Biography
Kenneth Whalum has built an extensive reputation as a session and touring saxophonist while also pursuing a parallel career as a solo singer, songwriter, arranger, and producer focused on atmospheric and pensive alternative soul. His profile rose during the second half of the 2000s through work with Diddy, Beyoncé, Jay-Z, and Maxwell, after which he issued the independent jazz recording To Those Who Believe in 2010. Since then he has issued several singles and an EP, followed by the self-released R&B projects Broken Land in 2017 and Broken Land 2 in 2021. Additional credits include live appearances alongside D'Angelo, Frank Ocean, and Justin Timberlake as well as studio contributions to projects by Christian Scott and Mac Miller.
A native of Memphis, Whalum comes from a family steeped in music. He began on drums before switching to tenor saxophone during middle school, further developing his skills through church performances. After graduation he moved to New York to attend the New School of Jazz and Contemporary Music, where a pivotal opportunity arrived when Diddy recruited him for the touring band supporting the 2006 album Press Play. Within three years he had become a sought-after session player featured on three Billboard 200 number-one albums: Beyoncé’s B'day, Jay-Z’s American Gangster, and Maxwell’s BLACKsummers'night. His contributions stood out most clearly on Jay-Z’s “Roc Boys (And the Winner Is...),” which he also arranged, and on Maxwell’s Grammy-nominated “Pretty Wings.”
Throughout this period Whalum maintained ties to the jazz community while preparing his own releases. He appeared on several recordings by his uncle Kirk Whalum, and in 2010 he self-released To Those Who Believe, featuring fellow New School alumni Robert Glasper, Chris Dave, and Derrick Hodge. Over the following years he collaborated across jazz, rap, R&B, and pop, contributing to Christian Scott’s Christian aTunde Adjuah and Big K.R.I.T.’s Cadillactica. K.R.I.T. later guested on Whalum’s 2014 single “Away,” which inaugurated the Broken Land label. Subsequent singles “Ghost Town” in 2015 and the K.R.I.T.-assisted “Might Not Be OK” in 2016 preceded the July 2017 album Broken Land. That same month Jay-Z returned to the top of the Billboard 200 with 4:44, another release featuring Whalum.
Although Whalum had continued working with Maxwell, he departed the singer’s touring band in 2018 to focus on his own material. The single “Make It Out Alive” appeared that year, shortly before Mac Miller’s Swimming, on which Whalum co-wrote and performed “Ladders.” Two years later he released the five-track EP Beautiful Ending. He then secured a publishing and distribution arrangement with Secretly Canadian and returned in 2021 with the single “One More Kiss” and the album Broken Land 2. The latter project, issued almost exactly four years after its predecessor, included contributions from Pino Palladino, Kris Bowers, and Jamire Williams. Also in 2021 Whalum co-wrote and performed “Mine in Time” for Robert Glasper and Derrick Hodge’s soundtrack to the series Run the World, and likewise fronted Williams’ “When It Gets Dark.”
A native of Memphis, Whalum comes from a family steeped in music. He began on drums before switching to tenor saxophone during middle school, further developing his skills through church performances. After graduation he moved to New York to attend the New School of Jazz and Contemporary Music, where a pivotal opportunity arrived when Diddy recruited him for the touring band supporting the 2006 album Press Play. Within three years he had become a sought-after session player featured on three Billboard 200 number-one albums: Beyoncé’s B'day, Jay-Z’s American Gangster, and Maxwell’s BLACKsummers'night. His contributions stood out most clearly on Jay-Z’s “Roc Boys (And the Winner Is...),” which he also arranged, and on Maxwell’s Grammy-nominated “Pretty Wings.”
Throughout this period Whalum maintained ties to the jazz community while preparing his own releases. He appeared on several recordings by his uncle Kirk Whalum, and in 2010 he self-released To Those Who Believe, featuring fellow New School alumni Robert Glasper, Chris Dave, and Derrick Hodge. Over the following years he collaborated across jazz, rap, R&B, and pop, contributing to Christian Scott’s Christian aTunde Adjuah and Big K.R.I.T.’s Cadillactica. K.R.I.T. later guested on Whalum’s 2014 single “Away,” which inaugurated the Broken Land label. Subsequent singles “Ghost Town” in 2015 and the K.R.I.T.-assisted “Might Not Be OK” in 2016 preceded the July 2017 album Broken Land. That same month Jay-Z returned to the top of the Billboard 200 with 4:44, another release featuring Whalum.
Although Whalum had continued working with Maxwell, he departed the singer’s touring band in 2018 to focus on his own material. The single “Make It Out Alive” appeared that year, shortly before Mac Miller’s Swimming, on which Whalum co-wrote and performed “Ladders.” Two years later he released the five-track EP Beautiful Ending. He then secured a publishing and distribution arrangement with Secretly Canadian and returned in 2021 with the single “One More Kiss” and the album Broken Land 2. The latter project, issued almost exactly four years after its predecessor, included contributions from Pino Palladino, Kris Bowers, and Jamire Williams. Also in 2021 Whalum co-wrote and performed “Mine in Time” for Robert Glasper and Derrick Hodge’s soundtrack to the series Run the World, and likewise fronted Williams’ “When It Gets Dark.”
Albums
Singles
