{"id":11941,"date":"2026-04-03T11:18:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T18:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/afm47.org\/press\/?p=11941"},"modified":"2026-04-03T11:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T18:18:10","slug":"chris-walden-bridging-jazz-and-symphonic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/afm47.org\/press\/chris-walden-bridging-jazz-and-symphonic\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Walden:\u00a0Bridging Jazz and Symphonic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

AFM Local 47 Member Spotlight<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

AFM Local 47 member Chris Walden is a 7-time Grammy nominated composer, arranger, conductor, and musician. He is the founder and conductor <\/strong>of the Pacific Jazz Orchestra and leader of the Chris Walden Big Band. He has been the lead arranger for the Academy Awards since 2019 and has written big band and orchestral arrangements for Michael Bubl\u00e9, Diana Krall, Paul Anka, Jennifer Hudson, and Christopher Cross. Local 47 sat down with Chris to talk about his career in music. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Local 47: You founded the Pacific Jazz Orchestra in 2022. How does a jazz orchestra differ from a traditional jazz group or orchestra?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

CW:<\/strong> Our instrumentation with the Pacific Jazz Orchestra is a hybrid between a symphony orchestra and a jazz big band. A traditional symphony orchestra consists of 80 to 90 musicians, where none of them play saxophone and jazz. In a big band, you have five saxes, four trumpets, four trombones, and four rhythm players, but no strings.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, I combined a traditional 17-piece big band with five saxes, four trumpets, four trombones, and four rhythm players. And I added 20 strings to it. So, we’re not as big as a symphony orchestra. We have 20 strings and 17 big band musicians, plus a horn and a harp and an extra percussion that makes it 40 pieces.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With this kind of hybrid instrumentation, we can play basically anything. We can play symphony material and as well as big band material that a regular symphony orchestra would not be able to play. And we often feature instrumentalists and vocalists, some with jazz backgrounds or some without.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Local 47: It seems like the Pacific Jazz Orchestra is a unique concept. Do other cities have this type of orchestra?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

CW:<\/strong> It’s the only one of its kind in the country. The only other orchestra with that instrumentation is the Metropole Orchestra in Holland. But in the US, we are the only one of its kind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Local 47: Does the Pacific Jazz Orchestra play locally exclusively, or does it travel as well?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

CW:<\/strong> As the \u201cresident\u201d jazz orchestra in Los Angeles, we play in the neighborhoods in and around LA. We go as far as Santa Barbara or Orange County. As we look to expand our travel, we are looking at places like San Francisco in the near future.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We played at the Blue Note in Tokyo last year for three days, which was a bit of an exception for us.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We would love to bring the Pacific Jazz Orchestra to the East Coast eventually and are working on ideas on how best to make that happen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Local 47: In this age of technology in music and now, AI, what is it like to be involved in the very live music genre of jazz, and jazz orchestra, in 2026?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

CW:<\/strong> I think there’s a robust jazz scene that stays vibrant and is actually expanding. Two new jazz clubs opened in LA last year alone, one of which is the Blue Note. That wouldn\u2019t happen if there was not a market for it here. To me, that is a sign that jazz is progressing and growing.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Local 47: You were born and raised in Germany. Tell me about the jazz experience in Germany as you were beginning your musical career there. <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

CW:<\/strong> A vibrant big band culture developed in Germany after World War II. And the country owes much of this to the Americans. As you know, the Allies divided up Germany into East and West Germany after the war. In West Germany, the allies, and the Americans in particular, wanted to make sure that broadcast stations could not be misused for political propaganda again, as it was during the Nazi years.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, a sort of public broadcast system similar to the BBC in the UK was installed in Germany. And the Americans made sure that it was partly government-run and partly overseen by the private sector. Because it was the mid-to-late 1940s, big band music was the thing at the time. The Americans made sure that each regional broadcast center got its own fully employed radio big band. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We owe it to the Americans that, from the 1950s to the early 2000s, every major city in Germany had its own fully employed radio big band. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I grew up in that environment and sort of fell onto a fertile ground when I came into contact with jazz and big bands. I have to say, when I became interested in jazz, it was the mid-1970s and jazz, in general, was never as unpopular as in the mid-1970s. Kids were either listening to disco or punk. I was interested in neither. I was listening to jazz and was kind of a nerd in school.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having said that, every school had a big band. I played trumpet in our high school big band and became interested in arranging for big bands at the age of 14 or 15.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At age 19, I became a staff arranger for Hamburg\u2019s radio big band. Interestingly, there are government subsidies in Germany to keep big bands alive. But not in the US, despite being an American art form. The only thing that comes close in the US are the armed forces big bands which I had the pleasure of writing music for, including the Air Force and West Point big bands. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Local 47: What motivated you to leave Germany and move to Los Angeles?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

CW:<\/strong> I had a career in Germany throughout my 20s as a film composer and orchestra arranger. By the time I was 29, I was looking for new challenges in my progression as an artist.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I remember in the mid-90s I was writing film music in Germany and had always wanted to write lush, orchestral film music that shows emotions. But the producers and directors for whom I was writing film music wanted minimalistic music, which often didn\u2019t show too much emotion. Also, the budgets were small.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One film scoring session in particular comes to mind. The director liked the music I was writing. However, the executive from the movie studio came by and he heard a few bars of the music I was recording and said dismissively that it sounded like \u201cHollywood.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This event made me realize two things. One is that I can write music that others recognize as \u201cHollywood.\u201d And two, the decision-makers in Germany didn’t like it.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was in the wrong place to write this kind of music. I felt that I needed to go somewhere that wanted the kind of music that I’m capable of writing. So, I moved to Los Angeles in 1996. I pretty much had to abandon my career in Germany and start from scratch again in Hollywood.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Local 47: Did you join the AFM soon after moving to the US?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

CW:<\/strong> I joined the union within the first few weeks after arriving here. I\u2019m coming up on 30 years of membership this year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking of unions, it\u2019s interesting to me that in Germany, which is generally more of a union country than the US, there are no unions for freelance musicians. There is an orchestra musicians\u2019 union that represents musicians that are fully employed, but none for freelance musicians.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is one of the things that I have valued so much with my AFM membership because as a freelance musician in Germany, you have to negotiate your pay each time that you are called for work. And since I played trumpet and did a fair amount of session work in Germany, I would never know what I was going to get paid when I was called. I would be at the mercy of the producer.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was so relieved when I came to Los Angeles because I saw that there was a musicians\u2019 union that represents freelance musicians. There were scales and wages and everything was organized for musicians. Plus, there is the Special Payments Fund. We had none of that in Germany.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a musician, all of this was a breath of fresh air. And it was because of the union. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AFM Local 47 Member Spotlight  AFM Local 47 member Chris Walden is a 7-time Grammy nominated composer, arranger, conductor, and musician. He is the founder and conductor of the Pacific Jazz Orchestra and leader of the Chris Walden Big Band. He has been the lead arranger for the Academy Awards since 2019 and has written big band […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11942,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1981,441],"tags":[1038,2010,1762],"class_list":["post-11941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-april-2026","category-overture-online","tag-chris-walden","tag-chris-walden-big-band","tag-pacific-jazz-orchestra"],"yoast_head":"\nChris Walden:\u00a0Bridging Jazz and Symphonic - 47 Blog | AFM Local 47<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/afm47.org\/press\/chris-walden-bridging-jazz-and-symphonic\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chris Walden:\u00a0Bridging Jazz and Symphonic - 47 Blog | AFM Local 47\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"AFM Local 47 Member Spotlight  AFM Local 47 member Chris Walden is a 7-time Grammy nominated composer, arranger, conductor, and musician. 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