Mike Walker (jazz guitarist)
Encyclopedia
Mike Walker is a jazz guitar
Jazz guitar
The term jazz guitar may refer to either a type of guitar or to the variety of guitar playing styles used in the various genres which are commonly termed "jazz"...

 player from Salford, England. Walker has played and recorded with George Russell, Peter Erskine
Peter Erskine
Peter Erskine is an American jazz drummer and composer. He has enjoyed a long and successful career as a session drummer, recording and touring with many famous jazz and rock artists, including Steely Dan and Weather Report...

, Steve Swallow
Steve Swallow
Steve Swallow is a jazz double bass and bass guitarist and composer born in Fair Lawn, New Jersey.One of the leading bassists in jazz, Swallow is noted for collaborations with Jimmy Giuffre, Gary Burton and Carla Bley...

, Kenny Wheeler
Kenny Wheeler
Kenneth Vincent John Wheeler, OC is a Canadian composer and trumpet and flugelhorn player, based in the U.K. since the 1950s....

, John Taylor
John Taylor (jazz)
John Taylor is a British jazz pianist; he has occasionally performed on the organ and the synthesiser. He is one of Europe's most celebrated jazz pianists and composers.-Performing career:...

 and performed with Dave Holland
Dave Holland
Dave Holland is an English jazz double bassist, composer and bandleader who has been performing and recording for five decades. He has lived in the United States for 40 years....

, Tal Farlow
Tal Farlow
Talmage Holt Farlow was an American jazz guitarist. Nicknamed the "Octopus", Farlow's extremely large hands spread over the fretboard as if they were tentacles. He is considered one of the all-time great jazz guitarists. Michael G...

, Anthony Braxton
Anthony Braxton
Anthony Braxton is an American composer, saxophonist, clarinettist, flautist, pianist, and philosopher. Braxton has released well over 100 albums since the 1960s...

, Bill Frisell
Bill Frisell
William Richard "Bill" Frisell is an American guitarist and composer.One of the leading guitarists in jazz since the late 1980s, Frisell's eclectic music touches on progressive folk, classical music, country music, noise and more...

 and many others.

Biography

Mike Walker was initially influenced by his father's piano playing, his mother's singing, and his brother's guitar playing. Mike went on to discover a passion for the great jazz guitarists Wes Montgomery
Wes Montgomery
John Leslie "Wes" Montgomery was an American jazz guitarist. He is widely considered one of the major jazz guitarists, emerging after such seminal figures as Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian and influencing countless others, including Pat Martino, George Benson, Russell Malone, Emily...

, Joe Pass
Joe Pass
Joe Pass was an Italian-American jazz guitarist of Sicilian descent. He is generally considered to be one of the greatest jazz guitarists of the 20th century...

, Pat Metheny
Pat Metheny
Patrick Bruce "Pat" Metheny is an American jazz guitarist and composer.One of the most successful and critically acclaimed jazz musicians to come to prominence in the 1970s and '80s, he is the leader of the Pat Metheny Group and is also involved in duets, solo works and other side projects...

, John Scofield
John Scofield
John Scofield , often referred to as "Sco," is an American jazz guitarist and composer, who has played and collaborated with Miles Davis, Dave Liebman, Joe Henderson, Charles Mingus, Joey Defrancesco, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, Bill Frisell, Pat Martino, Mavis Staples, Phil Lesh, Billy Cobham,...

, Larry Coryell
Larry Coryell
Larry Coryell is an American jazz fusion guitarist.-Biography:Coryell was born in Galveston, Texas. He graduated from Richland High School, in Richland, Washington, where he played in local bands The Jailers, The Rumblers, The Royals, and The Flames. He also played with The Checkers from nearby...

, Tal Farlow
Tal Farlow
Talmage Holt Farlow was an American jazz guitarist. Nicknamed the "Octopus", Farlow's extremely large hands spread over the fretboard as if they were tentacles. He is considered one of the all-time great jazz guitarists. Michael G...

 and others. After many months of hard practice (woodshedding), Mike entered the Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

 music scene with River People, a fusion
Jazz fusion
Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...

 band comprising Mike playing a Gibson ES-335
Gibson ES-335
The Gibson ES-335 is the world's first commercial thinline arched-top semi-acoustic electric guitar. Released by the Gibson Guitar Corporation as part of its ES series in 1958, it is neither hollow nor solid; instead, a solid wood block runs through the center of its body...

 guitar; Paul Allen on fretless bass; Tim Franks on drums, and Paul 'Bob Session' Kilvington on keyboards.

