Gospel, jazz and a new era at Walker West
Myah Goff, April 25, 2025
When local musicians Rev. Carl Walker and Grant West began teaching piano in a St. Paul duplex in 1988, they planted the seeds of what would become Walker West Music Academy. This weekend, the institution will celebrate the opening of its first fully-owned cultural center at 650 Marshall Ave. with a two-day event featuring live music, community reflections and guided tours of the new space.
Walker and West met while leading separate choirs at a church function in South St. Paul. Already teaching piano lessons from their homes, the two soon decided to combine their businesses. Their first shared space, a duplex on Hague Avenue, turned out to be too noisy for residents. When their lease wasn’t renewed, they relocated to the basement of a former barbecue restaurant on Selby Avenue.
“The challenge that immediately presented itself was rent,” West said. “Our [piano] lessons were $7, and I remember saying to Reverend Walker, it’s going to take a lot of $7.”
Despite limited resources, the pair built a music program in the heart of St. Paul’s Rondo neighborhood, which has continued to offer the community a creative outlet rooted in Black musical traditions, including gospel, jazz and improvisation.
“I think the uniqueness of ‘Walker West’ was it was founded by two Black men,” Executive Director Braxton Haulcy said. “It took African American men to come in here and say, ‘We’re going to take back this neighborhood, take kids off the street and we’re going to teach them.’”
The new center features Black liberation colors, custom wall coverings by Black designers, a recording studio, digital music lab, 200-seat performance hall, and 18 studios — each designed to either project outward into the hallway or tuck inward, creating an architectural call-and-response. The academy can now serve twice as many students — up to 600 per week — and reach over 5,700 program participants annually.
“This is a cultural destination,” Haulcy said. “We’ve been on a growth trajectory — when I first got here, our revenue was $450,000. This year, we’ll finish with $3.6 million and a surplus.”
The grand opening kicks off Friday at 4 p.m. with a ribbon-cutting. It will be followed by a performance by the Walker West Brass Ensemble, remarks from community leaders and a reception featuring food from Flame Kitchen. The celebration continues Saturday with performances from the student jazz ensembles, the Amazing Grace Chorus and the String Department Recital.
“There’s a whole lot of James Browns and Luther Vandrosses out there who have not had a chance to express themselves,” Walker said. “We are giving space so that music can be heard, revived and taught.”
