Wayne Escoffery (born 23 February 1975) is an American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

tenor saxophonist The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while ...

Performing history

Since 2000, he has been working in New York City with Carl Allen, Eric Reed, and the

Mingus Big Band Mingus Big Band is a 14-piece ensemble, based in New York City, that specializes in the compositions of Charles Mingus. It was managed by his widow, Sue Mingus, along with Mingus Orchestra and Mingus Dynasty. In addition to its weekly Wednesday ni ...

. Other musicians performed with include Ralph Peterson Jr.,

Ben Riley Benjamin Alexander Riley Jr. (July 17, 1933 – November 18, 2017) was an American jazz drummer known for his work with Thelonious Monk, as well as Alice Coltrane, Stan Getz, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Ahmad Jamal, and as a member of the group Sp ...

Ron Carter Ronald Levin Carter (born May 4, 1937) is an American jazz double bassist. His appearances on 2,221 recording sessions make him the most-recorded jazz bassist in history. He has won three Grammy Awards, and is also a Cello, cellist who has reco ...

Rufus Reid Rufus Reid (born February 10, 1944, in Atlanta, Georgia) is an American jazz bassist, educator, and composer. Biography Reid was raised in Sacramento, California, where he played the trumpet through junior high and high school. Upon graduation ...

Bill Charlap William Morrison Charlap (born October 15, 1966, pronounced "Shar-Lap") is an American jazz pianist and educator. Early life and education Born in New York City, Bill Charlap is the son of American Broadway composer Moose Charlap and the singe ...

, Bruce Barth,

Jimmy Cobb Wilbur James "Jimmy" Cobb (January 20, 1929May 24, 2020) was an American jazz drummer. He was part of Miles Davis's First Great Sextet. He was awarded an NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship in 2009. Early life Cobb was born in Washington, D.C., on J ...

, and Eddie Henderson. He has worked with vocalists including Mary Stallings, Cynthia Scott, Nancie Banks, LaVerne Butler, and

Carolyn Leonhart Carolyn Leonhart (born July 10, 1971) is a jazz singer, daughter of jazz bassist Jay Leonhart, and sister of the trumpeter Michael Leonhart. She has performed as a back-up vocalist for Steely Dan on several tours and recordings. Childhood and e ...

. In addition to performing with his own Quartet featuring David Kikoski, Ugonna Okegwo, and Ralph Peterson, Escoffery currently performs and tours with Ben Riley's

Monk A monk (; from , ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a man who is a member of a religious order and lives in a monastery. A monk usually lives his life in prayer and contemplation. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many reli ...

Legacy Septet, the Mingus Band, Ron Carter's big band,

Monty Alexander Montgomery Bernard "Monty" Alexander OJ CD (born 6 June 1944) is a Jamaican American jazz pianist. His playing has a Caribbean influence and bright swinging feeling, with a strong vocabulary of bebop jazz and blues rooted melodies. He was in ...

, Amina Figarova, and others. He has been a member of the

Tom Harrell Tom Harrell (born June 16, 1946) is an American jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist, composer, and arranger. Voted Trumpeter of the Year of 2018 by ''Jazz Journalists Association'', Harrell has won awards and grants throughout his career, including mul ...

Quintet since 2006. He has also co-produced four of Harrell's latest recordings.

Biography

Born in London, Wayne and his mother Patricia Escoffery emigrated to the United States and settled in

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is List ...

, in 1986. He attended ACES Educational Center for the Arts high school. At age eleven, Escoffery joined the New Haven Trinity Boys Choir and began taking saxophone lessons from Malcolm Dickinson. At sixteen, he left the choir and began a more intensive study of the saxophone, attending the Jazzmobile in New York City, the Neighborhood Music School in New Haven, and the ACES Educational Center for the Arts in New Haven. During his senior year in high School, he attended the Artists Collective, Inc. in

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...

. He met

Jackie McLean John Lenwood McLean (May 17, 1931 – March 31, 2006) was an American jazz alto saxophonist, composer, bandleader, and educator. He is one of the few musicians to be elected to the ''DownBeat'' Hall of Fame in the year of their death. Bio ...

, a well-known alto saxophonist active in Hartford's jazz scene, and the founder of the jazz program at The Hartt School. Escoffery was awarded a full scholarship to attend The Hartt School, where he studied with McLean for four years, and earned a bachelor's degree in Jazz Performance ''summa cum laude'' in 1997. He then attended the

Thelonious Monk Thelonious Sphere Monk ( October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was an American Jazz piano, jazz pianist and composer. He had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the Jazz standard, standard jazz repertoire, includ ...

Institute of Jazz Performance at the

New England Conservatory The New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) is a Private college, private music school in Boston, Massachusetts. The conservatory is located on Huntington Avenue along Avenue of the Arts (Boston), the Avenue of the Arts near Boston Symphony Ha ...

in Boston from 1997 to 1999. During this time, he toured with

Herbie Hancock Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American jazz musician, bandleader, and composer. He started his career with trumpeter Donald Byrd's group. Hancock soon joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he helped to redefine the role of ...

and performed and studied with several jazz greats. In 1999, he graduated with a master's degree and moved to New York to begin his professional career. Escoffery married singer

in 2004. As of 2020, they are no longer married. Together they have one child, and have collaborated on many performances, and appear together on several albums. In 2014, Escoffery won the 62nd Annual ''

DownBeat ''DownBeat'' (styled in all caps) is an American music magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond", the last word indicating its expansion beyond the jazz realm that it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1 ...

