Articles

Wallace Roney: What’s Going on Today

By Kevin Press

Trumpeter Wallace Roney has come a long way since his days as a Miles Davis mentee. The young man who earned the Down Beat Award for Best Young Jazz Musician of the Year in both 1979 and 1980 is now a seasoned veteran with 22 band-leader recordings to his credit. During his career, Roney has played with Davis, Art Blakey, Dizzy Gillespie, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Chick Corea and a long list of others.

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 ...