Ellis Lane Larkins
The News Review:
- Ellis Lane Larkins
- TRMBNIST TAKES LNG VIEW F HISTRY JAZZ
- The architecture of jazz
Ellis Lane Larkins
Hartford Courant – Feb 20, 2007
Larkins said of his studies at the conservatory. “His talent was so considerable that all considerations just went on hold for him. As much as he loved classical music Mr. Larkins also was intrigued by jazz pianists like Fats Waller James P. Johnson and Willie “The Lion” Smith. Still he said he knew he’d better not let the elders at home or the teachers at Douglass High School catch him trying his hand on “Carolina Shout” or “Ain’t Misbehavin. ‘”"They all thought jazz was banging” he told The Sun.
TRMBNIST TAKES LNG VIEW F HISTRY JAZZ
San Francisco Chronicle – Feb 20, 2007
All of which gets to the essence of what Wallace 54 is about. For decades the soft-spoken musician known as the doctor has toiled behind the scenes of many a Bay Area jazz situation — mostly Latin jazz but also bebop big band and funk — fixing whatever needed to be fixed and making the music be all that it could be. “He takes the music to the next level” says pianist and Asian jazz practitioner Jon Jang who hired Wallace to be the musical director arranger and trombonist for the CD “Paper Son Paper Songs. ” “His knowledge is so encyclopedic. He can hear an ethnic Chinese folk melody and see how it would fall within a Cuban rhythm. ” Jang also is fond of telling “a bad joke” about the 6-foot-2 Wallace: “Wayne may not be Shorter but Wallace is tallest. ” (Anyone mystified is urged to consult Google.
The architecture of jazz
Toronto Star – Feb 20, 2007
"I admire people who embrace the musical tradition that precedes them so that the essence of their music isn’t really revolutionary in that they broke all the rules it’s just they’re so creative they make something old sound completely new. I like that sense of lineage in music. " Braid’s own adherence to custom is why this interview took place at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music. He graduated from the school’s jazz program in 1998 and despite a flourishing professional career has been back teaching senior piano since 2003. "I like how in the jazz tradition there’s sort of that connection between the generations where one generation pulls up the next. I think all (jazz musicians) teach if not formally as part of the culture. And because I gained so much from being here.