Album Notes

There are few people in the business as musically multi-lingual as Wayne Wallace, a first-call trombonist, arranger, producer, and composer whose fluency in countless styles has brought him to work with a staggering number of luminaries from across the musical spectrum, including the Count Basie Orchestra, Ray Charles, Joe Henderson, Celine Dion, Carlos Santana, Lionel Hampton, Earth Wind & Fire, Sonny Rollins, Pearl Bailey, Aretha Franklin, Tito Puente, Lena Horne, Pete Escovedo, McCoy Tyner, Stevie Wonder, John Lee Hooker, and cellist Jean Jeanrenaud of the Kronos String Quartet, among others.

Wallace’s recent placement in Downbeat Magazine’s “Critic’s Poll” has gotten the word out about his virtuosity as a trombonist, and on The Nature of the Beat, out July 7th on Patois Records, we hear him stretch out on an eclectic mix of tunes. Latin classics such as Bésame Mucho find their place next to jazz standards like Fascinatin’ Rhythm, here recast as a timba. In addition to four Wallace originals, the disc features tunes by Earth Wind & Fire, Herbie Hancock, Ray Charles, and Gerry Mulligan, all reframed in Wallace’s scintillating Latin arrangements. Wallace’s enduring love of Afro-Cuban music brings us another soul-stirring disc that celebrates the universal rhythm of life. As Wallace puts it: “The lure of the drum is difficult, if not impossible, to resist.”