Donald "Don" Wise (*1942 in Westerly, Rhode Island, USA), ist ein amerikanische Saxophonist. Einen höheren Bekanntheitsgrad erlangte er als Sideman und Produzent des Singer-Songwriters Delbert McClinton aus Lubbock, Texas, in dessen Band er seit 1985 zweiundzwanzig Jahre seiner über 50jährigen Musikerkarriere Mitglied war. Er entwickelte sich zu einem profilierten R&B und Soul-Saxophonisten und spielte mit Stars wie Jeffrey Osborne, Ruben Ramos, Chuck Jackson, Maxine Brown, Taj Mahal, Willie Nelson, Marcia Ball, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Tower of Power, Huey Lewis, Hal Ketchum, Teresa James und Joe Ely. Ein Meilenstein war die Einladung von Ray Charles zu einem gemeinsamen Auftritt in der ESPYS in Los Angeles, Kalifornien, 1997.
Wise ist verheiratet und lebt mit seiner Familie in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA.
Don Wise, the unassuming mainstay in the Delbert McClinton Band, has completed his fourth CD, and the aptly named Swingin’ Up a Storm has already been lauded by critics and reviewers as “packed with urbane blues, good-time R & B, and sweet soul music.”
For the past 20 years, the Don Wise soulful sax solos and on-the-money backup have rounded out the roadhouse rock of Delbert McClinton, the Texas music legend.
Live from Austin, which garnered McClinton his first-ever Grammy nomination, was co-produced by Wise, and four Don Wise solos from that project were included in the recording that accompanied John Laughter’s book, Contemporary Saxophone. Others in the industry also asked him to make his special musical contributions to their recordings over the years.
The long drives from his home in Knoxville, Tennessee, to meet the McClinton band tour bus in Nashville sparked a desire for music he could listen to, not the stuff he was hearing on mainstream radio, and after 40 years in the “bidness,” he had a headful of ideas. Wise began committing those ideas to discs in 1997, and his music with a true-blue groove has been coming nonstop ever since.
To get the results he wanted Don returned to West Texas, where he had spent some 10 years performing in various bands in the 1970s and 1980s. There, drawing on his love for all kinds of music and his extensive background in R & B, he enlisted the musical and technical expertise of his friend and co-producer, Wally Moyers of Studio 84 in Lubbock. The proof is in the well arranged pudding.
His four projects, In Wise Hands, On the Verge of Survival, Genuine Snake, and Swingin’ Up a Storm are the culmination of his aim to showcase not only his own abilities, but the talents of other artists, as well. Each cut is one-of-a-kind, most are brand new, and some are brand-new takes on obscure or just plain old favorites.
Give any one of them a listen, and you’ll like every song. You’ll also get a dose of the Don Wise wit and way with a sax, proving his worth as the winner of the Cammy award for Instrumentalist in 2002. It may be too good for most radio, but in the Wise library there’s truly something for everybody – everybody with a taste for the best, that is.
Leben
Auszeichnungen
- Saxophone Player of the Year - in 1980 gewählt von der Oklahoma Country Music Association
- Gewinner des Cammy Award Instrumentalist 2002
Diskographie
Solo-CDs
- In wise hands (1997)
- In the verge of survival (2000)
- Genuine snake (2002)
- Swingin' up a storm (2005)
Sideman (Auszug)
- Delbert McClinton: Live from Austin (1989)
- Delbert McClinton: Cost of living(2005)
- Bugs Henderson: Years in the jungle (1993)
- Bugs Henderson: American Music (1988)
Quellen und Weblinks
- Offizielle Webseite von Don Wise
- Don Wise mit Ray Charles LIVE at the ESPYS 1997
- Posted in Interviews by darielb on March 17, 2009
- Don Wise & Marcia Ball auf Youtube
- Interview auf Barikada
- Delbert McClinton: Standing on shaky Ground auf Youtube]
- John Laughter: Contemporary Saxophone. Verlag: Music Sales, Mai 1999. ISBN-13: 978-0931759581