Trombonist Wayne Wallace appointed to IU Jacobs School of Music jazz faculty
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 11, 2013
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music is pleased to announce that jazz trombonist Wayne Wallace will join its faculty as professor of practice in jazz this fall.
A five-time Grammy nominee, Wallace is one of the most respected exponents of African American-Latin music in the world today.
"Universally admired as a leader in our field, Professor Wallace is experiencing a career of enormous breadth," said Gwyn Richards, dean of the Jacobs School. "He is influential in multiple directions and it is this range, his passion for teaching, his creative vision, and his gifts for synthesizing multiple styles to make a single, unified, wholly new expression, that gives our faculty and students such excitement about his arrival in Bloomington."
"Wayne Wallace is a brilliant all-around musician whose wide-ranging accomplishments as a performer, composer, arranger, recording artist, educator, historian and recording company executive have earned him the highest respect of his musical colleagues," said David Baker, chair of the Jacobs Jazz Studies Department. "His hiring brings yet another world-class artist-teacher to our exceptional school, and it is my great pleasure to welcome him to our department's faculty. I know his presence and many talents will be an invaluable addition to the musical experiences of our students and faculty alike."
Wallace is known for the use of traditional forms and styles in combination with contemporary music and has earned wide critical acclaim, including placement in both the trombone and producer categories of the DownBeat Critics Poll.
He is an accomplished arranger, educator and composer with compositions for film and television. He has received grants from the Creative Work Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Lila Wallace Foundation and the San Francisco Arts Commission.
"I am honored to join the excellent faculty at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music," said Wallace. "I am looking forward to building on the tradition of this storied institution and sharing my passion for music with the students."
Wallace has performed, recorded and studied with many acknowledged masters of the Afro-Latin and jazz idioms, such as Aretha Franklin, Bobby Hutcherson, Earth Wind and Fire, Pete Escovedo, Santana, Julian Priester, Conjunto Libre, Whitney Houston, Tito Puente, Steve Turre, John Lee Hooker, Con-funk-shun, Francisco Aguabella, Manny Oquendo and Libre, Max Roach, the Count Basie Orchestra and Orestes Vilató. This experience has provided a solid foundation for Wallace's current explorations of the intersections of a wealth of cultural styles and rhythmic concepts.
"The Jazz Studies Department has just taken a giant step forward, as has the entire Jacobs School of Music," said Michael Spiro, associate professor of percussion who also serves on the jazz faculty. "Wayne's talent knows no bounds. He is an earnest scholar of the music of the African diaspora in the New World, a Grammy-nominated composer, arranger, and trombonist, and a successful record company executive. As such, both the faculty and our students will be fully enriched by his presence at our school, and I am especially thrilled by the musical possibilities that his hiring will produce."
Born and raised in San Francisco, Calif., Wallace was exposed to blues, country and western, R&B, jazz and Afro-Caribbean music at an early age. The fertile musical environment of the San Francisco Bay Area shaped his career in a unique way. His studies of Afro-Latin music and jazz have included several trips to Cuba, New York City and Puerto Rico.
Widely respected as a teacher and historian, Wallace has taught at San Jose State University, Stanford University and the Jazzschool in Berkeley. He has conducted lectures, workshops and clinics in the Americas and Europe since 1983.
In addition, he is a member of the advisory committees of the San Jose Jazz Society and the Stanford Jazz Workshop.
As the head of the critically acclaimed Patois Records, Wallace has created a unique record label with a passionate mission of developing and chronicling the multi-lingual styles of the San Francisco Bay Area music scene.
Under his direction the label has released 13 recordings to critical acclaim, including recordings by Wallace, Marc and Paul van Wageningen and vocalists Kat Parra, Alexa Weber-Morales and Kristina.
Recently, the label released Wallace's "Latin Jazz/Jazz Latin," an album that displays all of the thrilling interplay, melodic invention and blazing improvisational flights that distinguish his music.
"Salsa De La Bahía," a collection showcasing Bay Area salsa and Latin jazz, produced by Wallace and Rita Hargrave, will be released Aug. 6.
Wallace is an endorser of Conn-Selmer trombones.
