Tom "T-Bone" Wolk (December 24, 1951 – February 28, 2010) was an American musician and

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), keyboard bass (synth bass) or a low br ...

for the music duo

Daryl Hall & John Oates Daryl Hall & John Oates, commonly known as Hall & Oates, were an American rock duo formed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1970. Daryl Hall was generally the lead vocalist, while John Oates primarily supplied electric guitar and backing vocals ...

and a member of the ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL'') is an American Late night television in the United States, late-night live television, live sketch comedy variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Michaels and Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC. The ...

'' house band.

Early life

Wolk was born and raised in

Yonkers, New York Yonkers () is the List of municipalities in New York, third-most populous city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and the most-populous City (New York), city in Westchester County, New York, Westchester County. A centrally locate ...

. He was a state accordion champion by age 12. Seeing

the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

on ''

The Ed Sullivan Show ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' is an American television variety show that ran on CBS from June 20, 1948, to March 28, 1971, and was hosted by New York City, New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in September 1971 by the ''CB ...

'' led him to bass and guitar—the former influenced by James Jamerson and Paul McCartney. He attended Roosevelt High School. Although he studied art at

Cooper Union The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, commonly known as Cooper Union, is a private college on Cooper Square in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-s ...

, most of his youth was spent playing in bar bands, where he first met guitarist G. E. Smith (who gave him the nickname T-Bone—for blues guitarist

T-Bone Walker Aaron Thibeaux "T-Bone" Walker (May 28, 1910 – March 16, 1975) was an American blues musician, composer, songwriter and bandleader, who was a pioneer and innovator of the jump blues, West Coast blues, and electric blues sounds. In 2018 ''R ...

—after Wolk played his bass behind his head during a solo).

Career

By the time he auditioned for and joined Hall & Oates in 1981, Wolk had cracked the studio and jingle scene on the recommendation of

Will Lee William Lee (born William Lubovsky; August 6, 1908 – December 7, 1982) was an American actor who appeared in numerous television and film roles, but was best known for playing Mr. Hooper, the original store proprietor of the eponymous Hoope ...

, and had played on rap’s first gold record,

Kurtis Blow Kurtis Walker (born August 9, 1959), known professionally by his stage name Kurtis Blow, is an American rapping , rapper, songwriter, and record producer. Walker is the first commercially successful rapper and the first to sign with a major rec ...

’s "The Breaks." He played on Hall & Oates hits including "Maneater," "Out of Touch," "One on One," and "Family Man." He also anchored the ''Saturday Night Live'' house band from 1986–1992 with his Hall & Oates bandmate Smith. Wolk was a multi-instrumentalist and worked with

Daryl Hall Daryl Franklin Hohl (born October 11, 1946), known professionally as Daryl Hall, is an American rock, R&B, and soul singer. He is best known as the co-founder and principal lead vocalist of Hall & Oates, with guitarist and songwriter John Oa ...

Carly Simon Carly Elisabeth Simon (born June 25, 1943) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and author. She rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records; her 13 Billboard Hot 100, top 40 U.S. hits include "Anticipation (song), Anticipatio ...

Jellyfish Jellyfish, also known as sea jellies or simply jellies, are the #Life cycle, medusa-phase of certain gelatinous members of the subphylum Medusozoa, which is a major part of the phylum Cnidaria. Jellyfish are mainly free-swimming marine animal ...

, Squeeze,

Elvis Costello Declan Patrick MacManus (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, author and television host. According to ''Rolling Stone'', Costello "reinvigorated the literate, lyrical ...

Shawn Colvin Shawn Colvin (born Shawna Lee Colvin, January 10, 1956) is an American singer-songwriter. She is best known for her 1997 Grammy Award-winning song "Sunny Came Home". Early life Colvin was born Shawna Lee Colvin in Vermillion, South Dakota, and ...

and

Billy Joel William Martin Joel (born May 9, 1949) is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Piano Man" after his Signature song, signature 1973 song Piano Man (song), of the same name, Joel has ha ...

over the course of his career. Downtime from Hall & Oates led to tours with Carly Simon and Billy Joel, and many studio sessions, highlighted by four albums with Costello and one with Costello and Burt Bacharach. In 1991, Wolk co-produced

Willie Nile Willie Nile (born Robert Anthony Noonan; June 7, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter. In 1980, Nile released his self-titled debut album. His early career was interrupted by various problems, but he eventually returned to recording and perf ...

's ''

Places I Have Never Been ''Places I Have Never Been'' is an album by the American musician Willie Nile, released in 1991. It was Nile's first album in 10 years, as legal and personal issues prevented him from putting out music. Nile supported the album with a North Americ ...

'' on

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

. Wolk also worked with

Ryan Leslie Anthony Ryan Leslie (born September 25, 1978) is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, record producer, and entrepreneur. Working predominantly in contemporary R&B and hip hop, he has released six studio albums and written songs for artists ...

on his self-titled debut album. Wolk recorded on bluesman Guy Davis' albums, ''Butt Naked Free'' and ''Chocolate to the Bone'', and appeared with Guy on ''

Late Night with Conan O'Brien ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' is an American television talk show broadcast by NBC. The show is the second installment of the ''Late Night (franchise), Late Night'' franchise originally established by David Letterman. Hosted by Conan O'Brie ...

'' performing, "Waitin' On the Cards to Fall". Wolk had a column in the publication ''

Guitar for the Practicing Musician ''Guitar for the Practicing Musician'' was a guitar magazine published in the United States by Cherry Lane Music from 1982 to 1999. The magazine was published monthly. In 1992, it was the most popular music publication at newsstands, selling 74 ...

'' during the 1980s. He also appeared on the latest albums from Simon (his fifth with her) and ex-

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Am ...

outfielder and guitarist

Bernie Williams Bernabé Williams Figueroa Jr. (born September 13, 1968) is a Puerto Rican former professional baseball player and current musician. He played his entire 16-year career in Major League Baseball (MLB) with the New York Yankees from 1991 through ...

Death

Wolk was a longtime resident of

Brattleboro, Vermont Brattleboro (), originally Brattleborough, is a New England town, town in Windham County, Vermont, United States, located about north of the Massachusetts state line at the confluence of Vermont's West River (Vermont), West River and the Connec ...

. He died of a heart attack in New York City on February 28, 2010, at age 58.

References

External links

Official websiteDiscography
at

Discogs Discogs ( ; short for " discographies") is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. Database contents are user-generated, and described in ''T ...

Discography
at

MusicBrainz MusicBrainz is a MetaBrainz project that aims to create a collaborative music database that is similar to the freedb project. MusicBrainz was founded in response to the restrictions placed on the CDDB, Compact Disc Database (CDDB), a database for ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolk, Tom 1951 births 2010 deaths American accordionists Musicians from Yonkers, New York Place of birth missing Hall & Oates members 20th-century American bass guitarists Saturday Night Live Band members Billy Joel Band members Daryl Hall and the Daryl's House Band members