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Wallace Roney and His Mission to Record and Perform Wayne Shorter's Long-Lost "Universe"

By R.J. DeLuke

Wayne Shorter is universally acknowledged as one of the greatest composers in the history of jazz, which is the history of American music. His compositions are played by instrumentalists in cramped and crowded nightclubs wherever on earth jazz music is performed. It's hard to imagine a jazz festival where at least few of his works don't cascade upon the ears at some point. Vocalists have added lyrics to some of his songs so they, too, can get involved in their ...

Wallace Roney: In the Realm of Anti-Gravity

By R.J. DeLuke

Much is made of trumpeter Wallace Roney coming from the Miles Davis school, a mentor-protégé situation that blossomed in the 1980s that Roney is very proud of. But that wouldn't be telling the whole story of the Philadelphia native who, in his prime years, has become one of the world's finest trumpet players, and a musician whose quest for innovation is everlasting.Hearing jazz music around the house as a small child, it crept into his head and stayed ...

Wallace Roney: If Only for One Night

By John Kelman

Wallace Roney's six-year association with HighNote--beginning with Prototype (2004), followed by Mystikal (2005), and culminating with Jazz (2007)--has allowed the trumpeter to amass a body of work far more indicative of where he's always wanted to be than his largely mainstream run with Muse in the early 1990s. If Only for One Night--culled from a four-night run at New York's Iridium--continues to paint a broader picture of an artist for whom the lifelong arc of Miles Davis remains an influence, ...

Wallace Roney: Jazz

By Andrew Velez

Even as Jazz is a tribute to Roney's mentors Art Blakey, Miles Davis and Tony Williams, it is much more. The musical flavors here cover a spectrum of jazz feeling, everything from bop to fusion to funk and other local stops. “Vater Time," the set's jump-right-in opener, is a Roney tune that moves from a funky intro to a swinging trumpet solo with Miles alum Robert Irving III lending muscular piano support; Roney's brother Antoine on tenor sax stokes matters ...

Wallace Roney: Jazz

By John Kelman

In a time when the definition of the word jazz is in heated debate, it takes a certain amount of courage for trumpeter Wallace Roney to use it as the title of his third release for HighNote. Roney continues to mine the place where contemporary rhythms and technology meet the language of jazz, and while there are those who will balk at his use of turntablists, synthesizers and hip hop rhythms, one listen is all it takes. It may be ...

Wallace Roney: Jazz

By John Barron

It's hard to imagine Wallace Roney making anything other than a bold statement with the trumpet. The Philadelphia native's razor sharp tone and vigorous pin-point precision has been on the cutting edge of modern jazz since his early days with Tony Williams and Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. On Jazz, Roney, along with his wife Geri Allen (keyboards) and younger brother Antoine (reeds), delves into a sonic landscape laden with modern funk grooves, simplified melodies and chops-heavy soloing.

The first two ...

Wallace Roney: Fulfilling the Promise

By Paul Olson

Trumpeter Wallace Roney has been working in jazz for over thirty years. He made his recording debut at age fourteen and played in the bands of Tony Williams, Art Blakey, David Murray and Herbie Hancock--just to name a few. A bandleader on his own for many years, Roney has dazzling chops and has composed some classic songs. He's never led a bad group, and when I saw him at Chicago's Green Mill in late August, the band was dazzling--powerful but ...

Wallace Roney: Mystikal

By AAJ Staff

Wallace Roney Mystikal HighNote Records 2005

Mystikal, Wallace Roney's second outing on the HighNote label, continues in the path he first traveled with the 2000 CD No Room For Argument in laying out his own vision for jazz in the 21st Century. In what is essentially a synthesis of the dark-funk fusion of the '70s, post-bop harmonies, and various undercurrents of hip-hop and electronica, Roney's music is becoming at once more eclectic ...

Wallace Roney: Mystikal

By Ernest Barteldes

This amazing trumpet player blends the bebop tendencies of the Parker/Dizzy era with the more contemporary Miles Davis jazz-fusion sound, and he's one of few leaders to include a turntable player in his band. In fact, it was the work of turntablist Val Jeanty that most impressed at Roney's recent appearance at Joe's Pub on September 30. She complemented the band's sound with several effects, such as spacey sounds and spoken word samples. This instrument, mostly connected ...

Wallace Roney: Mystikal

By John Kelman

We're all the sum of our experiences. Few can say that their lives haven't been influenced in some way by the views or work of others. So when people latch onto the effect that Miles Davis had on trumpeter Wallace Roney, it's fair to ask, “so what?"

Roney hung with Miles during his formative years, and the impact of the experience on his development is something he makes no attempt to cover up. But anyone who has listened to Roney's ...

Wallace Roney: Prototype

By George Harris

Like Sonny Stitt with Bird, Paul Quinichette with Prez, and Jon Faddis with Diz, Wallace Roney has been cursed (or blessed) with a tone and style hauntingly similar to a more famous blueprint, in this case Miles Davis. Previously trapped with endless comparisons, Roney is starting to break free by placing himself in musical milieus that Davis never ventured into. On Prototype, Roney has begun his journey into his own territory.

Shifting gears dramatically from his kinda “blue" period, Roney ...

Wallace Roney: Prototype

By John Kelman

On Prototype , his first album in four years, trumpeter Wallace Roney continues to develop ideas begun on Village ('97) and No Room For Argument ('00). That is to say, as the liner notes describe, “Miles' playing and his album Nefertiti as one link; Weather Report as the compositional link; Mwandishi (pianist Herbie Hancock groundbreaking early '70s fusion band) as the conceptual link, with John Coltrane as the spiritual link."

Roney's links to Miles Davis have been written about and, ...