Trumpeter Quinn Walker is releasing his debut album, The Trail, this month through Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble (PJCE) Records. The release represents a decade-long dream realized to present his compositional voice with like-minded emerging talents.
Walker, a composer, arranger and educator, strives to bring exciting music that can live within and outside the bounds of jazz idiom simultaneously. While receiving his Bachelor’s degree in jazz studies from Portland State University and Masters degree in jazz studies from the University of Oregon, Walker became an important part of the jazz scene in Portland. He’s shared the stage with the PJCE, the Chuck Israels Jazz Orchestra, the Ezra Weiss Sextet, George Colligan and consistently plays with local Portland bands/musicians.
On the album, Walker is backed by two different bands of equally ambitious Pacific Northwest up-and-comers and reveals himself as a talent to watch. The all-original set bristles with youthful energy and a confident compositional voice. Citing the past decade of dedicated study as a foundation for the release, it shows in the album’s sophistication and instrumental prowess.
Walker says the album is “a documentation of my musical journey so far. It represents eight years of searching for where creative, improvisational music is moving towards, and finding where my compositional voice fits. Inspired by the lineage of jazz greats and the modern era fusion of hip hop, Latin music, sample-based music and avant garde with improvised music; the album displays my affinity for the wide variety of styles that I love and how my composition reflects that.”
The Trail was recorded half in Eugene and half in Portland. Will Glausi (alto saxophone), Henry Coba (trombone), Robert Lasilla (bass) and Nik Barber (drums) joined Walker for the Eugene tracks and Adriana Wagner (trombone), Robin Fey (guitar), Xylyn Hathaway (bass) and David Hagen (drums) for the Portland tracks.
Visit pjce.org to purchase the album.