Donald Walden has passed

[Joe G]

I heard the news from Rodney Whitaker just a while ago. His health had been poor these last few years. Wonderful tenor; glad I got to see him when I did.

[Jim Alfredson]

Damn. RIP.

[Robert J]

That is sad news. Saw him several times with different bands. I mostly recall the 1991 Detroit Jazz Orchestra concert with Dizzy, strings and choir @ the DJF.

[Robert J]

Mark has a story on it (thanks Mark - if not you, no one).

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article...ENT04/804090418

[paul secor]

Thanks to Mark for writing the obit/appreciation, and to Robert for posting the link.

[Joe G]

Yes, thank you. I appreciate the background; which I was mostly ignorant of.

[Al in NYC]

I'm very saddened to hear this news. He was one of the real spirits of the Detroit jazz scene. One of the ones who kept the music going when things looked dark. He was one of that group of fine, creative, and mostly unheralded musicians I grew up listening to back in Detroit. The ones who made me love jazz as something more than just some records my dad played, but as a living, breathing, exciting thing. I remember Donald playing at various small bars like Cobb's back in the '70s, holding court and keeping things together at his New World Stage back in the '80s, and as a presence at several Detroit Jazz Festivals in the 90s and 00s. Always bringing up new musicians, including several friends of mine, and teaching them the ropes in his own blunt, to the point, but ultimately caring way. He will be missed, but, unlike the overly-dramatic pronouncements that attend so many deaths, he really has left a legacy behind.

[JamesJazz]

Theme For Donald Walden

By Jim Gallert

Donald Walden’s death, on April 6, sent shock waves through our community. He was two years into his battle against Cancer, and after hearing him play so wonderfully at the SOCC’s tribute last month, we hoped that he might have gotten the upper hand. Leading his Free Radicals (a term Walden discovered while researching Cancer therapies) through a short set of originals, Donald sounded like a million bucks, doubtless responding to the love he felt and which surrounded him. His spirit, if not his body, had triumphed.

And now, one month later, his family and friends gathered to remember him, to pay respects to that spirit, to laugh, to share stories. The room at Haley Funeral Home was packed, alternately hushed and boisterous as stories were told, remembrances were offered, and musicians filled the space with melodies. Melba Boyd’s touching thoughts and beautiful poem summed up our thoughts. Robert McCarther’s heartfelt singing of “A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square”, a Walden favorite, with Robert’s added lyric, summed up our feelings. The Free Radical Sextet and numerous musical friends played a swinging set of Walden’s compositions that expressed our love.

That Walden celebrated Mingus and Monk is no surprise – like them, he was demanding, passionate, honest, and unique. He had a built-in “bullshit detector” which never failed. He was strong and confident, sure and certain, an African American man who carried himself with dignity and respect, a Griot who spoke to us of life and love through his music and his words. Donald was interested in creativity, in any field, and he was a cultural warrior, ably championing jazz in performance and conversation. He was a humane and spiritual person who eschewed religious trappings.

And he had soul, plenty plenty soul, and a keen sense of history. He knew that jazz is a flowering of African American culture, but Donald also knew that the creator is colorblind, and acted accordingly.

Donald’s homegoing continued at Bert’s Marketplace, where his friends hugged and laughed and played music and consoled ourselves with the knowledge that his spirit, like the music of Monk and Mingus, will always be among us, an example of human expression at its finest. The man left a legacy which will endure.