Ken Walker

Inducted: October 29, 2024

Bass is the beating heart for music…

…of every description – and bassist Ken Walker filled the same role for the Denver jazz scene. For decades, he was among the most in-demand performers in the Mile High City, helping to provide the rhythmic foundation for local talents, as well as national and international genre stars. Moreover, he’s a bandleader par excellence, a recording artist who’s attracted critical raves, and an educator devoted to passing along the wisdom he collected during his sparkling career to the next generation of musicians.

These accomplishments are only some of many reasons for his induction into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame. But Walker, who’s also a member of the Arkansas Jazz Hall of Fame and a Denver Arts & Venues lifetime-achievement-award winner for his contributions to the Five Points Jazz Festival, is too modest to boast about the laurels he’s received.

“I’m really humbled,” he says. “But I wasn’t necessarily looking for any honors. When I play music, it helps me feel better.”

KW 1980s Little Rock AR 2568

KW Joy of teaching 2517

Walker grew up outside Little Rock, Arkansas in a community whose name fits his personality perfectly: Sweet Home. When he was in fourth grade, he started learning the cello, an instrument that helped acquaint him with the beauty of lower registers. As a high schooler, he continued his exploration of deep tones via the tuba, much to the chagrin of his father, an electrician who wasn’t thrilled by the idea of his son becoming a musician.

Fortunately, Walker’s perseverance paid off. After being named to the all-state band, Walker earned a scholarship to Arkansas Tech University, where he majored in music education. But his academic track was interrupted by his discovery of the bass. He was soon taking lessons from masters such as Ron Carter, a Miles Davis favorite, and gigging at The Afterthought, a Little Rock venue that gave him the opportunity to sit in with the likes of Benny Golson, a saxophonist so fond of Walker’s style that he encouraged the newcomer to relocate to New York City. his style that he encouraged Walker to relocate to New York City. But the Big Apple had too many worms for his taste NYC wasn’t to his taste, and he soon followed the advice of a woman he was dating at the time and moved to the friendlier confines of Denver circa 1985.

KW 1980s w Harris, Thomas, Rogers 2566

KW 1990s inside The Pec 2565

Within a couple of years…

…Walker was holding down the bass chair with the house band at fellow Colorado Music Hall of Fame inductee El Chapultepec. There, he got a chance to collaborate with Denver’s finest jazz talents and sit in with a jaw-dropping roster of distinguished visitors: Eddie Harris, Joe Pass, Houston Person, Randy Brecker, Nat Adderley, Freddie Hubbard, James Moody and more.

Over the years, Walker was featured at Colorado events such as the Telluride Jazz Festival and Jazz Aspen Snowmass and toured in Canada, Italy and Australia. In addition, he led his own combo, the Ken Walker Sextet, whose 2005 album Terra Firma earned raves – All About Jazz called it “the ‘who are these guys?’ album of the year” – and stayed on the Jazz Week Radio sales charts for seventeen weeks. His discography includes more recordings as a leader and sideman efforts for Phil Woods and Curtis Fuller.

Meanwhile, Walker got the chance to use the knowledge he accrued while earning his Arkansas Tech music degree as an educator at the University of Denver’s (DU) Lamont School of Music, which brought him aboard in 1991; on top of teaching his technique to all jazz and commercial bass majors, he coached the modal, standards and Latin combos and played with DU’s acclaimed jazz faculty group. The countless young bass wizards he’s nurtured are now the stewards of the Ken Walker sound, which couldn’t be in better hands.

By Michael Roberts

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