Walter Blanding Jr. (born August 14, 1971, Cleveland) is an American jazz saxophonist and clarinetist.

He was a member of the group Tough Young Tenors, who recorded an album in 1991, and lived for several years in Israel in the mid-1990s.

After returning he became a member of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and was involved with live performances of Wynton Marsalis's Blood on the Fields.

[1] Blanding has performed or recorded with Farid Barron, the Count Basie Orchestra, Cab Calloway, Wycliffe Gordon, Rodney Green [de], Roy Hargrove, The Harper Brothers, Louis Hayes, Illinois Jacquet, Ryan Kisor, Odean Pope, Eric Reed, Marcus Roberts, and Rodney Whitaker.

With Wynton Marsalis As a member of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Blanding spent time at the orchestra's Shanghai branch, Jazz at Lincoln Center Shanghai.