Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Scott Wendholt was born on July 21, 1965 in Denver, Colorado. He first picked up the trumpet in the third grade and began improvising in the fifth. Linda Walker and Ed Barnes, were two teachers he was inspired by, the latter ran a citywide elementary school group that played some Blues and a reasonable facsimile of jazz and provided at least some tools for jazz improvisation.

His major influences at the time were Al Hirt, Chuck Mangione, and Spyro Gyra until the ninth grade, when Greg Gisbert, a classmate and trumpeter, hipped him to Art Blakey’s “Straight Ahead,” featuring Wynton Marsalis and he started taking trumpet lessons in high school. Scott went on to study At Indiana University in David Baker’s Jazz Studies Program earning his bachelor degree.

A move to Cincinnati was fortuitous for the young trumpeter getting on the scene, landing him at the King’s Island amusement park with a Rock-and-Roll band. From there he went to work with the Blue Wisp Big Band, and working sideman gigs. It was a good training ground to be a leader, for learning appropriate tunes for small group gigs and learning how to hang out.

In 1991 Scott put together a quartet to play at Augie’s, a Harlem bar near Columbia University and the group lasted three and a half years. Then 1992, saw Vincent Herring hiring him for his first real legitimate sideman gig. Then a year later in 1993 Scott recorded his debut album The Scheme of Things on the Criss Cross Jazz label. He would go on to work inside the big band culture in New York City with the likes of Toshiko Akiyoshi, Bob Mintzer, the Maria Schneider Orchestra, the Carnegie Hall Big Band and the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra.

Wendholt has worked with Gisbert, Javon Jackson, John Gunther, Ralph Bowen, Chris Botti, Don Braden, Rim Ries, Roberta Piket, Bobby McFerrin, Dwayne Burno, Mike Abbott, Al DiMeola, Lounge Lizards, Sophie B. Hawkins, Peter Abbott, Brad Leali, John Fedchock, Woody Herman, Ira Coleman, Billy Drummond, Eric Alexander, Anthony Wonsey, Bob Mintzer, Bill Cunliffe, Phil DeGreg, Vincent Herring, Jim McNeely, Mingus Big Band, Buddy Rich and the list goes on and on.

Not one to reside in a single musical genre, the Mile High City trumpeter and flugelhorn player Scott Wendholt continues to perform, record and compose.

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