Walt Fowler

Walt Fowler (born 2 March 1955) is an American trumpeter, flugelhorn player, and keyboardist of fusion and modern jazz. He is also a composer and arranger and frequently works as a studio musician for movie productions.

Walt is the son of Utah jazz musicians and educators William Fowler and Beatrice Fowler. He is the brother of musicians Steven Fowler, Bruce Fowler, Tom Fowler, and Ed Fowler, with whom he co-leads their jazz/fusion outfit "The Fowler Brothers."

Active since the mid-1970s, Walt has worked with many famed jazz and fusion musicians including Frank Zappa, Billy Cobham, Johnny "Guitar" Watson, Brandon Fields, Ray Charles, and The Doors.

Life and work

Walt Fowler was born Walter Ernest Fowler on March 2, 1955, in Salt Lake City, Utah, into a musical family of jazz musicians and educators William Fowler and Beatrice Fowler. His four brothers are also musicians—saxophonist Steven Fowler (1949—2010), trombonist Bruce Fowler (born 1947), bassists Tom Fowler (1951—2024) and Ed Fowler (born 1957).

Growing up in a musical family, Walt got his start in music at a young age, taking his first piano lessons at the age of six. By the age of eight, he switched to the trumpet.

In late 1973, at the age of 19, he joined his brothers Tom Fowler and Bruce Fowlerin Frank Zappa's band The Mothers. In December 1973, he played bass on the band's double-live album Roxy & Elsewhere alongside Chester Thompson and Ralph Humphrey (drums); George Duke (keyboards, synthesizer, vocals); Ruth Underwood (percussion); Jeff Simmons (rhythm guitar, vocals); Don Preston (synthesizer); Napoleon Murphy Brock (tenor saxophone, flute, lead vocals); and Bruce Fowler (trombone). In May 1974, Walt played live with Zappa's band at Notre Dame University in Indiana. A recording of 13 tracks was released in 1991 as Unmitigated Audacity via Rhino Records on their FOO-EEE label.

In 1975, Walt and his brothers Bruce Fowler (trombone), Tom Fowler (bass), Steven Fowler (saxophone), and Ed Fowler (bass) set up their jazz/rock/funk/soul fusion ensemble Air Pocket and released Fly On via East Wind Records. Later, the band was renamed The Fowler Brothers and they released two albums via Fossil Records—Hunter in 1985 and Breakfast For Dinosaurs in 1988. Other frequent members of the band are Walt's Zappa mates Albert Wing, Kurt McGettrick, and Chester Thompson; and Mike Miller of Chick Corea Elektric Band.

Also in 1975, he was on Panamanian jazz drummer and composer Billy Cobham's album A Funky Thide of Sings (Atlantic Records) with Alex Blake (bass); "Rebop" Kwaku Baah (congas); John Scofield (guitar); Milcho Leviev (keyboards); Michael Brecker and Larry Schneider (saxophone); Tom Malone and Glenn Ferris (trombone); and Randy Brecker (trumpet).

In 1977, Walt worked with rhythm & blues guitarist Johnny "Guitar" Watson and recorded four albums—A Real Mother For Ya (1977), Funk Beyond The Call Of Duty (1977), What The Hell Is This? (1979), and Strike On Computers (1984). His companions on the albums were Emry Thomas (drums); Tony Coleman, Bruce Fowler, and Tommy "Slide" Roberson (trombone); Billy Haley (saxophone); Deon Estus and Bobby "Bumble Bee" Howard (bass); Bill Haley and Albert Wing (saxophone).

In the mid-1980s, Walt worked with saxophonist Brandon Fields. In 1986, he joined Fields in his L.A. Jazz Quintet comprising bassist Brian Bromberg, drummer Harvey Mason, guitarist Phil Upchurch, and pianist Bobby Lyle, to record an eponymous album via ProJazz Records.

In the following years, Walt appeared on four of Fields' recordings on Nova Records—The Traveler (1988), The Other Side Of The Story (1988), Other Places (1990), and Everybody's Business (1991). In 1995, Walt played trumpet, flugelhorn, and keyboards on Brandon Fields' eponymous album accompanied by Dave Carpenter (acoustic bass); Jimmy Johnson and Melvin Davis (bass); Gregg Bissonette and Vinnie Colaiuta (drums); Mike Miller and Steve Cardenas (guitar); Billy Childs (keyboards); Lenny Castro and Luis Conte (percussion); Gina Kronstadt (strings, concertmaster, vocals); Lee Thornburg (trumpet, trombone). The album was produced by Ken Navarro and released via Navarro's Positive Music Records.

From 1985 to 1987, Walt accompanied George Benson.

In 1988, after 14 years, Walt worked again with Frank Zappa, touring internationally with the band from February 9 to June 9. The vocal-oriented material was highly critical of the current political and social trends, with Zappa lambasting many past and present influential figures such as Michael Jackson, Richard Nixon, Elvis Presley, Ronald Reagan, Pat Robertson, Jesse Jackson, and C. Everett Koop, among others. The album contains a few covers, including The Police/Sting's "Murder by Numbers", Nelson Riddle's "The Untouchables", and Oliver Nelson's "Stolen Moments". In the tour, Walt played trumpet, flugelhorn, and synthesizer, sharing stages with his trombonist brother Bruce Fowler, Ike Willis (guitar, vocal), Mike Keneally (guitar, synth, vocal), Robert Martin (keyboards, vocal), Ed Mann (percussion), Paul Carman (alto saxophone), Albert Wing (tenor saxophone), Kurt McGettrick (baritone saxophone), Scott Thunes (bass), and Chad Wackerman (drums). The recording titled Broadway the Hardway was initially released as a 9-track vinyl album through Zappa's label Barking Pumpkin Records in October 1988, with Warner Music Group's Rykodisc label releasing a CD with 8 additional tracks in 1989. Three more albums emerged from this live tour—Make a Jazz Noise Here (1991), The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life (1991), and Zappa '88: The Last U.S. Show (released posthumously in 2021).

In the following years, Walt worked and toured with Diana Ross (1989—1992). In 1991, he played trumpet on two tracks ("Where It's At" and "Miles To Go Before I Sleep") of Billy Childs' jazz album His April Touch (Windham Hill Records) accompanied by bassist Tony Dumas, drummer Michael Baker, and saxophonist Bob Sheppard.

In 2001, Walt joined James Taylor on his Pull Over tour and has performed with Taylor's band since.

Walt has toured Europe several times with Frank Zappa, Billy Childs and The Grandmothers made up of Don Preston, Jimmy Carl Black, Bunk Gardner, Ray Collins and Chris Garcia.

Over the years, he has also performed, toured, or recorded with Buddy Rich, The Doors, Ray Charles, Roberta Flack, Stanley Clarke, Luis Conte, Allan Holdsworth, Steve Gadd, The Manhattan Transfer, Toto, Fishbone, Andy Summers, Edgar Winter, Paula Abdul, and Banned From Utopia.

Film score

In the 1980s, Walt began working as a studio musician for Hollywood productions and has since contributed to film scores for several movies, beginning with Juliet Bashore's Kamikaze Hearts (1986).

Selected movies

Sources

• Tom Lord: The Jazz Discography
• Leonard Feather, Ira Gitler: The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz. Oxford University Press, New York 1999, ISBN 0-19-532000-X.