Mike's playing drew the attention of Alan Butler, a vibraphone
Vibraphone
The vibraphone, sometimes called the vibraharp or simply the vibes, is a musical instrument in the struck idiophone subfamily of the percussion family....

 player of considerable repute, who in the 1980s had a long running residency at the Malt Shovels, a well-known 'jazz' pub in Altrincham
Altrincham
Altrincham is a market town within the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on flat ground south of the River Mersey about southwest of Manchester city centre, south-southwest of Sale and east of Warrington...

. Mike joined Alan's quartet in the mid-80's, where he needed to rapidly grasp the new vocabulary of bebop
Bebop
Bebop differed drastically from the straightforward compositions of the swing era, and was instead characterized by fast tempos, asymmetrical phrasing, intricate melodies, and rhythm sections that expanded on their role as tempo-keepers...

 oriented standards, and more contemporary jazz compositions.

During the five to six years that Mike was a member of Alan's quartet, he had begun to travel further afield playing gigs with Mike Gibbs
Michael Gibbs (jazz composer)
Michael Clement Irving Gibbs is a jazz composer, conductor, arranger and producer as well as a trombonist and keyboardist....

 and Kenny Wheeler
Kenny Wheeler
Kenneth Vincent John Wheeler, OC is a Canadian composer and trumpet and flugelhorn player, based in the U.K. since the 1950s....

. While Mike was with the Mike Gibbs band he was called upon to deputise for an absent John Scofield
John Scofield
John Scofield , often referred to as "Sco," is an American jazz guitarist and composer, who has played and collaborated with Miles Davis, Dave Liebman, Joe Henderson, Charles Mingus, Joey Defrancesco, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, Bill Frisell, Pat Martino, Mavis Staples, Phil Lesh, Billy Cobham,...

, during which he was heard by Kenny, who asked him to play with his big band
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...

. Mike also formed a fusion band with pianist and composer Roy Powell
Roy Powell
Roy Powell is a British jazz pianist, organist and composer. He first came to wider recognition when his first CD A Big Sky was released in 1994, the Gramophone Jazz Good CD Guide 1997 calling it "extraordinarily accomplished"...

 about this time called Some Other Country
Some Other Country
Some Other Country is the fifth and latest studio album by the group Swayzak, released internationally on August 27, 2007.- Track listing :#"Quiet Life" - 7:25#"So Cheap" - 6:52#"No Sad Goodbyes" - 5:33...

 with bassist Gary Culshaw, and drummer Steve Gilbert. Mike and Gary had previously played together and had strong feeling for each other's playing. Some Other Country soon established itself as one of the North's favourite fusion bands.

Mike's musical collaborations continued to expand during the late 80s and early 90s. One such was with Nikki
Nikki Iles
Nikki Iles is an English jazz composer and musician, playing piano and accordion.Iles was born in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, her parents both musicians...

 and Richard Iles
Richard Iles
Richard Iles is a trumpet player and jazz composer. As a member of the Midland Youth Jazz Orchestra, he gained valuable experience in jazz...

 who had formed a band called Emanon
Emanon
Emanon are an American hip hop duo consisting of Singer and Rapper Aloe Blacc and Producer Exile. They are based in Los Angeles, California.-Career:...

, which provided a vehicle for the compositional and arranging skills of Nikki and Richard, and fertile ground for Mike's brand of inspirational playing. Nikki and Mike would subsequently enlist Gary Culshaw, and drummer Steve Brown, to form the Mike Walker Quartet. Also at this time Mike was playing in the Sylvan Richardson band, where he met his long-time collaborator and friend, the sax player Iain Dixon. Mike, Iain, Sylvan, and drummer Mikey Wilson would later form the band which came to be known as Brazil Nuts.

Whilst in Zurich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...

 with the Kenny Wheeler
Kenny Wheeler
Kenneth Vincent John Wheeler, OC is a Canadian composer and trumpet and flugelhorn player, based in the U.K. since the 1950s....

