Walter Kittle - Topic

Known throughout his years of performing in and around his hometown of Lansing, Michigan as “Dr. Bass,” Walter Kittle offers a range of sounds unique to the urban jazz genre via a variety of instruments, including piccolo bass, five string bass, MIDI synthesizer bass, fretless bass and his custom 8-string bass – an axe he calls “an extended range bass,” which allows him to modulate to sound like a jazz guitar. He attributes his passion for unique instrumentation and his melodic sensibilities to his background as a performance major at Michigan State University (MSU), where his scholarship was based on his playing bassoon in the Symphonic Band, contra bassoon in the Orchestra and bass guitar in the jazz band.