Robert Walter (musician)

Biography

A founding member of The Greyboy Allstars he has performed and recorded with such jazz and funk heavyweights as Fred Wesley, Gary Bartz, Skerik, Melvin Sparks, Andy Bey, Reuben Wilson, Harvey Mason, Red Holloway, Chuck Rainey, Phil Upchurch, Mike Clark, Johnny Vidacovich, Mike Gordon and Steve Kimock.

In 1999, after six years with The Greyboy Allstars, Walter formed his own band, Robert Walter's 20th Congress. The group featured Robert on electric piano and Hammond B3 organ, Cochemea "Cheme" Gastelum on alto sax, electric sax and flute, Chris Stillwell on bass and Stanton Moore on drums. The 20th Congress released their debut full-length recording Money Shot on San Francisco's Fog City Records in 2000.

Walter moved from his native San Diego to New Orleans in 2003, and subsequently reunited with producer Dan Prothero to record Super Heavy Organ with local legends Johnny Vidacovich, James Singleton, Tim Green, and Stanton Moore.

In Spring of 2013, The Greyboy Allstars released Inland Emperor, their first album since 2007's What Happened to Television?. A move from New Orleans to Los Angeles jump-started Robert Walter's 20th Congress. Get Thy Bearings pushes Walter's organ, piano, Rhodes and synthesizer to the front of a group rounded out by guitarist/bassist Elgin Park, drummer Aaron Redfield, sax players Karl Denson and Cochemea Gastelum, and percussionist Chuck Prada—an all-star lineup in its own right. Recorded in just a few takes at Elgonix Labs—the same studio where Walter has lent his skills to Get Thy Bearings producer Michael Andrews' film scores and productions—the album is full of raw boogaloo energy and cinematic color.

Since returning to LA, Walter has been on a creative hot streak. "I’ll have dry spells for a few months then go on a binge of writing, working every day," he says. "Some looser ideas ended up on the Greyboy Allstars album because I expected collaboration from the other members of the band. The material that was more developed from the start went on mine." Playing on film scores has widened the conceptual palate of Walters work. "They’re templates to improvise on, but they also tell a story," Walter says of the nine tracks, ranging from the Sly Stone-style soul vamp of "Little Business" to the heavy gospel of "Crux." "Dog Party" might as well be the theme song to a cartoon of the same name, while "Don’t Chin the Dog" shifts from delicate shuffle to horn-drenched boogaloo. Things get eerie on "Up From the Skies," a Jimi Hendrix cover rendered nearly unrecognizable in washes of electric Miles. Similarly, the album's title track is a shrewd reworking of the 1968 Donovan tune Walter first discovered on compilation of sample-friendly breakbeats, full of fuzz guitar and a mercurial organ solo.

"All these things just crept into the record," he says. "It's my own voice, not so imitative anymore." This same type of immediacy carried over into the way the band tracked the record, all at once in the same room. "A lot of modern music is over-considered, but if you fix every little edge there's no mystery. We didn’t monkey around too much, just indulged in our musicalness." It's the same commitment that has made Walter such a live force. In April 2015, it was announced that Robert would be joining Phish's Mike Gordon as his keyboard/organ player.

As leader

As sideman

With The Greyboy Allstars

With Creedle