 Big Band, Mike met Julian Arguelles
Julian Argüelles
Julian Argüelles is a saxophonist. He is currently a member of the HR Big Band in Frankfurt am Main, Germany....

 and subsequently joined his quartet. He also recorded several CDs with him, one of which featured on bass, Steve Swallow
Steve Swallow
Steve Swallow is a jazz double bass and bass guitarist and composer born in Fair Lawn, New Jersey.One of the leading bassists in jazz, Swallow is noted for collaborations with Jimmy Giuffre, Gary Burton and Carla Bley...

, with whom Mike would record again on the Mike Gibbs album 'By The Way'. The players were Peter Erskine
Peter Erskine
Peter Erskine is an American jazz drummer and composer. He has enjoyed a long and successful career as a session drummer, recording and touring with many famous jazz and rock artists, including Steely Dan and Weather Report...

, John Taylor
John Taylor (jazz)
John Taylor is a British jazz pianist; he has occasionally performed on the organ and the synthesiser. He is one of Europe's most celebrated jazz pianists and composers.-Performing career:...

, Kenny, Mike, and Django Bates
Django Bates
Django Bates , is a composer, multi-instrumentalist and band leader. He plays the piano, keyboards and the tenor horn. He currently lives in Copenhagen where he is a professor at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory and leader of the StoRMChaser orchestra.-Career:Django Bates was born in Beckenham,...

.

In the early 90's Mike toured extensively in various bands led by Tommy Smith
Tommy Smith (saxophonist)
Tommy Smith is a jazz saxophonist, composer and educator. The late jazz critic Richard Cook said of him, 'Of the generation which emerged in the mid-80s, he might be the most outstandingly talented'.-Biography:...

, including a quartet with Mick Hutton on bass, and the Canadian, Ian Froman, on drums. Occasionally Tommy added Niels Lan Doky
Niels Lan Doky
Niels Lan Doky is a Danish jazz pianist and record producer.-Biography:He was born in Copenhagen of a Danish mother and Vietnamese father. His father worked as a doctor, but was also a classically trained guitarist so guitar was Niels's first instrument...

 or Jason Rebello
Jason Rebello
Jason Rebello is a British jazz pianist, currently part of Sting's live and studio band, who has recorded a handful of albums under his own name. His debut album, A Clearer View was produced by Wayne Shorter....

 on piano. One of Tommy's quartets featured the Scottish drummer Tom Bancroft
Tom Bancroft
Tom Bancroft is a jazz drummer and composer. He began drumming aged 7 and started off playing jazz with his father and identical twin brother Phil. After studying medicine at Cambridge University he spent a year studying composition and arranging at McGill University in Montreal...

, an association that would lead to Mike, Tom, and Tom's sax playing brother Phil, working together at the Glasgow Jazz summer school. After many years Phil asked Mike to join his newly formed band which has been touring steadily since, together with Thomas Strønen, the Norwegian
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 drummer, and bass player Steve Watts
Steve Watts
Steve Watts is a retired English footballer who last played for Sutton United. Watts is also a professional poker player who played in the World Series of Poker in 2009...

 who replaced Reid Anderson
Reid Anderson
Reid Anderson is a bassist and composer originally from Minnesota. Anderson is best known for his work in The Bad Plus with pianist Ethan Iverson and drummer Dave King...

 of The Bad Plus
The Bad Plus
The Bad Plus are a jazz trio from the United States, consisting of pianist Ethan Iverson, bassist Reid Anderson, and drummer Dave King, originating from Minneapolis, MN.-History:...

.

During the last decade Mike has also visited the United States, and most of Europe, as George Russell's guitarist, recording with him on several occasions. Also, as a member the Creative jazz Orchestra, Mike has played with Vince Mendoza
Vince Mendoza
Vince Mendoza is a music arranger and composer.Mendoza was born in Connecticut and studied guitar as a child, influenced by classical music, soul and jazz. He then took up the trumpet, which he continued to play throughout his time at Ohio State University, where he played in the Jazz Ensemble and...

, Anthony Braxton
Anthony Braxton
Anthony Braxton is an American composer, saxophonist, clarinettist, flautist, pianist, and philosopher. Braxton has released well over 100 albums since the 1960s...

