Robert Walter (musician)

Robert Walter
Birth name	Robert Walters
Origin	New Orleans, San Diego
Genres	Jazz, Funk, Soul Jazz
Instruments	Hammond B3 organ, piano, keyboards
Years active	1990s–present
Labels	Fog City Records
Associated acts	Robert Walter's 20th Congress, The Greyboy Allstars, VW Duo, Creedle, Stanton Moore Trio
Website	Fog City Records presents: Robert Walter

Robert Walter is a keyboard player specializing in instrumental soul jazz on the Hammond B3 organ. He is a founding member of The Greyboy Allstars, and has since led his own band Robert Walter's 20th Congress.

Biography

Robert Walter has built a reputation as one of America's heaviest jazz-funk keyboardists.^{[citation needed]} As a founding member of The Greyboy Allstars, he toured throughout North America and Europe with the group for five years. Along the way, he contributed to the soundtrack of the major motion picture Zero Effect and 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 and Steve Kimock.

At the age of 30, Robert left the Greyboy Allstars and formed a new 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.

He has also recorded a semi-tongue-in-cheek Christmas record, In A Holiday Groove for Fog City Records.

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.

Walter can be seen in the 2007 Columbia Pictures release "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story", for which he helped write one of the soundtrack's more audacious numbers, "(Mama) You Got To Love Your Negro Man". In a 'blink-and-you'll-miss-it' uncredited cameo, he briefly appears as the keyboard player in the house band for Dewey's 1970s variety show, "The Dewey Cox Show".

Discography (as leader)

• Spirit Of '70 - Greyboy Records, 1996 [with Gary Bartz]
• Health And Fitness - 1999 [with the 20th Congress]
• Money Shot - Fog City Records, 2000 [with the 20th Congress]
• There Goes The Neighborhood - Premonition (Emd), 2001 [Solo]
• Giving Up The Ghost - Magna Carta Records, 2003 [with the 20th Congress]
• Super Heavy Organ - Magna Carta Records, 2005 [with Super Heavy Organ]
• Cure All - Palmetto, June 2008

Discography (as a sideman)

• The Clinton Administration - Magna Carta Records, 2004 with The Clinton Administration
• III - Telarc, 2006 with Stanton Moore
• Emphasis! (On Parenthesis) - Telarc, 2008 with Stanton Moore
• Groove Alchemy - Telarc International, 2010 with Stanton Moore & Will Bernard

Discography (with the GreyBoy Allstars)

• West Coast Boogaloo with Fred Wesley - Greyboy Records, 1995
• A Town Called Earth - Greyboy Records, 1997
• GBA Live - Relaxed Records/Ada Records, 1999
• What Happened to Television?, 2007

Discography (with Creedle)

• Half Man Half Pie - Cargo Music/Headhunter Records, 1992
• Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars - Cargo Music/Headhunter Records, 1994
• When the Wind Blows - Cargo Music/Headhunter Records, 1996

External links

• Official Site
• Fog City Records presents: Robert Walter
• Allmusic biography
• Robert Walter's 20th Congress collection at the Internet Archive's live music archive
• Interview with Robert Walter on Aural States (Oct 2008)