Warren Wolf & Wolfpack at Smoke Jazz Club

Warren Wolf is a young and very talented multi-instrumentalist hailing from Baltimore, Maryland. Wolf started playing at an early age and attended Berkley College of Music, where he quickly became a part of the vibrant jazz scene. Wolf recorded 5 albums as a leader and his latest album Wolfgang, produced by  Mack Avenue Records, was released to critical acclaim in 2013. 

For his debut at Smoke Jazz Club, an upscale jazz club on the Upper West Side, Warren brought his group Wolfpack to join him on the bandstand. The band includes Ben Williams on bass, Kendrick Scott on drums, Alex Brown on piano and Warren Wolf on vibes. The level of musicianship was high and the show was practically sold out for the three nights that these guys played. Not surprising though. Warren is a charismatic and generous leader, his soloing takes one to a different world and there is a certain lightness and magic to the way the vibes sound. Yet, when he goes in hard, attacking the vibes with concentration and lighting speed, colorful mallets flying across the instrument.

The band played a range of standards as well as some original material and their interpretation of “I Fall In Love Too Easily” was stunning. Each song was swinging hard though and the it was hard not be completely mesmerized by the bass player, whose authoritative playing and soloing was adding a little extra kick to the whole night. Similarly, Kendrick Scott on drums was killing, playing hard and soft and everything in between to make sure that the band was on time every single second. Great band and great sound!

I chatted with Warren about his musical journey, which started at the tender age of 3, the purpose of music, inspiration and a lot more. Do check out the full interview and when you get a chance go see this incredible musician play live.

Flowers In A Gun: You started playing music when you were three years old. What was it like to grow up with music playing such a major role from an early age?

Warren Wolf: My father, Warren Wolf Sr., he was a public schools teacher (he is retired now), taught history – US history and World history, but on the side he liked to play music.  So he had a group that would play at nightclubs in Baltimore. And that’s where I came in, I was born in 1979 and my dad started giving me formal lessons at the age of three on the vibes, the marimba and the drums.

FIG: So you started learning music before you could read and write?

WW: I don’t really remember that part, but probably. I wasn’t in school yet. I started school when I was 4 … and I was really short, my dad had to build a box for me to stand on in order to reach the marimba and the vibes. And I didn’t have an actual seat for the drums, so I had to stand up and play. My practice schedule was pretty much something he was doing to keep me off the streets in Baltimore, we lived in a crazy neighborhood. He didn’t want me to be out there with the other kids even though I was still a normal kid – I would go outside and play, but there were certain guidelines. So … normal childhood for me: woke up in the morning, ate cereal, went to school from 8 to 3, came home, watched cartoons and 5:30 is where the music starts, the practicing. From 5:30 until 7 I would practice and do half an hour on the drums, half an hour on the vibes/marimba and half an hour on the piano. And that was the case from when I was 5 until I turned 17. And also Saturday mornings I was taking lessons from the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. So all of that and sometimes hanging out with my dad at the jazz clubs late at night. It was cool. But to be a kid locked up in the basement practicing was very demanding. I didn’t like it. I did and I got good at it, but I really hated it.

FIG: Do you remember when you changed your mind and started loving it?

WW: I started getting into music when I realized that that’s what I was going to do with my life. I was in 6^th or 7^th grade and we had a jazz band but we didn’t necessarily play jazz, we played pop arrangements like “Pretty Woman” … we had a jazz set up for a big band – trumpets, trombones, saxophones but we didn’t play any swing. We played for our classmates and they would be like “you guys sound great” and they would start dancing. And I thought that it was pretty cool and that if I could get the same reaction from other people, that’s what I should do.

FIG: Did you ever have second thoughts about becoming a professional musician? Or that was pretty much it?

WW: That’s really been the only thing. Of course I had second thoughts … When I was a kid I wanted to be a fireman or an astronaut – I thought it would be really cool to be in space, flying around and analyzing things.

FIG: You are really a multi-instrumentalist, but do you consider one instrument to be your primary one?

