January/February

Featured Composer

Wayne Wallace

Five-time Grammy nominee, Wayne Wallace is one of the more respected exponents of African American-Latin music in the world today. He is known for the use of traditional forms and styles combined with contemporary music. Mr. Wallace is an accomplished arranger, educator and composer with compositions for film and television. He has received grants from the Creative Work Fund, the National Endowments for the Arts, the Lila Wallace Foundation, the Institute for Advanced Study and the San Francisco Arts Commission.

Mr. Wallace has performed, recorded and studied with acknowledged masters of the Afro-Latin and Jazz idioms such as Aretha Franklin, Bobby Hutcherson, Earth Wind and Fire, Pete Escovedo, Santana, Julian Priester, Conjunto Libre, John Santos, Whitney Houston, Tito Puente, Steve Turre, John Lee Hooker, Con-funk-shun, Francisco Aguabella, Manny Oquendo and Libre, Max Roach, and Orestes Vilató. This experience has provided a solid foundation for Mr. Wallace’s current explorations of the intersections of diverse cultural styles and rhythmic concepts.

Born and raised in San Francisco, California, Mr. Wallace was exposed to many styles of music at an early age. The San Francisco Bay Area’s fertile musical environment shaped his career in a unique way. His studies of Afro-Latin music and Jazz have included several trips to Cuba, New York, and Puerto Rico. Mr. Wallace is widely respected as a teacher and historian and is currently a professor at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. He has also taught at San Jose Page 2 of 2 State University, Stanford University and the Jazzschool in Berkeley. He has conducted lectures, workshops and clinics in the Americas and Europe since 1983.

Heading his own record label, Patois Records, Mr. Wallace has created a unique company with a passionate mission of developing and chronicling the multi-lingual styles of the contemporary music scene. Under his direction the label has released 19 different recordings to critical acclaim and is gaining attention internationally and in the industry. He has earned recognition with his recent placement in the Downbeat Critics Polls under both the trombone and producer categories.