Wayne Wallace Latin Jazz Quintet

Five-time Grammy nominee Wayne Wallace is one of the most respected exponents of African American-Latin music in the world today. He is known for the use of traditional forms and styles in combination with contemporary music, and has earned recognition with his recent placement in the Downbeat Critics Polls under the trombone and producer categories.

Wayne is an accomplished arranger, educator, and composer in film and television. He has received grants from the Creative Work Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Lila Wallace Foundation, and the San Francisco Arts Commission. Wayne has performed, recorded and studied with masters of Afro-Latin and Jazz idioms such as Aretha Franklin, Bobby Hutcherson, Earth Wind and Fire, Pete Escovedo, Santana, Julian Priester, Conjunto Libre, Whitney Houston, Tito Puente, Steve Turre, John Lee Hooker, Con-funk-shun, Francisco Aguabella, Manny Oquendo and Libre, Max Roach, the Count Basie Orchestra and Orestes Vilató.

Native to San Francisco, Wayne was exposed to Blues, Country and Western, R&B Jazz and Afro-Caribbean music at an early age. The fertile musical environment of the Bay Area 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 an instructor at San Jose State University, Stanford University and the Jazzschool in Berkeley. He is a member of the Advisory Committees of San Jose Jazz and the Stanford Jazz Workshop.

As head of his own label, Patois Records, Wayne has a passionate mission of developing and chronicling the multi-lingual styles of the San Francisco Bay Area music scene.  Under his direction, the label has released 10 different recordings to critical acclaim. Patoisʼ oeuvre contains recordings by Mr. Wallace, Marc and Paul van Wageningen, Kat Parra, Alexa Weber-Morales, and Kristina.

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