At the age 21 of Saxophonist, Composer and Author Walt Weiskopf started his New York career with the Buddy Rich Big Band. He has been a successful leader and sideman since then. He has 12 critically acclaimed CDs and many sideman credits including recording and performing with Steely Dan, Frank Sinatra, Donald Fagen, Steve Smith’s Jazz Legacy, and Donald Fagen. He is a dynamic musician with great technical prowess. His CDs are largely original. His five books on advanced topics of improvisation are some of the most acclaimed in the field. From 2001 to 2008, Walt was part-time Eastman School of Music Associate Professor. He currently teaches part-time at Temple University, Philadelphia. Walt was born in Augusta Georgia, and grew up near Syracuse, New York. At the age of 10, he took up the clarinet and started his studies in saxophone four years later. He moved to New York City after completing his three-year degree from Rochester’s Eastman School of Music. Walt formed a 14-year partnership with Toshiko Akiyoshi (jazz pianist and arranger). They made seven recordings and toured the United States, Japan, and Europe many times. He began recording his own music during this period. Walt’s arrangements and compositions have been praised by critics and fans, regardless of whether they are for quartet or nonet. Walt’s debut CD as a leader was Simplicity (Criss cross Jazz-1993). It was a success immediately. It reached number one on Eurojazz radio four weeks straight and prompted Mel Martin, of Saxophone Journal, to write that “Walt Weiskopf’s primary influence as a player seems to be John Coltrane but he is not slavishly imitating.” He… takes musical matters to the next level in a positive and powerful way, expressing a clear viewpoint . His technical ability is impressive, but he makes it sound simple and easy to understand. Walt’s subsequent recordings, A World Away (Criss Cross Jazz 1994) to the most recent Day In Night Out(Criss Cross Jazz 2008), also generated a lot of attention. Bill Milkowski, in the September 1997 JazzTimes issue, listed Walt as one of his “five most underrated musicians”. By 2000 Milkowski realized that Walt was a major talent…a formidable tenor saxophonist, prolific composer, and accomplished arranger. Downbeat awarded Walt’s Song for My Mother, Criss Cross Jazz-1994 four stars. Bret Primack, Jazz Central Station’s jazz radio host, listed Song for My Mother among the top ten jazz albums of 1997. Crusader Magazine named this recording its Jazz Pick of The Year. Bill Cunliffe (pianist) was the winner of the International Thelonious Monk contest. He stated that Walt Weiskopf was one of the greatest composers of jazz ….”. (L.A. Jazz Scene 1997). Zan Stewart described him as “a consummate composer, arranger, and saxophonist” (Downbeat 2003). Chris Hovan declared Walt “easily one the most mature, fully individualistic saxophonists or composers to have come along in 10 years” (All About Jazz 2002). Walt has been awarded multiple National Endowment for the Arts performance grants. Additionally, he was granted funding by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation as well as Chamber Music America to record his 2004 sextet album Sight to Sound. The inspiration for this suite of ten movements came from the works of Miro, Picasso, Van Gogh and Dali. Walt co-authored Coltrane, A Player’s Guide to His Harmony (both pub. Jamey Aebersold (with Ramon Ricker, his Eastman saxophone teacher). Trent Kynaston of Downbeat called Coltrane the “best treatise on the study and substitutions for Coltrane” he had ever seen. Intervalic Improvisation was Walt’s 1994 book. Aebersold, a 136-page guide for players that was recommended by James Moody and Michael Brecker to expand the horizons in modern jazz improvisation, is a 136 page book. Walt released Around The Horn in 2001, his fourth book. He recently finished Beyond The Horn with Ed RosenBerg, an old student. In 1988-89, Walt studied clarinetist Leon Russianoff and earned a Master of Arts degree at Queens College of The City University of New York in clarinet performance. He has been a part of many notable orchestras. from http://www.waltweiskopf.com