'' Critics Poll for rising star on the

tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (whi ...

and in 2010 won a

Grammy The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious a ...

with the Mingus Big Band. In 2016, he was appointed Lecturer in Jazz Improvisation and Combo Instructor at the

Yale School of Music The Yale School of Music (often abbreviated to YSM) is one of the 12 professional schools at Yale University. It offers three graduate degrees: Master of Music (MM), Master of Musical Arts (MMA), and Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA), as well as a joi ...

Discography

As leader

* ''Times Change'' ( Nagel Heyer, 2001) * ''Intuition'' (Nagel Heyer, 2004) * ''Veneration'' (

Savant Savant syndrome ( , ) is a phenomenon where someone demonstrates exceptional aptitude in one domain, such as art or mathematics, despite significant social or intellectual impairment. Those with the condition generally have a neurodevel ...

, 2007) * ''Hopes and Dreams'' (Savant, 2008) * ''Uptown'' ( Posi-Tone, 2009) * ''The Only Son of One'' ( Sunnyside, 2012) * ''Live at Firehouse 12'' (Sunnyside, 2014) * ''Live at Smalls'' ( SmallsLIVE, 2015) * ''Vortex'' (Sunnyside, 2018) * ''The Humble Warrior'' ( Smoke Sessions, 2020) * ''Like Minds'' (Smoke Sessions, 2023)

As sideman

With

* ''Light On'' ( HighNote, 2007) * ''Prana Dance'' (HighNote, 2009) * ''Roman Nights'' (HighNote, 2010) * ''The Time of the Sun'' (HighNote, 2011) * ''Number Five'' (HighNote, 2012) * ''Colors of a Dream'' (HighNote, 2013) * ''First Impressions'' (HighNote, 2015) With Black Art Jazz Collective * ''Presented By The Side Door Jazz Club'' (Sunnyside, 2016) * ''Armor of Pride'' (HighNote, 2018) * ''Ascension'' (HighNote, 2020) * ''Truth To Power'' (HighNote, 2024) With others *

, ''Wareika Hill: Rasta-Monk Vibrations'' (MACD, 2019) * Nancie Banks, ''Out of It'' (GFI, 2001) * Noah Baerman, ''Playdate'' (Posi-Tone, 2009) * Pat Bianchi, ''Back Home'' (Doodlin, 2010) * Pat Bianchi, ''Something To Say: The Music of Steve Wonder'' (Savant, 2021) *

Steve Davis Steve Davis (born 22 August 1957) is an English retired professional snooker player who is currently a Sports commentator, commentator, DJ, electronic musician and author. He dominated professional snooker in the 1980s, when he reached eight ...

, ''Correlations'' (Smoke Sessions, 2019) * Amina Figarova, ''Blue Whisper'' (In+Out, 2015) * Amina Figarova, ''Road to the Sun'' (AmFi, 2018) * John Hasselback III, ''Entrance'' (Hasselcastle, 2021) *

Frank Lacy Frank Lacy (born August 9, 1958, Houston, Texas) is an American jazz trombonist who has spent many years as a member of the Mingus Big Band. Career Lacy's father was a teacher who played guitar with Arnett Cobb, Illinois Jacquet, and Eddie Clea ...

, ''Mingus Sings'' (Sunnyside, 2015) *

, ''New 8th Day'' (Sunnyside, 2004) * Carolyn Leonhart, ''If Dreams Come True'' (Nagel Heyer, 2007) * Carolyn Leonhart, ''Tides of Yesterday'' (Savant, 2010) * Joe Locke, ''Force of Four'' (

Origin Origin(s) or The Origin may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Comics and manga * ''Origin'' (comics), a Wolverine comic book mini-series published by Marvel Comics in 2002 * ''The Origin'' (Buffy comic), a 1999 ''Buffy the Vampire Sl ...

, 2008) *

, ''Tonight at Noon...Three or Four Shades of Love'' ( Dreyfus, 2002) * Mingus Big Band, ''I Am Three'' (Sue Mingus Music, 2005) * Mingus Big Band, ''Live at Jazz Standard'' ( Sue Mingus Music, 2010) *

Lonnie Plaxico Lonnie Plaxico (born September 4, 1960) is an American jazz double bassist. Biography Plaxico was born in Chicago, into a musical family, and started playing the bass at the age of twelve, turning professional at fourteen (playing both double ba ...

, ''Rhythm & Soul'' (Sirocco Music, 2003) * Eric Reed, ''Happiness'' (Nagel Heyer, 2001) *

, '' Memories of T'' (

Concord Jazz Concord Jazz is a record company and label founded in 1973 by Carl Jefferson, the former owner of Jefferson Motors Lincoln Mercury dealership in Concord, California. The label was named after the city in the East San Francisco Bay area, and the ...

, 2006) * Ben Riley, '' Grown Folks Music'' (Sunnyside, 2012) * Avi Rothbard, ''Twin Song'' (MidLantic, 2005) * Avi Rothbard, ''Standard Solo And Duet Sketches'' (Rothbard Music/RM Records, 2016) *

Randy Sandke Jay Randall Sandke (born May 5, 1949 in Chicago, Illinois) is a jazz trumpeter and guitarist. While a student at Indiana University in 1968, he and Michael Brecker started a jazz-rock band (Mrs. Seamon's Sound Band) that performed at the Notre D ...

, ''Jazz for Juniors'' ( Arbors, 2009) * Joris Teepe, ''In the Spirit of Rashied Ali'' (Jazz Tribes, 2018) * Akiko Tsuruga, ''NYC Serenade'' (Mojo p 2008)

References

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Escoffery, Wayne 1975 births Living people English emigrants to the United States American male saxophonists American jazz tenor saxophonists University of Hartford Hartt School alumni 21st-century American saxophonists 21st-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians Mingus Big Band members Posi-Tone Records artists Sunnyside Records artists Nagel-Heyer Records artists