Scott Wilkie

Keyboardist and composer Scott Wilkie has been playing piano since age 6,the beginning of 21 years of musical studies. But long before completing hisformal training he was pursuing his passion for jazz.

Aside from his lessons, one of his earliest musical inspirations was seeing a jazz trio when he was 12. “I remember thinking how cool that was,” he says, “feeling the bass and drums, seeing the guys interact, hearing the role that piano could play in a band.”

While Wilkie was still attending college in Michigan, a “basement tape” of one of his earliest compositions, Song for Shari, was a much-requested song on Detroit’s No. 1 nighttime radio program, Alan Almond’s Pillowtalk, and eventually became one of the show’s permanent themes. Performing throughout Michigan, Wilkie and his electric-jazz quintet, Separate Checks, attracted a loyal local following and began to draw national attention as well.

In 1991 Wilkie moved to Los Angeles, where his musical pursuits have grown to international proportions, culminating in a recording contract with Narada (part of Virgin Records America). Wilkie’s debut record features some of the top players in contemporary jazz, such as guitarists Russ Freeman and Paul Jackson Jr., saxophonist Jeff Kashiwa, bassist John Patitucci, and percussionist Steve Reid.

Wilkie has been busy elsewhere as well. Recent projects include sound design for Disney’s Broadway production of Beauty and the Beast, and arranging music for the National Hockey League team The Mighty Ducks.

In addition Wilkie performs worldwide as an artist for the Roland Corporation, on of the world’s premier manufacturers of electronic instruments. Musicians shopping for new instruments have probably heard several Wilkie compositions as built-in demo programs, many of which are recorded versions of Wilkie’s live demonstrations of new Roland gear.

But the artist feels most at home onstage with his own band: longtime friend and bassist Nathan Brown, drummer David Owens, and guitarist Matthew Von Doran. The group has recently shared the stage with such well-known artists as Jeff Lorber, Craig Chaquico, Stanley Clarke, Larry Carlton, and Rick Braun. Wilkie’s band forms the high-powered core of his Narada debut, BOUNDLESS, a superbly crafted album of the contemporary jazz. Driving this tight ensemble is an extraordinary talent with a gift for memorable melody and a rhythmic energy that vitalizes and sustains the music

+ Scott Wilkie