Doug Wamble

 

Biography

 

“A one-man compendium of avant Americana.” – The New Yorker

As a child of Memphis, TN, Doug Wamble has always been surrounded by a vast musical and cultural landscape. From listening to his mother play piano in their Baptist church to his grandfather singing cowboy songs, murder ballads and old time gospel favorites while strumming his guitar, Doug has been immersed in music for his entire life.

After completing a Bachelors in Jazz Guitar from the University of North Florida and a Masters of Music from Northwestern, Doug decided to head to New York to seek a career as a guitarist and composer. Appearing on bandstands and recordings with such artists as Wynton Marsalis, Norah Jones, Steven Bernstein, Courtney Love, Madeleine Peyroux, and Cassandra Wilson, Doug was making a name for himself in the jazz world when he was signed to Branford Marsalis’ label, Marsalis Music/Rounder Records. Doug released two critically acclaimed records "Country Libations" and "Bluestate", and two singer/songwriter albums on E1 records, "Doug Wamble" and "Fast as Years, Slow As Days", the latter being on his own imprint, Halcyonic Records.
Building on his history with Wynton Marsalis, which led to guitar contributions to several Ken Burns documentaries for PBS such as "Prohibition," "The War" and "Unforgivable Blackness", Doug began working as a composer for Burns’ Florentine Films, collaborating with Ken, his daughter Sarah, and David McMahon for the tragic film "The Central Park Five" in 2012. Wamble contributed original score pieces for Burns’" Vietnam", "Jackie Robinson", "The Dust Bowl", "The Roosevelts", "Eastlake Meadows", and "Muhammed Ali." In 2022, Doug scored his first dramatic feature, "The Subject", starring Aunjunue Ellis and Jason Biggs, directed by fellow Memphian-turned-New Yorker Lanie Zipoy.

Doug has been the album producer and touring musical director/ guitarist for his wife, Morgan James, since 2012 and since 2016 has been on faculty as an ensemble director and guitar instructor at The Juilliard School.

In May 2022, Doug went in to the studio to record his first album of original acoustic music, drawing on his early love of Ornette Coleman and Dewey Redman blended with his deep connection to the Delta blues and gospel music of Blind Willie Johnson and Son House, as well as troubadour and resonator guitar enthusiast, the late Chris Whitley. Joined by the legendary rhythm section of Eric Revis and Jeff “Tain” Watts and the inimitable Branford Marsalis on saxophones, "Blues In The Present Tense" will be released in October 2022.