Kirk Whalum
Kirk Whalum | |
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Website | kirkwhalum |
Kirk Whalum (born July 11, 1958) is an American
Whalum has recorded a series of well received solo albums and film soundtracks, with music ranging from pop to
Biography
Kirk Whalum was born in Memphis, Tennessee. He attended Melrose High School and Texas Southern University, where he was a member of the renowned Ocean of Soul Marching Band. In addition to singing in his father's church choir, Whalum learned to love music from his grandmother, Thelma Twigg Whalum, a piano teacher, and two uncles, Wendell Whalum and Hugh "Peanuts" Whalum, who performed with jazz bands around the country. He told John H. Johnson's magazine Ebony Man in a 1994 profile, "The music I like to play and write encompasses the four elements I grew up with: Memphis R&B, gospel, rock, and jazz. The emphasis, though, is on melody, period."[1]
In 1986, he performed at
Whalum recorded a duet with R&B singer, Jevetta Steele called "Love is a Losing Game" in 1993.
Whalum has worked on a number of film scores, including for
Whalum has recorded a series of well received solo albums and film soundtracks, with music ranging from pop to
In 2005 Whalum recorded the Babyface Songbook (2005) with R&B icon
On June 20, 2014, Whalum was the inaugural Jazz Legend honoree of the National Museum of African American Music in Nashville, Tennessee. In September 2015, it was announced that Whalum would be joining the faculty of Visible Music College in Memphis, Tennessee.[2] In September 2018 he received the coveted honor of a Brass Note on Historic Beale Street in his native Memphis.
Personal life
Whalum married his wife Rubystyne (Ruby) in 1980. They have four children, including musician and marathoner Kyle, as well as Courtney, Kori, and Evan.[3] Whalum converted to Catholicism in 2022, after having served for years as a Protestant minister.[4][5] He has also been a volunteer barber at a Catholic Worker house in Memphis.[6]
Discography
Studio albums
- Floppy Disk (1985)
- And You Know That (1988)
- The Promise (1989)
- Caché (1993)
- In This Life (1995)
- Joined at the Hip w/ Bob James(1996)
- Colors (1997)
- For You (1998)
- Unconditional (2000)
- Hymns in the Garden (2001)
- The Christmas Message (2001)
- Groovin w/ BWB (Braun, Whalum, Brown) (2002)
- Into My Soul (2003)
- Kirk Whalum Performs the Babyface Songbook (2005)
- Roundtrip (2007)
- Promises Made: The Millennium Promise Jazz Project (2008)
- Everything is Everything: The Music of Donny Hathaway (2010)
- More of Everything is Everything - ep (2010)[7]
- Romance Language (2011)
- Human Nature w/ BWB (Braun, Whalum, Brown) (2013)
- BWB w/ BWB (Braun, Whalum, Brown) (2016)
- #Lovecovers (2017)
- Humanite (2019)
The Gospel According to Jazz Series - Live
- The Gospel According to Jazz: Chapter I (1998)
- The Gospel According to Jazz: Chapter II (2002)
- The Gospel According to Jazz Chapter III (2010)
- The Gospel According to Jazz Chapter IV" (2014)
Live albums
- Live from the Detroit Jazz Festival 2013 (2014)
Compilation albums
- The Best of Kirk Whalum (2002)
- Ultimate Kirk Whalum (2007)
Singles
- "Mad About the Wolf" from Simply Mad About the Mouse(1991)
As sideman
With Joey DeFrancesco
- Where Were You? (Columbia, 1990)
References
- ^ Ebony Man, April 1994, p. 10.
- ^ "Kirk Whalum to join Visible Music College". Retrieved 2015-09-19.
- ^ "Kirk Whalum | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2022-11-03.
- ^ Adams, Vernon (2022-11-01). "Tweet". Twitter. Retrieved 2022-11-03.
- ^ Lenten Preaching: The Rev. Kirk Whalum, retrieved 2022-11-03
- ^ Whalum, Kirk. "Kirk Whalum: The gift of God's image in the poor". The Commercial Appeal. Retrieved 2022-11-03.
- ^ "More Of Everything Is Everything - EP" Amazon.
External links
- https://archive.today/20140624174441/http://nmaam.org/celebration-of-legends/ [dead link - 8/31/2017]
- "My Music Matters: Tribute to NMAAM 2014 Jazz Legend Kirk Whalum"
- Official website
- Mack Avenue Artist Page Archived 2015-05-18 at the Wayback Machine
- “In Black America; Kirk Whalum,” 1992-10-01, KUT Radio, American Archive of Public Broadcasting