Guitarist/vocalist Doug Wamble is a jazz traditionalist in the best sense of the word. Combining music from his deep Southern roots with jazz, Wamble creates a unique sound that touches upon rural blues, gospel, swing, and post-bop. He made his recording debut with Wynton Marsalis on 1999's Big Train and backed Cassandra Wilson on Traveling Miles the same year. Wamble issued his own Country Libations on Marsalis Music in 2003 and followed with 2005's Bluestate. In 2008 he and Bill Frisell issued Volume 1. In 2012, Wamble began producing the recordings of his wife, singer, songwriter, and actress Morgan James. His Fast as Years, Slow as Days appeared in 2013, followed by For Anew and Rednecktelekctual in 2014. 2015 netted The Traveler: Live in New York City. He joined the faculty of the Juilliard School in 2016, and in 2022 returned to recording under his own name with 2022's Blues in the Present Tense. Wamble was born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1974. His mother played piano and sang in church, and his grandfather played guitar, singing cowboy songs, murder ballads and other folk songs. Although initially inspired to take up jazz after hearing recordings of innovative guitarist Charlie Christian, the Tennessee native actually began his studies at Memphis State University as a record engineering major. It wasn't until attending a Harry Connick, Jr. concert and seeing guitarist Russell Malone play, that Wamble decided to pursue performing full-time. He transferred to the University of North Florida in Jacksonville earning a bachelor's degree in jazz guitar studies and later earned his masters of music at Northwestern in Chicago. A move to New York City in 1997 brought Wamble into contact with trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. He appeared on their Big Train album in 1999, the same year he backed Cassandra Wilson on Traveling Miles. These appearances led to high-profile gigs touring with Madeleine Peyroux, Norah Jones, Courtney Love, and Steven Bernstein, among others. In 2003, Wamble appeared with Branford Marsalis on Romare Bearden Revealed (with future bandmates Eric Revis and Jeff "Tain" Watts) and with Bernstein on John Zorn's Voices in the Wilderness. More importantly, however, he issued Country Libations, his Branford-produced leader debut for Marsalis Music, in 2003. It featured Wamble's quartet with the saxophonist and guest violinist, Charles Burnham. He also worked alongside Geoff Muldaur on Private Astronomy: A Vision of the Music of Bix Beiderbecke. The following year, he appeared with Wynton, recording the original score for the Ken Burns film Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson. (Subsequently, he joined Burns' team as a composer and has worked on award-winning documentaries including The War, Prohibition, and The Central Park Five.) That same year, Wamble appeared on Revis' Tales of the Stuttering Mime. Though busy touring, Wamble recorded his sophomore LP Bluestate in 2005. Once more produced by Branford -- who reprised his guest saxophonist role -- the singer/songwriter's ten originals were performed by his quartet. While touring and working New York jazz and Americana rooms, he issued the duo album Volume 1 with Bill Frisell in 2008, and worked with Wilson again on 2009's Closer to You: The Pop Sides. It was the beginning of a fruitful period of studio work for Wamble. In 2010, he released a self-titled singer/songwriter effort for eOne, and worked in the recording studio with Natalie Merchant (Leave Your Sleep) and Carrie Rodriguez (Love and Circumstance ‎). The following year, Wamble joined cellist Erik Friedlander's quartet for Bonebridge in 2011. In 2012, he guested on the Avett Brothers' The Carpenter. Further, he began an ongoing role producing the recordings of his wife, singer, songwriter, and actress Morgan James. He also serves as her band's guitarist and musical director. In 2013, Wamble formed the Halcyonic label to release Fast as Years, Slow as Days. He followed with two albums in 2014, the globally acclaimed For Anew and Rednecktelekctual. That same year, he produced James' widely celebrated The Hunter, and played with Freidlander on Nighthawks and with vanguard guitarist Noël Akchoté on Gesualdo: Madrigals for Five Guitars. In 2015, Wamble released The Traveler: Live in New York City with John Ellis on woodwinds, Eric Revis on bass, and Rudy Royston on drums. The following year he joined the faculty of the Juilliard School 2016 as an ensemble director and guitar instructor. He worked with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra featuring Jon Batiste on The Music of John Lewis ‎in 2017, and appeared on the Wynton Marsalis Septet's United We Swing: Best of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Galas a year later. ‎In 2021 he joined French jazz singer Clémentine (Mitz) on the Leo Sidran-produced Quel Temps Fait-il? and produced, arranged, and played on James' A Very Magnetic Christmas. In 2022 he scored his first dramatic feature film, The Subject, directed by fellow Memphian-turned-New Yorker Lanie Zipoy. In May he entered the studio with Watts, Revis, and Branford Marsalis. They recorded eight acoustic originals that drew on the composer's love of Ornette Coleman and Dewey Redman, winding their influences into his connection to the Delta blues and the gospel music of Blind Willie Johnson, Son House, and the future blues of singer/songwriter and resonator guitarist Chris Whitley. Titled Blues in the Present Tense, it was released in October on Halcyonic. ~ Matt Collar & Thom Jurek, Rovi