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Artist
Jack Walrath
12+ albums
trumpetjazzjack walrathbopcharlie mingus
about
Jack Walrath (born May 5, 1946 in Stuart, Florida) is an American post-bop jazz trumpeter and musical arranger known for his work with Ray Charles, Gary Peacock, Charles Mingus and Glenn Ferris , among others. Walrath began playing the trumpet at the age of nine in 1955 while living in the small town of Edgar, Montana. He attributes his wide range of musical appreciation to a “lack of negative peer pressure which so often happens in cities.”. In 1964 Walrath graduated from Joliet High School and attended the Berklee College of Music. He pursued a composition diploma program instead of a full degree program so that he could concentrate specifically upon music classes. During his Berklee years he backed a number of R&B singers in the Boston and Cambridge areas and gigged with his fellow students. While in Boston he worked in the band Change with bassist Gary Peacock. Walrath graduated from the Berklee program in 1968. In 1969 Walrath relocated to the West Coast and found work in Los Angeles’ jazz scene. Soon he was a member of the band Revival, with trombonist Glenn Ferris, and the West Coast Motown Orchestra. An opportunity soon arose to work with the legendary Ray Charles, with whom Walrath did one tour of the United States. By 1970 the openings for jazz musicians in Los Angeles began to dry up, and Walrath relocated again to New York City. Walrath spent the next several years working with mainstream and Latin jazz bands. In 1974 Walrath was working in the band of saxophonis
