning Dance” which featured Dave Samuels and he later made the connection that Dave taught at Berklee.
Warren became an active performer around the Boston area, gigging frequently on the Vibraphone, Drums and Piano. One of the highlights of Warren's stay in Boston was co-leading a quintet with Boston-based trumpeter Jason Palmer at the historic jazz club Wallys Cafe. Warren was the house drummer at Wallys for two years, performing every Friday and Saturday. He also would play piano on Thursdays at the Wonder Bar.
Warren was the house pianist for the senior showcase at Berklee and talks about using simplicity in chord changes. Damon brings up some of Duke Ellington’s techniques.
In talking about what to do after graduating college and figuring out “what’s next"?”, Damon interrupts Warren to mention the book “From Zero to Sideman -in five steps” by (friend of the show), Mel Brown.
After graduating Berklee, Warren was working at Cheers, had a new daughter and was trying to make ends meet then he got asked to teach “Entering Piano for Drummers”. After that he was in the house band for Lewis Nash, which later became a catalyst for future gigs down the road.
After two years of teaching at Berklee College of Music, Warren headed back to Baltimore to start his main goal of becoming a full time performing musician. Since leaving Berklee as a teacher, Warren has landed the piano duties performing in the Rachael Price Group. Recording and touring with Rachael, Warren has had the opportunity to tour throughout the entire Unites States of America.
Damon and Warren touch on racism in Boston. The Boston Globe did a seven part series on that very topic.
One of the groups Warren plays with is the SF Jazz (Collective). He has been in that band for 6 years. You can find out more and see if they’re playing near you by CLICKING HERE.
In addition to being a performer, Warren is also a faculty member at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, as well as the Peabody Conservatory.
Warren really enjoys pro wrestling as well as weightlifting. If you don’t have time to stay in the gym like Warren, here is a seven min workout to keep you in shape.
In Warren’s stickbag, there are many things, one of which being some parachute cord. Any mallet player knows how important this is and will keep some spare close by in case of an emergency change needed in the middle of a performance.
Warren uses Malletech instruments and Mallets (shout-out to friend of the show, Leigh Howard Stevens)
You can check out Warren in the Masters of the Vibes book.
You can also study with Warren in person (at the aforementioned Peabody or SF Conservatory) as well as see his videos at Open Studio.
You can follow Warren on his Website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or YouTube.
Give the Gift of Jazz: Watch Warren Wolf and His Band Perform Live From The Jazz Gallery
WBGO | by Editor
December 7, 2020
Photo: Warren Wolf. by Samuel Prather
Vibraphonist Warren Wolf helped kick off our December fund drive, which we're calling "Give the Gift of Jazz."
Wolf drew from Christmas Vibes, his new album on Mack Avenue Records, accompanied by pianist Christian Sands, bassist David Wong and drummer Obed Calvaire. The band played live from The Jazz Gallery in Manhattan.
We hosted this livestream on our Facebook page.
Tune in right here:
https://www.bsfa.org/alumni/warren-wolf
BALTIMORE SCHOOL OF THE ARTS
Warren Wolf
After graduating from the Berklee College of Music, Warren Wolf became a regular on the international jazz scene, performing with touring with Bobby Watson’s Live and Learn Sextet, Christian McBride & Inside Straight, and with his own group of young musicians, Wolfpack, among others. He’s also made multiple recordings as both a leader and a sideman.
Name: Warren Edward Wolf Jr.
Discipline: Music
Class: 1997
Current Gig: WOLFPACK, SFJAZZ Collective
Best Lesson Learned at BSA: The best lesson I learned was from my percussion teacher John Locke of the BSO, “Be serious about your craft, practice and you’ll be the best.”
Awkward Moment: Probably singing with the BSA choir and the BSO in a joint concert. A piece that we rehearsed over and over during morning rehearsals totally fell flat the night of the concert because we were all amazed at how perfect the BSO was playing. The choir fell behind an entire measure/bar during the piece.
Another Moment: Freshman year (1993) all of my male friends said that they were going to wear a suit and tie to the yearly Beaux-Arts dance. Needless to say, I was the only person who had on a suit and tie. I was so uncomfortable the entire night.
Proudest Moment: I have to name four:
1) Being accepted into BSA in 1993.
2) Receiving a standing ovation from my classmates after playing Toccata & Fugue in D- during the Wednesday afternoon recitals.
3) Though we didn’t date or barely knew each other in BSA, I am proud to say I noticed my wife, Heather Brooke Malone-Wolf, during those early years.
4) Graduating in the spring of 1997.