, Bill Frisell
Bill Frisell
William Richard "Bill" Frisell is an American guitarist and composer.One of the leading guitarists in jazz since the late 1980s, Frisell's eclectic music touches on progressive folk, classical music, country music, noise and more...

, Tim Berne
Tim Berne
Tim Berne is an American jazz saxophone player and composer.Described by critic Thom Jurek as commanding "considerable power as a composer and ... frighteningly deft ability as a soloist," Berne has composed and performed prolifically since the 1980s...

, and Mark-Anthony Turnage
Mark-Anthony Turnage
Mark-Anthony Turnage is a prolific English composer of classical music. His initial musical studies were with Oliver Knussen, John Lambert, and later with Gunther Schuller...

.

Other musicians that Mike has played and recorded with over the last 20 years include Dave Holland
Dave Holland
Dave Holland is an English jazz double bassist, composer and bandleader who has been performing and recording for five decades. He has lived in the United States for 40 years....

, John Taylor
John Taylor (jazz)
John Taylor is a British jazz pianist; he has occasionally performed on the organ and the synthesiser. He is one of Europe's most celebrated jazz pianists and composers.-Performing career:...

, Tal Farlow
Tal Farlow
Talmage Holt Farlow was an American jazz guitarist. Nicknamed the "Octopus", Farlow's extremely large hands spread over the fretboard as if they were tentacles. He is considered one of the all-time great jazz guitarists. Michael G...

, Bob Moses
Bob Moses (musician)
Rakalam Bob Moses is an American jazz drummer born in New York City.Moses played with Roland Kirk in 1964-65 while he was still a teenager. In 1966 he and Larry Coryell formed The Free Spirits, a jazz fusion ensemble, and from 1967 to 1969 he played in Gary Burton's quartet...

, Arild Anderson, and Palle Mikkelborg
Palle Mikkelborg
Palle Mikkelborg , is a Danish jazz trumpeter, composer, arranger and record producer. He started playing professionally in 1960, and has since been a dominant figure on the Danish and international progressive jazz scene...

, as well as some fine vocalists including Mica Paris
Mica Paris
Mica Paris is an English soul singer, radio and television presenter, and occasional actress. Her forename is pronounced Misha.-Beginnings:Paris' roots are in soul and gospel music...

, Norma Winstone
Norma Winstone
Norma Ann Winstone MBE is a British jazz singer and lyricist. In a career spanning over forty years she is best known for her wordless improvisations....

, and Jacqui Dankworth
Jacqui Dankworth
Jacqui Dankworth is a British jazz singer. She is the daughter of the jazz musician, arranger and composer Sir John Dankworth and the singer Dame Cleo Laine.-Career:...

 with whom Mike regularly tours.

In May 2008, Mike released his debut album 'Madhouse and the Whole Thing There' to critical acclaim. It features the members of Brazil Nuts, plus strings
String instrument
A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...

, French horn, piano, brass section and vocals etc. Also, in 2008, Mike was commissioned to write a some music for Manchester Jazz Festival
Manchester Jazz Festival
Manchester Jazz Festival is an annual 9-day-long festival focused on showcasing contemporary jazz from the North West of England and beyond.- mjf 2010 :The 15th Manchester Jazz Festival will take place from 23 to 31 July in Manchester city centre....

. He wrote a Suite called 'Ropes' which featured a 22 piece Orchestra and Jazz quintet, with Adam Nussbaum
Adam Nussbaum
-Biography:Nussbaum grew up in Norwalk, Connecticut and started to play drums at age 12 after studying piano for five years. He also played bass and saxophone as a teenager. He moved to New York City in 1975 to attend The Davis Center for Performing Arts at City College...

 on drums. The Suite was performed at the RNCM
Royal Northern College of Music
The Royal Northern College of Music is a music school in Manchester, England. It is located on Oxford Road in Chorlton on Medlock, at the western edge of the campus of the University of Manchester and is one of four conservatories associated with the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music...

 in Manchester to a packed theatre and received a standing ovation.

Walker has written for his Sextet which features Les Chisnall, Malc Edmonstone, Pat Illingworth, Iain Dixon and Steve Watts
Steve Watts
Steve Watts is a retired English footballer who last played for Sutton United. Watts is also a professional poker player who played in the World Series of Poker in 2009...

