A skilled scatter and interpreter of lyrics, jazz vocalist JD Walter emerged in the '90s alongside contemporaries like Kurt Elling, Lou Lanza, and Allan Harris. Reviewers and jazz critics alike have cited Bob Dorough (who wrote the liner notes for his debut album), Dave Frishberg, Mark Murphy, and Jon Hendricks among his influences, and Walter himself has claimed Cassandra Wilson and Betty Carter as important influences. His wide-ranging material has included well-known Tin Pan Alley standards as well as works by Bill Evans, Stevie Wonder, and Dave Liebman. Walter made his full-length solo debut with Sirens in the C-House in 2000 before collaborating with Liebman on 2001's Clear Day. Also a composer, Walter often includes original songs on his albums, including on 2013's One Step Away. Following vocal surgery, he returned with his sixth studio album, Dressed in Song, in 2020.

Walter was born on July 2, 1967 in Philadelphia suburb Abington Township, but he grew up mostly in the Lancaster/Lebanon area of Pennsylvania. Singing in his church choir from age six, he later attended the American Boychoir School in Princeton, New Jersey. He headed south in 1985 to enroll at the University of North Texas, where he studied vocal jazz on a scholarship. After seven years in Texas, Walter moved to the Netherlands and studied with transplanted American jazz singer Deborah Brown at Amsterdam's Conservatory for the Arts. He didn't stay long in Holland; in 1994, the improviser returned to the United States and spent the rest of the '90s living in a variety of locales, including New York City and, again, Texas. In the meantime, he recorded his first album, Sirens in the C-House. It was released on Dreambox Media in 2000. That year, he recorded his second LP, a collaboration with soprano saxophonist Dave Liebman titled Clear Day. It arrived on Indiana label Double-Time Records in 2001. In the early 2000s, Walter also found his way back to Philadelphia, where briefly joined the faculty of the University of the Arts. It was by immersing himself in the inventive New York jazz scene that he shifted from straight-ahead jazz to a more liberated, dynamic singing style.

In 2004, Walter released both 2Bass, a Face and a Little Skin (Dreambox), featuring bassists Steve Varner and Tony Marino and drummer Ari Hoenig, and Dedicated to You (Pact), the latter with the Steve Rudolph Trio. He followed those with a pair of live albums, 2008's Live in Portugal and 2009's Live at the 55 Bar, both on Jwal Records. His fifth studio album, One Step Away (Jwal), saw him backed by guitarist Marvin Sewell, pianist Orrin Evans, bassist Eric Revis, and drummer Nasheet Waits. It consisted of original songs alongside covers of songwriters including Paul Simon, Michel Legrand, and Todd Rundgren.

Health issues that led to heart and vocal cord surgeries put Walter's performance career on hold for several years. When he was able to return to the studio, he enlisted Grammy-winning producer Al Pryor to record Dressed in Song. Released on Jwal in early 2020, its many guests included Orrin Evans, Marc Cary, and Becca Stevens. ~ Alex Henderson & Marcy Donelson, Rovi