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Wally Schnalle

Wally Schnalle has been playing drums well over 40 years and has a long history of working with San Jose Jazz. For the past 20 years he’s been sharing his knowledge and experience as a teacher, bandleader, recording artist, and sideman with many great Bay Area bands. He performs and teaches in many genres, including Latin, funk, and rock and blues, but the bulk of his work is in Jazz and fusion. He has performed widely, including gigs at the San Jose Jazz Summer Fest, Monterey Jazz Festival, Portland Jazz Festival and San Francisco’s Jazz in the City series. Schnalle has nine CDs of original compositions in release and was awarded a compositional commission from the Santa Clara University School of Music and Dance as well as an Artist In Residence Grant fro The California Arts Council. In addition, he has worked with DRUM! Magazine as Music Editor and columnist for almost 20 years. Wally earned his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Jazz Performance at San Jose State University.

Wally Schnalle: Idiot Fish

Read "Idiot Fish" reviewed by Tyran Grillo

by Tyran Grillo
December 19, 2014

For his ninth album as leader, and with over 40 years of experience at the kit, drummer-composer Wally Schnalle has pulled out all the stops. Working sound bytes into delicate infusions of soul, jazz, and electronica, Schnalle nourishes an integrated field of sound that at once evokes seventies nostalgia and progressive futurism. Toward achieving this effect, he employs the skills of a prodigious trio of West Coast musicians. Guitarist Hristo Vitchev, bassist Joe Constantini, and keyboardist Frank Martin make for ...

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Live Review

Wally Schnalle’s Debut at the Douglas Beach House in Half Moon Bay California

by Bill Leikam
July 3, 2010

Wally Schnalle Quartet Douglas Beach House Half Moon Bay, California June 13, 2010 Wally Schnalle and his quartet made its debut at the Douglas Beach House and once underway, everyone in the house knew that a hard hitting jazz-fusion band had arrived. In an appearance celebrating the release of his newest album Out of the Pan (Retlaw, 2010) drummer Schnalle (who also composed, arranged and produced the CD) was joined by Jeff Massanari on ...

Album Review

Wally Schnalle: The Suit

Read "The Suit" reviewed by Stephen Latessa

by Stephen Latessa
June 22, 2005

"The Suit," drummer Wally Schnalle writes in the liner notes to his new album of the same name, “is simply a metaphor for a myriad of musical constraints such as: idiom, genre, common practice, expectations, bag, style, and convention. Each of these, and more, I find can impose severe limitations on creativity. And so the straight jacket (Suit) image. Seeking to avoid such restraints, Schnalle casts the net far and wide both compositionally and instrumentally on The Suit. Historic jazz ...

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Album Review

Wally Schnalle: That Place

Read "That Place" reviewed by Joel Roberts

by Joel Roberts
October 1, 1999

Drummer Wally Schnalle leads an impressive West Coast ensemble on an album of what could be called “post post-bop." More precisely, it's modern, exploratory jazz that still, generally, retains melody and recognizable form.Schnalle's 11 original compositions here range from hard funk to almost-free jazz. A few of the tunes put me in mind of the sorely missed Don Pullen/George Adams Quartet, thanks to soaring saxophone work from Charles McNeal and soulful, percussive piano from Jeff Pittson.All ...

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Album Review

Jeff Pittson: Go Where It's Dangerous

Read "Go Where It's Dangerous" reviewed by Joel Roberts

by Joel Roberts
October 1, 1999

A lot of jazz fans turn right off at the mere mention of electronic effects. So let's get this out of the way: While Jeff Pittson uses a full array of computers, samplers and other electronics to augment his music, this is essentially a piano album. And a pretty good one at that.Pittson's (acoustic) piano is almost always in the foreground on the 10 selections here -- nine originals, plus a tender reading of Nino Rota's “Godfather" theme. ...

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Album Review

Suzanne Pittson: Resolution: A Remembrance Of John Coltrane

Read "Resolution: A Remembrance Of John Coltrane" reviewed by Jim Santella

by Jim Santella
September 1, 1999

Scat singing and original lyrics mark Suzanne Pittson’s second release, which is centered on John Coltrane’s landmark A Love Supreme album. With a piano trio and tenor saxophonist, altering her voice at times as if it were a trumpet, Pittson sings of life and love, the deep feelings we have buried inside, and how the music can help us find our way. From Northern California, the singer holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from San Francisco State University, where ...

Recording

Drummer Wally Schnalle Releases "The Suit" on Retlaw Records

Source: All About Jazz
April 20, 2005

THE SUIT. What is it? It is simply a metaphor for a myriad of musical constraints such as: idiom, genre, common practice, expectations, bag, style, and convention. Each of these, and more, I find can impose severe limitations on creativity. And so the straight jacket (Suit) image. While there are artists who find comfort in and become very talented at adhering to a certain convention, style or era of music, I find those boundaries frustrating. It's been done already and ...
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