Kirk Whalum embraces spiritual roots with new album

Kirk Whalum

There is a thread in Kirk Whalum’s life and career. It’s a line that began as a youth playing in his father’s church choir, and that he followed to the biggest stages in the world.

“The first song I ever played as a kid was ‘Amazing Grace,’ ” says Whalum. “Many years later, I found myself playing that song alongside Whitney Houston in South Africa for over 7 million people live on HBO. That song, that experience and that influence was the genesis of my career.”

Kirk Whalum

Kirk Whalum's newest album.

For Memphis native Whalum, a respected saxophonist and multiple Grammy nominee, that spiritual/musical foundation has guided his most personal recording project. Last week Whalum released The Gospel According to Jazz, Chapter III live CD and DVD. He’ll mark the occasion with an appearance and screening today at the Stax Museum of American Soul Music’s Studio A.

The Gospel According to Jazz series was born when Whalum was dropped by his longtime record label in 1997. “I was kicked to the curb by Columbia Records after 12 years. Almost immediately my wife said, ‘Let’s think of it like this: What can you do today that you couldn’t do yesterday as a Columbia recording artist?’ ”

For Whalum, the answer was clear. “I wanted to collaborate with other artists — non-gospel artists, meaning jazz or R&B musicians — who either love Jesus or who were on a spiritual path and wanted to be transparent about that journey. Basically, people who had something to say and didn’t mind saying it.”

Over the course of the next 12 years and three volumes, Whalum would enlist a talented crew of musicians and composers to be a part of his musical journey. This group included George Duke, Lalah Hathaway and members of his family, including Hugh “Peanuts” Whalum, Kyle Whalum and Kenneth Whalum III.

“The project afforded me the opportunity to make an unabashed creative and spiritual statement,” says Whalum.

Recorded live over two nights at Reid Temple in Glenn Dale, Md., the third volume of The Gospel According to Jazz is arguably the strongest entry in the series. “We recorded one night without an audience and one with, and categorically the performances we kept were from the second night, with the audience,” says Whalum. “It was like they were the other band member. That energy is there in the performances and on the recording.”

The influence of the church that The Gospel According to Jazz celebrates runs deep for Whalum. His late father was the pastor at Olivet Baptist Church for 30-plus years.

It was his youth in his father’s church choir, blowing his horn on songs like “Amazing Grace,” that planted the seeds for his career. “My experience playing in church was foundational,” says Whalum. “It was great because my dad and mom helped shape who I am as an artist who pursues his craft seriously, but also as someone who has a love of Jesus in my heart. So that always made me a gospel artist in a sense.”

Having moved back to Memphis in 2007, Whalum these days splits his time on the road — playing 100 to 150 dates a year — with his job as Artist in Residence at the Stax Music Academy. “My heart and soul are there, even when my body is not,” says Whalum of his work at Stax.

For Whalum, the decision to take up the cause of youth music at Stax was an easy one.

“You know, the David Porter of the 21st century is sitting there waiting for us to do our part,” says Whalum. “That’s when I found myself looking in the mirror and asked, ‘Hey, are you doing what you’re supposed to be doing?’

“Because if you’re not, you can’t moan and say, ‘Oh, back in the day we had Isaac Hayes and we had Maurice White.’ Those kids are out here still today,” says Whalum. “We just have to create the environment for them to flourish.”

Kirk Whalum: “The Gospel According to Jazz, Chapter III”

Kirk Whalum will celebrate the release of The Gospel According to Jazz, Chapter III at 5:30 p.m. today (Tuesday) with an appearance and DVD screening at the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, 926 E. McLemore. The event is free and open to the public.

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