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Robert Walter

The Hammond Organ. Ask anyone who has played one on the club scene and they'll tell you horror stories about jacking the B3 up fire escapes or removing doorframes; not to mention the instrument's sheer weight, alone. No question, the Hammond is a super heavy organ.

Then there's what's under the hood. There are two layers of keys, four sets of drawbars, and eighteen changeable presets, creating a sound that arguably smokes any modern instrument. You need a virtuoso sitting behind the Hammond or, somehow, it doesn't erupt in those fat, bubbly tones, or in those long glissandos that rip the paint off the wall.

"I just love the instrument," Robert Walter enthuses. He knows the mantle he wears when he plays the Hammond and the Leslie. He knows the lineage, which, in no particular order, includes Jimmy Smith, Brother Jack McDuff, Jimmy McGriff, and newcomers like Joey DeFrancesco. Walter wasn't born behind an organ; in fact, he began gigging with a piano and a Fender Rhodes. The story goes that he wanted something more powerful, wider in bandwidth-something...heavier.

Robert Walter's Super Heavy Organ

Robert Walter is the definitive soul-jazz organist of his generation. His latest project, Super Heavy Organ, was recorded in his new hometown of New Orleans. One cannot help but wonder why he waited until recently to relocate from his native West Coast to the Crescent City, with its musical history rich in both classic jazz and dirty loose limbed funk. "I had been performing in New Orleans for years. As a kid I was obsessed with the music coming out of this city. I made a decision to come here and experience it first hand. It's the best move I have ever made. I have been lucky enough to record an album with some of my favorite musicians, people who have influenced me," remarks Walter. The new release is a collaboration with some of the city's most respected musicians, including drummers Stanton Moore and Johnny Vidacovich, bassist James Singleton, tenor saxophonist Tim Green and guest vocalist Anthony Farrell. They recorded live in the studio with a decidedly rough edged sound to capture the raw spontaneity of the performances. The interactions between the young leader and his veteran band mates are mutually inspired. "My concept was not to imitate New Orleans music of the past, but to infuse the tradition with my own ideas," he describes. The resulting music is both exploratory and modern while maintaining its ties to the heritage of jazz. It is unquestionably innovative and funky at the same time.

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Multiple Reviews

Where Fusion and Tradition Meet

Read "Where Fusion and Tradition Meet" reviewed by Doug Collette


In the realm of contemporary jazz, drummer Denny Seiwell is a relatively new returnee after an extended stint as member of Paul McCartney's Wings, while keyboardist Robert Walter is long-time occupant of a self-created niche where he acts as bandleader when not in his charter member role in the Greyboy Allstars or collaborating with the likes of Phish's Mike Gordon on his latest solo project. Both these principals share an appetite for invention with the musicians who work with them ...

283
Album Review

Robert Walter: Cure All

Read "Cure All" reviewed by Doug Collette


The advantage of working below the radar, as Robert Walter generally does, is that you are free of the cult of personality and celebrity that so often dilutes an artist's work. The disadvantage is that your good work, like Cure All, may not get the attention it deserves

It's not that Walter is without credentials. A once and future charter member of The Greyboy Allstars, he also fronts his own band, The 20th Congress, and continuously acts as role-player nonpareil ...

246
Album Review

Robert Walter: Super Heavy Organ

Read "Super Heavy Organ" reviewed by John Kelman


Organist Robert Walter is best known as a founding member of the dance-jazz funksters known as Greyboy Allstars. But since the mid-1990s he's also been involved in other projects, like the George Clinton tribute band The Clinton Administration--featuring instrumental workups of classic Parliament and Funkadelic tunes--and Robert Walter's 20th Congress, an update on 1970s jazz/funk. Super Heavy Organ is the first disc he's made since relocating to New Orleans, and by recruiting a group of notable Crescent City musicians he's ...

141
Album Review

Robert Walter's 20th Congress: Money Shot

Read "Money Shot" reviewed by Jim Santella


The classic soul-jazz organ combo is alive and well. Big John Patton and Grant Green gave us “Yodel." Here, Robert Walter and Elgin Park tear it up. Drummer Stanton Moore provides a solid Bo Diddley beat, as saxophonist Cochema Juan Gastelum offers echoes of that soulful sound. Live audiences would have to be on their feet dancing within seconds.

Walter's debut album is an enhanced CD with a 5-minute video and all the tracks & information online. It's one of ...

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Performance / Tour

WRD (Walter, Roberts, Deitch): August Tour Dates

WRD (Walter, Roberts, Deitch): August Tour Dates

Source: JamBase

ROBERT WALTER, EDDIE ROBERTS AND ADAM DEITCH POWER TRIO TO HIT THE ROAD Robert Walter, Eddie Roberts and Adam Deitch will be introducing their new power funk trio WRD at a series high profile shows in the month of August. Described by Eddie Roberts as “60's SoulJazz, Rare Funk Grooves & Driving Latin Beats, with a trans continental twist and a modern mind set," the tour starts this week with two shows in Colorado. “Robert Walter and I met in ...

137

Interview

Jambase Questionnaire: Robert Walter

Jambase Questionnaire: Robert Walter

Source: JamBase

Welcome back to JamBase's baker's dozen of probing, wide-ranging questions to the bright lights in the jam scene (and beyond). Last time we heard from Keller Williams and upcoming installments will include insights from Reed Mathis, Nathan Moore, The Sadies and more!

Robert Walter by Chad Smith

There's an unmistakable sense of exuberant discovery when Robert Walter gets behind a keyboard. For all the callus raising road work and long hours sweating over musical notation - dude is a serious ...

147

Performance / Tour

Robert Walter Trio Fall Tour

Robert Walter Trio Fall Tour

Source: JamBase

Robert Walter Trio Fall Tour

Robert Walter Soul-jazz organist Robert Walter built a reputation as one of America's heaviest jazz-funk crossover musicians. Walter, currently touring as a trio in support of his latest release Cure All, is gearing up for the fall tour that kicks off September 25 and hits several cities on the east coast.

Joining Walter on tour for the majority of dates are Johnny Vidacovich and bassist James Singleton (both players on the new album Cure All). ...

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Performance / Tour

Steve Kimock Band featuring Robert Walter On Tour in Support of New Abum

Steve Kimock Band featuring Robert Walter On Tour in Support of New Abum

Source: All About Jazz

Hailed as one of today’s greatest living guitar players, Steve Kimock releases his long anticipated studio album, Eudemonic, on August 23, 2005 (SCI Fidelity Records). Together with 10-time Grammy winning drummer and composer Rodney Holmes, Eudemonic masterfully displays Kimock’s uncanny ability to balance passion and power with soaring grace. Its nine flawlessly produced original compositions highlight Kimock’s dynamic playing, technical ingenuity, and impeccable sonic expression. Forty plus years into a rich and vibrant musical career, Steve Kimock's Eudemonic confirms: this ...

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Mardi Gras Day

Eleven Music Experience
2023

buy

Cure All

Palmetto Records
2008

buy

Super Heavy Organ

Magnatude Records
2005

buy

Money Shot

Fog City Records
2000

buy

Mardi Gras Day

From: Mardi Gras Day
By Robert Walter

Videos

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