WW: Well, I think that the general public has made the vibraphone my primary instrument, which is fine. It kind of gave me a lift over other people because as you know I play drums and piano, I don’t play them just as a side thing, I play them pretty much equally to the vibes. Personally, I consider myself a vibist and a drummer. But playing the vibes is a different thing, there aren’t too many of us out there. It’s just not an every day instrument and when people see the instrument they are kind of “wow, what is this?” … if I play the drums, there are thousands other drummers out there. But if I play the vibes, I have to compete with maybe ten other people.

FIG: Let’s talk about musical influences and since you play vibes, drums and piano, one main influence for each?

WW: My main influence on the vibraphone is Milt Jackson, on the drums – Tony Williams, on the piano it’s a mix between Red Garland, Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea. A more interesting thing is that I have more influences than just the guys that play those instruments. The way I was brought up and the way I like to practice is to take ideas from many musicians and put them all together and that’s when I become my sound. So as a vibraphonist I don’t necessarily just listen to the vibe players. My main overall influnces in music is Charlie Parker. I always liked taking ideas from horn players and then putting them on the vibraphone because most vibraphonist would not normally think of taking something that a saxophonist would play and put it on the vibes.

FIG: You studied classical music as well. Where does it fit in your own music now?

WW: Classical music is very beautiful, it has nice melody, it all flows, and it makes sense. Classical music, at the least the one that I like, is very melodic. So I try to bring some of that beauty into jazz. And it’s not just classical music, I love everything. I was born in the 70s but I am more of the 90s kid and I like to listen to a lot of R&B, Hip-Hop, country and rock music. So I really try to bring all elements of music into jazz.

FIG: What’s on your current playlist?

WW: My favourite band is Mint Condition from Minneapolis … Robert Glasper, I love what he is doing … as far as jazz, there is a drummer from Michigan, Quincy Davis, I love how he plays and composes.

FIG: You work as a leader and as a sideman. What’s the biggest difference between the two for you?

WW: In general, being a sideman you don’t have to worry about everything. When you the leader and you in the front, you are responsible for everything – paying everybody, announcing everybody, taking care of the hotels, all of the finances. But musically speaking being a sideman, as a drummer for example, your primary responsibility is keeping time – it’s not about chops and how much you can solo. On the vibes, how I approach it, and I am speaking for myself, as a leader and as a sideman my mentality is to be in the front. It’s also the biggest instrument so I have to be in the front, but my mentality is to take over, to play over everybody for the main part.

FIG: Have you ever had stage freight?

WW: I still do sometimes. It’s weird, I can in the front of the audience with more than ten thousand people and it doesn’t bother me. One of the reasons is when you have an audience like that, you can’t see everybody – you might see the first couple of faces but beyond that you just see hair. And other times I am playing in front of 50 people and I keep my head down the entire time – everybody is so close to you, it’s not really stage freight but more feeling a little nervous.

FIG: What are you working on currently?

WW: I am on the Mack Avenue label, the last CD just came out last year. I am going to take a little break from recording, but the new record will be in the works sometime next year. It’s either gonna be a tribute to all the great vibrophonists or it’s gonna be another record of mine but not the straight ahead jazz thing, it might be more fusion jazz thing or soul jazz because there is more to jazz than just “swinging” …

FIG: What inspires you to write music?

WW: The biggest thing is my wife. She is a ballet dancer and aspire to write something that I can picture her dancing to. I attended a lot of ballet perfomces since I’ve been with her, we go the Kennedy Performing Arts Center in DC. Thinking about how they move, it makes me approach writing differently, not just create jazz changes for random musicians. But as far as inspiration, it can really be a number of things – a beautiful day, a piece of art work, really anything.

FIG: What do you want people to get out of your music?

WW: Sometimes I think to myself “Warren, you are not a jazz musican. You are a healer.” … You know how people have a lot of records and they have all these stories about them. I don’t. Well, sometimes I do about a particular song maybe. But the general idea when I put out a record is for the person that is listening to have a good time and enjoy it. Our job as musicians, and I am speaking for myself, is to take away people’s problems. When they hear us play, when they hear me play, I want it to take them to a different place where they can say “I feel much better.”

Check out this video of Warren Wolf Quintet at Dizzy’s Coca-Cola Club!

Anna Yatskevich is Flowers In A Gun’s glamorous jazz & beyond critic! Catch more reviews from her here and follow her on Twitter @jazzaddikt.