. The Sextet tours frequently throughout the UK. He is a member of 'The Printmakers' a band set up by Nikki Iles
Nikki Iles
Nikki Iles is an English jazz composer and musician, playing piano and accordion.Iles was born in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, her parents both musicians...

 and Norma Winstone
Norma Winstone
Norma Ann Winstone MBE is a British jazz singer and lyricist. In a career spanning over forty years she is best known for her wordless improvisations....

 and also featuring Mark Lockheart
Mark Lockheart
Mark Lockheart is a British jazz tenor saxophonist who came to prominence as a member of the Loose Tubes big band during the 1980s....

, Steve Watts
Steve Watts
Steve Watts is a retired English footballer who last played for Sutton United. Watts is also a professional poker player who played in the World Series of Poker in 2009...

, and James Maddren.

Walker also works with Steve Swallow
Steve Swallow
Steve Swallow is a jazz double bass and bass guitarist and composer born in Fair Lawn, New Jersey.One of the leading bassists in jazz, Swallow is noted for collaborations with Jimmy Giuffre, Gary Burton and Carla Bley...

, Gwilym Simcock
Gwilym Simcock
Gwilym Simcock is a British pianist and composer working in both jazz and classical music, and often blurring the boundaries of the two....

 and Adam Nussbaum
Adam Nussbaum
-Biography:Nussbaum grew up in Norwalk, Connecticut and started to play drums at age 12 after studying piano for five years. He also played bass and saxophone as a teenager. He moved to New York City in 1975 to attend The Davis Center for Performing Arts at City College...

 in a band called 'The Impossible Gentlemen'.

He runs a Guitar summer School in Andalucia, Spain, usually mid June, for 2 weeks. He also runs The Music Place Summer School in Altrincham
Altrincham
Altrincham is a market town within the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on flat ground south of the River Mersey about southwest of Manchester city centre, south-southwest of Sale and east of Warrington...

 with Iain Dixon and is a tutor for the National Youth Jazz Collective. He lives in Rossendale
Rossendale
Rossendale is a local government district with borough status. It is made up of a number of small former mill towns in Lancashire, England centered around the valley of the River Irwell in the industrial North West...

with his two children.

Albums

  • Nick Purnell, 1 ,2, 3 (with Peter Erskine, John Taylor) 1991
  • Tommy Smith / Sylvan Richardson, Pyrotechnics (with Jason Rebello) 1993
  • Roy Powell, Big Sky 1994
  • Julian Arguelles, Home Truths (with Steve Swallow) 1995
  • Mike Gibbs, By the Way (with Steve Swallow, Bob Moses, John Taylor, Kenny Wheeler) 1996
  • George Russell, It's About Time 1996
  • London Trombone Quartet, Some Of Our Best Friends 1996
  • Julian Arguelles, Skull View 1997
  • Steve Plews Ensemble, Anywhere 1997
  • Peter Fairclough, Permission 1997
  • Julian Arguelles, Escapade 1999
  • Steve Williams, Skyward Bound 1999
  • Richard Iles, From Here to There 1999
  • Steve Williams, Lo-Fi 2001
  • Roy Powell, North by Northwest 2001
  • Julian Arguelles, As Above, So Below 2004
  • Phil Bancroft, Headlong 2004
  • Steve Berry, In An Ideal World : live at Manchester Jazz Festival 2004
  • Steve Plews Ensemble, Extracts From Infinity 2004
  • George Russell, 80th Birthday Concert 2005
  • Steve Williams, 4 am 2006
  • John Helliwell, Creme Anglaise 2006
  • Anthony Braxton and the Creative Jazz Orchestra, Composition No. 175 / No. 126 2006
  • Tony Faulkner Jazz Orchestra, Thad Jones and the Ellington Effect 2006
  • Vibration Music Society, Primo 2007
  • Mike Walker, Madhouse and the Whole Thing There 2008
  • Paul Towndrow, "Newology" 2009

The Impossible Gentlemen 2011 (With Gwilym Simcock, Steve Swallow and Adam Nussbaum)

External links



This biography was written by Mike Walker himself. This Wikipedia page was put together by Adrian Stevenson on behalf of Mike Walker.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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