Brandon Walker - Hollywood Jazz Collective (2019)

The digital re-release of the debut solo album by saxophonist Brandon Walker, featuring all original straight-ahead and innovative jazz compositions inspired by the Hollywood creative scene.

In the late 1990s, Brandon Walker spent a prolific period composing original jazz tunes and performing with many local Hollywood Jazz musicians, known as the Hollywood Jazz Collective. Brandon could see the Hollywood sign from his Beachwood Canyon apartment, and this was great inspiration for the writing of this album.

The eclectic influences of straight-ahead jazz, hard-bop, blues and latin-jazz from the likes of John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Dextor Gordon, Stanley Turrentine, Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, Sonny Rollins, Horace Silver, Charles Mingus and Poncho Sanchez are found on this collective.

The album was originally released in 2000 on Brandon's own V7 Records. Unfortunately, due to Brandon's abrupt move to Toronto, Ontario in 2000, the album did not receive the attention it deserved. It did, however, receive airplay on Jazz FM 91.1 in Toronto and other markets. It is being re-released in 2019 to commemorate the time-honored sound and songs that helped launch Brandon as a jazz saxophonist and composer.

Musicians:
Tenor & Soprano Saxophones: Brandon Walker
Vibraphone: Eldad Tarmu
Trumpet: Clay Jenkins (The Tease)
Trumpet: Mike Bolger (B's Peas, Autumn Becomes You, Yikes Sykes)
Trombone: Ira Nepus (B's Peas)
Organ: Mike Bolger (The Brando Walk)
Piano: Cengiz Yaltkaya
Acoustic Bass: Larry Muradian
Drums & Percussion: Steve Sykes