SINGER CHRIS WALKER

Talking Smooth Jazz

Born and raised in Houston TX, Chris Walker began singing before he began speaking. He got his start in the church as a member of his family gospel group, The Walker Brothers. Chris plays the bass upside down like one of his early hero’s Jimi Hendrix. The Walker’s raised their children with a strong hand, and once Chris graduated from the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston, he was all too happy to high-tail it to New York, with only forty dollars, in pursuit of his dreams of doing his own music. With aspirations of attending the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, he sold his bass amp and bought a one-way ticket to New York; despite being denied due to inability to pay the tuition. Fate, however, would intervene as Walker was walking the halls and happened to come upon a jam session in need of a bass player. When he took the stage the school dean just so happened to hear him and offered him a full scholarship on the spot and so begun another chapter in his musical journey. As a student and lover of jazz music, it was an opportunity that came via a former teacher, Gil Goldstein, that would bring to fruition a longtime dream of Walker to work, as Musical Director, with seven-time Grammy Award winner Al Jarreau. In honor of the late Mr. Jarreau, Chris Walker has released a new cd: We're In This Love Together: Celebrating Al Jarreau. Follow Chris on Facebook & Twitter.