About Walt Fowler

Walt Fowler was born March 2, 1955 in Salt Lake City, Utah. At age 6, he started playing piano, then took an interest in trumpet at age 8. Basically self taught, he practiced along with records, from Miles, Coltrane and Bird to Ellington, Basie and Woody Herman. In 1974, he joined Frank Zappa and the Mothers and appeared on the live album, "Live at the Roxy and Elsewhere". In 1975, he toured with the Billy Cobham Band along with Tom Malone, John Scofield and Milcho Leviev. He then moved to Los Angeles in the fall of 1975 and formed a band with his brothers known as "The Fowler Brothers Band". In 1976, he recorded with George Duke on the "From Me To You" album, and numerous Johnny "Guitar" Watson albums. He toured with Flo & Eddie, and later with Ray Charles and Buddy Rich's Big Band. In 1986 he toured with George Benson, then rejoined Frank Zappa's band in 1987 for the "Broadway The Hardway" tour. He appears on the CD "Broadway The Hardway", "The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life", and "Make A Jazz Noise Here", all live recordings from that tour. He then did many tours with Diana Ross starting in 1989, then joined James Taylor's band in 2001 for the "Pullover" tour (Pullover DVD), the 2003 "October Road" tour (October Road CD) , and the 2005 "Summer's Here" tour. Walt also appears on the 2006 DVD "Musicares Person of the Year Tribute" honoring James Taylor. Walt has performed live and/or recorded with artists such as; James Brown, Roberta Flack, Stanley Clarke, Yazawa, The Doors, Manhattan Transfer, Fishbone, Paula Abdul, Luis Conte, Billy Childs, Chad Wackerman, Brandon Fields, Banned From Utopia, Toto, and many others. Walt is also featured on many major motion picture soundtracks, including Backdraft, Regarding Henry, Pacific Heights, The Lion King, Broken Arrow, The Thin Red Line, Black Hawk Down, Ocean's 12 and Ocean's 13. He has also orchestrated on many feature films including The Rock, Con Air, Twister, Enemy of the State, Face-Off, Gladiator, Pearl Harbor, Chicken Run, Shrek, Shrek 2, Spanglish, The Bourne Supremacy, X Men 3, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Da Vinci Code, The Holiday, The Good Shepherd, Pirates of the Caribbean 1, 2 & 3, Transformers, The Simpsons Movie, American Gangster, Baby Mama, The Dark Knight and Body of Lies. Click here for a complete list of film credits. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0288812/ Walt can be heard on Andy Summers' tribute to Thelonius Monk CD, "Green Chimneys", Allan Holdsworth "The Sixteen Men of Tain", Simon Phillips/Jeff Babko "Vantage Point" and George Duke "Duke". Click here for his latest discography. http://www.united-mutations.com/f/walt_fowler.htm