Video: Bassman interview with Warren Wolf - Baltimore Jazz
The Bassman sits down with Mack Ave Recording Artist, Vibraphonist Warren Wolf to talk about his latest album "Reincarnation".
Warren Wolf – Reincarnation
There are some bittersweet moments halfway through “The Struggle”, the album’s longest piece, when Brett plays some elegant and melancholic chords on the piano and the backing by Imani, even though subtly moved into the shadows of the track, adds some placid aspects before the track moves back into its urgent and forward-thinking drive. The only cover version is “For The Love Of You”, the timeless Isley Brothers gem from 1975. Imani works wonders here and there’s Mark again adding some spice and grit and the Rhodes/vibes combination is magic. The arrangement towards the end of the cut with its fusion-type renderings and powerful drum playing is special, too.
The sweetness is back for “Sebastian And Zoe” featuring the angelic voice of Imani again and on “Livin’ The Good Life”, another one of the soulful pieces sans Rhodes, she delivers a performance that is capturing both her soulful side and her jazz chops. Warren’s playing is so diverse and satisfying throughout the entire set and shines brightest with his transparent approach on a charming duet with Brett on “Come And Dance With Me”.
The record release show for “Reincarnation” will be at New York’s Jazz Standard, April 16th-20th.
Warren Wolf (vibraphone) Brett Williams (Fender Rhodes & piano) Richie Goods (electric and acoustic basses) Mark Whitfield (guitar) Carroll “CV” Dashiell 111 (drums & percussion) Imani-Grace Cooper (vocals & background vocals) Marcellus “Bassman” Shepard (vocals) Recorded June 25-26 2019.
It seems like only yesterday that Gary Burton was being hailed as `The New Vibes Man in Town` and now his stellar career having transitioned into retirement we are looking for a new virtuoso to fill his celebrity status. There are several contenders and of them, Warren Wolf, though a different type of player with, no doubt, different artistic ambitions, is fast becoming the most talked about talent on the most mellifluous of jazz instruments.
With two previous releases as leader for the Mack Avenue label at his back and sideman credits with Rodney Green and Ted Nash, to name but two, he has revealed himself to be an all-purpose, straight-ahead jazzman coming out of the Bobby Hutcherson, Milt Jackson tradition but with a taste for soft-focus soul of the type purveyed by Grover Washington and often heard in Gary Burton’s collaborations with guitarists of the Pat Metheny stripe. In this latest release, however, he gives his talents over, almost wholly, to the business of melding the hip-hop vibe that permeates the contemporary soul/R&B scene with the `in the pocket` directness of the timeless bop idiom.
The playlist is made up entirely of Wolf’s originals except for a cover of the Isley Brothers hit `For the Love of You`: incidentally Warren isn’t the first vibes-man to be attracted to this tune – the excellent and highly prolific Joe Locke has a version on his album of the same name which features singer Kenny Washington. The theme of the album being life and love , the overall orientation favours the song form and utilises the talents of two singers, a lilting soprano voice with a smoky vibrato in the Minnie Rippington manner and a warm toned, baritone who doesn’t so much sing as declaim pithy asides, serving as a sort of master of ceremonies introducing the leader in a brief `Soul Intro` and commenting throughout on the narrative of the recital which is a celebration of all the things and people that make Warren feel good about his life.
In this sense it is a rather personal document and listeners may feel, at times, that they are intruding on a personal space more properly reserved for family and friends. I’m probably being over sensitive but I have to say that at times I felt a bit voyeuristic and found the slinky eroticism of `In the Heat of the Night`, with Mr Shepard’s suggestive interjections, positively toe curling. That apart the music is great and its execution impeccable. Wolf has assembled a great team with guitarist Mark Whitfield added to the core instrumental quartet to provide some funky touches on two of the tracks. He proves an asset in the tension building ride out finale to the Isley Brothers song which drummer Dashiell stokes furiously, breaking out of the prevailing somnolence of what is essentially a ballad. One or two of the pieces end in this type of climactic finish and it certainly helps to dilute the occasional tendency to lard on the schmaltz.
