Wayne Escoffery

Since moving to New York City in 2000, Grammy Award winning tenor saxophonist Wayne Escoffery

has become one of the Jazz world’s most talented rising stars and in-demand sidemen. He has

recorded six studio dates as a leader, two as a co-leader and been on numerous other recordings. He began his professional

career touring and recording with The Eric Reed Septet. Since then he has been a member of

many groups including The Mingus Big Band, Orchestra and Dynasty, Ron Carter’s Great

Bigband, Abdulah Ibrahim’s Akaya and Jazz At Lincoln Center’s “Music of the

Masters” consisting of two groups of musicians hand picked by Wynton Marsalis to perform the

music of Jazz legends Dexter Gordon and Miles Davis. In 2006 Wayne secured one of the most

coveted gigs in jazz: a frontline position in Tom Harrell’s working quintet. He is currently a

member of the quintet and to date has recorded four CDs with the group and co-produced Harrell’s

last four releases Prana Dance, Roman Nights, The Time of the Sun and No. 5 . In addition to being a

part of some of the last true “apprenticeship” opportunities of our era, Wayne leads his own quintet

featuring five year Miles Davis veteran Adam Holzman, as well as a collaborative group with Steely

Dan vocalist Carolyn Leonhart. The vast array of contributions Wayne has made to the Jazz world in

such a short time leads seasoned industry professionals like Niel Tesser to write “Pay special

attention to tenor man Wayne Escoffery, whose rapid development – from album to album (and

seemingly solo to solo) – has given us a jazz hero for the coming decade.”