Byron Wallen
A Londoner, Byron Wallen was born on 17 July, 1969, and raised by his aunt, who sent him to piano lessons and made sure he did his homework. Consequently, the dude is not only recognised as one of the most prodigiously talented young players in contemporary music, but he also has a degree in psychology. He's played with jazzers like Eddie Henderson, Lonnie Liston Smith, Ronnie Laws, Ralph Moore and Billy Higgins, but also with rap groups Free Speech, Diggable Planets and Us 3. Growing up in Tottenham with three older, musically-inclined sisters, Byron heard soul and funk around the house and was profoundly impressed at an early age by Louis Armstrong. His course was set when he attended his first concert around the age of twelve - Weather Report touring in support of their Domino Theory album - and was blown away: "I got the album and started to find out where that sound came from and traced it back to Miles Davis. And once I started getting into Miles, I wanted to play trumpet. I felt, wow, this is it. And I still feel like that", he recalls. Byron's parents live in New York and he made regular trips to visit them as a teenager, taking the opportunity to study the trumpet with great musicians like Jimmy Owens, Donald Byrd and Jon Faddis. "I learned that they never took anything for granted. They want to understand the intricacies of what they're playing, to get inside it. That's the mind of a jazz musician. And this esoteric world has got a lot of answers... and questions," he says, sagely. While studying Psychology, Philosophy and Maths at Sussex University, Byron recorded with Loose Ends and Cleveland Watkiss and played trumpet in a mixture of musical settings: with Mervyn Africa, The Style Council, Charles Earland, Courtney Pine and Jean Toussaint. These days he's in increasing demand, not merely as a consummate session player, but as an innovative trumpeter and composer working with, among others: Gary CrosbyÕs Nu Troop, Rowland SutherlandÕs Mistura and with his sister, pianist Errolyn Wallen, in Ensemble X. A powerful composer, Byron's intuitive and spiritual leanings shine through his Tarot Suite, an evocative live jazz score that draws inspiration from the symbols and imagery of the tarot cards. A twenty-two piece suite written for ten musicians, its world premier in 1994 received rave reviews, with Byron being hailed by The Guardian as 'the most interesting new explorer of Miles Davis' legacy'. The band that really showcases Byron's positive and musically diverse vision is his own long-running outfit, Sound Advice, with which he seeks to use the power of music to bring people of all cultures together. "The highest thing we can do in life is to raise consciousness. The group does this through R.A.M.P.: Realistic Alternative Messages to Pessimism." Which translates as a unique mixture of rap, funk, jazz and reggae, in a Brazilian blend. Such wild eclecticism made Byron a natural candidate for M.E.L.T.2000. Spotted by Robert Trunz and Airto Moreira playing at The Shape Of Things To Come concert promoted by Straight No Chaser in 1994, Byron was invited to record his first album, also called Sound Advice. He'd almost finished making the record by the time he joined Airto in the Meltdown expedition to South Africa in October, 1994. "Going to Africa and meeting and playing with the likes of Amampondo was like a fresh burst of life, because I'd heard those sounds before, but actually playing and interacting with those musicians was something else. It was inspirational," he affirms. In 1995, Byron joined Incognito for a seven month world tour, which opened his ears even wider: "I was listening to a lot of different music and buying all the CDs I could - the pan pipe ensembles of the Solomon Islands; I listened to a lot of gamelan music - and what I'm doing now brings all those influences together: the jazz, the African and the World music." One of the highlights of '96 was an invitation to play the Anglo-Arabic festival in Syria, where Sound Advice went down a storm, and Byron has been recording with a master Gnawa (a three string bass lute) musician, Si Mohammed Chaouqi.
All these disparate influences are evident on Byron Wallen's album, Earth Roots which was released by M.E.L.T.2000 in 1997. |
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