Of the purely instrumental tracks `Vahybing` offers an opportunity for the quartet to stretch and cook and features a deliciously insinuating bass line as a motive factor. Warren really fires up on this one whilst he displays his lyrical side on the floating waltz time `Come and Dance With Me`, dedicated to his ballerina wife. The album closes with a final assessment of the leader’s talents from the lugubrious “Bassman” and an exhortation to spread the word. With this release, which Wolf characterises as a stylistic reincarnation he will undoubtably attract an audience from outside the strict jazz fraternity but those who have followed his career so far and have found much to like in his more straight-ahead output, won’t look askance at a veneer of soul inspired gloss.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
Warren Wolf shows off incredible range in self-titled debut album
Vibes? Yeah, vibe, man
“What he does on vibes is pretty incredible. You can’t hear Warren and not be highly impressed. Give him some music to learn, he pretty much has it committed to memory in a matter of minutes. In a couple of days, he has it on the piano. Then suddenly, he’s internalizing every part of the music-the melody, the chord changes, the song’s overall personality. You’re listening to him, thinking, ‘Yeah, that’s what I had in mind.’” —Christian McBride
Vibraphonist Warren Wolf says he likes to go hard and fast, especially on the vibes he specializes in. But in his self-titled album, his first release with Mack Avenue Records August 16, 2011, he does a lot more than that.
The versatility is present in every song, whether it’s a studied, cascading remake of Chick Corea/Gary Burton’s “Señor Mouse,” a melodic finesse in Johnny Mandel’s “Emily,” made famous by Bill Evans, a whiz-bang throwdown that lets every instrument fly at breakneck speed in “One For Lenny,” or a fast-paced, non-stop rolling bounce of an opening number, “427 Mass Ave.”
“I’m trying to bring forth what most cats did back in the day, coming out right at you swinging, nice and hard, not a lot of hard melodies or weird time signatures,” explained the 31-year-old Baltimore musician. “I like to play really hard, fast and kind of flashy. I like to take it to a whole other level.”
Wolf impressed McBride straight away at a 2000 Jazz Aspen festival. The Jazz Aspen artistic director called his tune, “Shade Of The Cedar Tree,” and marveled as Wolf played his part — from memory. Besides having studied, practiced, lived and breathed Christian McBride for weeks, Wolf was able to put his own innately melodic spin on the vibes. This did not go unnoticed. “Warren was in the back of my brain after that,” McBride explained. “I promised him, ‘One of these days, I will get a band and hire you. I don’t know how long it’s going to take, but you will be there.’” And he did; Wolf’s been on McBride’s Inside Straight band since 2007.
“What he does on vibes is pretty incredible,” said McBride. “You can’t hear Warren and not be highly impressed. Give him some music to learn, he pretty much has it committed to memory in a matter of minutes. In a couple of days, he has it on the piano. Then suddenly, he’s internalizing every part of the music-the melody, the chord changes, the song’s overall personality. You’re listening to him, thinking, ‘Yeah, that’s what I had in mind.’”
Every song on this album is a hit. But three, “Natural Beauties,” “How I Feel At This Given Moment” and “Katrina,” put an indelible stamp on Warren Wolf as the next, great vibe player, worthy of playing with the big boys, and a musician who knows how to share the stage to create singular, collective masterpieces.
Led by a natural, caressing, rhythmic melody, “Natural Beauties” — an homage to women everywhere who don’t need make-up or plastic surgery to be attractive — dips slightly in the smooth jazz format without losing its sophistication (Green really nails the romance on his soprano sax, Martin fully embellishes each cross-over note on his piano with a laid-back flow, and Wolf just pulls it all together with flourish). What’s wonderful and truly jazz (but not unique to just this one song) is the true collaborative effort involved, with everybody putting their two cents in. Each solo within the piece could stand alone.
“How I Feel At This Given Moment” showcases Warren Wolf’s depth of melodic understanding, versatility of movement, theme, and feel, and ability to really rock a song to its core. His vibe/marimba expression is at turns restrained and thoughtful, then passionate and intense.
A dramatic show-stopper is what Wolf and his band do on “Katrina,” which reflects on the massive suffering from the 2005 hurricane. Minor keys, plaintive horns, a tension-filled piano edge set the tone for the devastation, death, and despair. Wolf’s power vibes tease the harmonics and evoke Wynton Marsalis’s New Orleans blues, in a fitting tribute.
A vibe player could go off doing his own thing, relegating the other musicians to the side, and be really one-note droning monotonous. (Imagine the horror of an album of just vibe chords up and down the charts, yikes.) But Warren Wolf extends every intro, every solo, every finish to everybody in the recording studio (and onstage), vibing off their ideas, having his say (the man is fast and furious, but can take things teasingly slow), then knowing when to step back and let the horns, piano, bass, and drums just flow.
For the musicians’ musician and jazz music’s best-kept secret (no longer), this CD could catapult him into the spotlight alongside the likes of Gary Burton, Chick Corea, and Christian McBride — heroes growing up. He’s that fabulous.
THE MUSIC OF WARREN WOLF: AN EXTENSIVE VIDEO OVERVIEW, A CROSS SECTION OF RECORDINGS, MUSICAL ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY, PLUS VARIOUS INTERVIEWS WITH WARREN WOLF:
