By Phil DiPietro

The organ, especially the Hammond B-3, holds a versatile, yet sacrosanct place in jazz history. The seminal recordings that led to the development of the “acid jazz” movement that feature the B-3 have gone from fun thrift store nuggets, to rare expensive grooves to reissue catalog staples. Following that path, the instrument has gone from a “church organ” to a “church” in and of itself, an instrument of such grand, sacred tradition that its fans may actually find innovation a negative trait. Recently, some young upstarts have seen fit to put their own, modern day stamp on that history. One of them is particularly respectful of that tradition, and the musicians that played in and around it, so much so that he recently assembled an all star cast of vintage virtuosos and entitled the recording, “There Goes the Neighborhood”, in self-effacing honor of his bad self.

Read on to find out the novel, modern-day ways in which Robert Walter came to the instrument and the concepts that went into his Premonition Records debut. He’ll expand on what’s coming for him and his 20th Congress (www.20thcongress.com) as well as his groovealicious collaborations with the likes of Michael Kang, Mike Clark, Fred Wesley, Stanton Moore, Skerik and Charlie Hunter. What he might not admit is his grand stature in the small group of artists that may just yet be responsible for crossing the music over, through the rapidly growing (er, mushrooming, even) jamband world, into a much wider audience.

AAJ: So tell us about the your latest record.

RW: The title is kind of a joke on the fact that the musicians are all established guys and I’m comin’ in and messin’ up their scene.

AAJ: I love it. I know Harvey Mason (www.harveymason.com) and Phil Upchurch (www.philupchurch.com) played together on those George Benson records.

RW: They played on quite a few records. So it was kind of a thing about that..me being the newbie.

AAJ: How did you and Brian Brinkerhoff get these incredible musicians together for this date?

RW: He contacted me with the general idea of having me as a leader with some more veteran players and he gave me a list of people he was thinking of , and I told him who I was thinking of and we finally narrowed it down to the players on the record.

AAJ: Why was it his idea instead of yours…who is this guy and how’d he pull this off?

RW: I would have never thought that I could put that together. And well, he gave me the opportunity. He is a producer, more in the way of the casting and the concept, but he was really great about letting me have my reign in the studio, which is nice.

AAJ: Are you the featured player on the disc? Does everybody get equal "playing time", or writing time, on the disc ?

RW: I wrote all of the tunes except for one which was written by Harvey Mason. There’s a couple of covers that I picked out and wanted to do, and I wrote the arrangements for those. Some of the stuff just sort of came out of jamming in the studio, sort of written by everybody as we were doing it. We covered “Wade in the Water”, which is an old spiritual tune and “My Babe”, that Little Walter did, which is based on “This Train”, which is an old gospel tune. That’s the sort of stuff I want to do for covers, real basic American roots music..and then try and reinterpret it. The whole idea for me musically on that was trying to make some sort of connection between the stuff that is happening now, which is my contribution, with sort of the classic music and the history of the music, which is informed by the guys that played on it.

AAJ: I hear you limited the takes and the time in the studio on this one.

RW: It was very quickly done. We did it to two inch tape with everybody in the same room. Most of the stuff is just..first takes. There’s little fixes here and there, but there’s no Pro-tools editing ..nothin’ like that.

We didn’t really spend much time jamming . But at the end of the takes, people would go on, and Brian was smart enough to leave the tape rolling for that kind of stuff.

AAJ: Where’d you do the date?

RW: In Los Angeles at a studio called “The Bakery”.

AAJ: Tell us a little bit about each of the guys on the new record and what they bring to the table in general, and this session in particular.

RW: Red Holloway I knew from Jack McDuff’s group. He’s just got that classic organ-tenor sound. Nobody of my generation really plays that way. It’s that instantly identifiable… that group in the 60’s with George Benson .

AAJ: I’m thinking there was a Bari sax player on those Benson records.

RW: That’s Benson’s cds…you’re thinking of Ronnie Cuber. I’m talking about McDuff’s band , with Red and Benson and Joe Dukes on drums. The front line with the organ, guitar and Red playing harmonies. I always just loved that. That tied it in with..he’s sort of the most jazz player of all of them.

And then, Phil Upchurch was great in the session because he read everything and he helped me translate. I was a little nervous talking to those guys . I had listened to all those records forever and really held them in high esteem and Phil kind of broke the ice. I would have an idea and he was good at explaining it to everybody else. For instance, I’d have an idea for an arrangement and I would be kind of timid about it, and he would speak up on my behalf . He would say, “Hey let’s get this right..this isn’t so hard..we can get this”.

Harvey was an ace, as usual. He nailed everything. He came from the golf course. He had another session, at night of one of the days we recorded, so he’s working all the time in LA. He wrote a tune called , “The Tease”. He came in with a chart..I usually just talk out arrangements, but for this I had to write out charts, which I’m getting better at since then.

And Chuck Rainey on bass…he is the ultimate..guy..you know…a real classic…and also he and Harvey played on so many records together, they really have a thing together. Right before we did the session I pulled out a Phil Upchurch record of mine and it had all those guys on it.

AAJ: Wow. I saw Phil play with Jimmy Smith in San Francisco many moons ago.

RW: Yeah he does that gig a lot. He’s a great bass player, as well. These guys were telling stories in the studio about sessions they played on for Donny Hathaway and Aretha and the soul gigs they did. It was great to hear about all that stuff because I love all those records.

Plus, everyone helped out. Having to get it together so quick, writing charts was the only way to get it done. We did one rehearsal day and two days of tracking and that’s it.

AAJ: Everybody I talk to lately takes two days to make a record.

RW: A lot of jazz records are made that way. I’d love to have a little bit more time but in a way, it created the character of the record, in the classic style of a date. There were no fixes, which keeps stuff a little bit raw.

AAJ: Everybody I talk to lately has played with McDuff, too. Some guitarists that you wouldn’t think ..

RW: A lot of people played in that band. Marc Ribot was in that band. I meet guys all the time that have been through his band. I am a big fan of his, and I love his records.

AAJ: Who are your other influences, on organ?

RW: I also like Jimmy McGriff a lot. I like all the classic guys for different things. I am a big fan of Larry Young. Jimmy Smith is sort of the ultimate…which I can’t say, other than in attitude, I’m probably less directly influenced by him musically, just because some of that stuff is so audacious and out there I don’t even know where to begin. John Patton too quite a bit.

AAJ: Those Grant Green records man.

RW: Oh yeah, they had that thing goin’… usually with Ben Dixon on drums.

AAJ: Who are some of the current organ players you’d point people towards?

RW: I’m sort of hung up on old records, but I like what Jon Medeski’s doing. It’s very different, sort of, not line-oriented playing, and they have a great trio. I like Joey DeFrancesco too, but I tend to gravitate toward the older players.

AAJ: Is the new one on an independent label ?

RW: Yes. Premonition Records (www.premonitionandmusic.com). They have a good distribution network and they’re sort of the biggest little label that I’ve been on. They actually have an office.

AAJ: Doesn’t Fog City (www.fogworld.com) have an Office?

RW: Everything’s there. It’s a house, warehouse, sometimes recording studio.

AAJ: Dan Prothero (Fog City President) seems like a great guy.

RW: A great, very creative guy.

AAJ: OK…any other things you want people to know about this record?

RW: Well, it was a great experience for me. I’ve learned… the process is as important for me as what came out of it. It was an accelerated learning thing for me, playing with those guys. We are going to do a tour with everybody except for Harvey. Stanton (Moore) is going to play drums. Stanton, Chuck, Phil and Red. It will be all on the west coast in June. If it goes well and we can get everyone’s schedule together, we could do more.

AAJ: I know you say it was a learning experience for you but I ’ve seen you play a few times and you throw down some pretty great old school stuff. Speaking of which, I saw one of those Mike Clark Prescription Renewal gigs (http://mikeclarkmusic.com) and it was sooo badass.

RW: Every time I do that sort of thing it forces me to get things together in my playing that I really didn’t have before. You just kind of soak it up being around that, you know?

AAJ: Your electric piano chops were, really, for me, the shock, or the most pleasant surprise, or however you want to phrase it, of that whole Prescription Renewal thing.

RW: That’s the instrument I feel real comfortable on. The organ is sort of newer to me

AAJ: Really? But you’re known as more of an organ guy, right?

RW: Well it just sort of became that. When I started my own band I thought, like, I wanted to make it bigger sounding so I decided to go with the organ, . I’ve always been a big fan of organ records, but I’ve only been real serious about the organ for the last couple of years. It’s really a whole other thing. The more I listen, the more I realize I need to learn about it. A lot of guys play the organ like they play the piano, but there is a whole other thing about it. Playing bass is really a big part of it too, which is something I’d like to do in the future.

AAJ: I was going to ask you about that. I saw you do a show opening for Charlie Hunter. Your bassist was absent and you had to cover the bass yourself. You don't use bass pedals, do you? It seemed like you were covering the bass lines on the Rhodes, with the aid of some kind of octave divider or something. True?

RW: Yeah, I was just playing left hand. It’s a whole other way of thinking. In some ways, it’s actually easier than playing with a bass player but different. Then in other ways, it’s more difficult. If you can do pedals it’s even more heavy but that’s a very difficult thing, that’s a few years down the road for me.

But yeah, that gig you saw, I was using a Rhodes with a little octave divider. Part of the reason for not bringing a bigger rig was that our bass player was just missing the first few shows of the tour. So I didn’t bring a full–on bass rig. I just had to improvise a way to do it. I had to figure out a way to split my sound up so I didn’t have to change eq’s in the middle of the thing. I don’t carry a B-3, usually, because it’s not in the budget. It’s too much to carry and too much to fit in the van.

AAJ: You were using some great effects pedals on the Rhodes at the Mike Clark show. Did Herbie use the same pedals?

RW: Yeah , I use a lot of pedals . That’s where I got some of it from, particularly the delay stuff. He was using an echoplex, but I’ve got a little analog delay. Herbie is really like..sort of the ultimate guy, in a lot of ways to me. Just all around, being the first, there’s a sort of calmness to what he plays. He never gets ahead of himself.

AAJ: Well he invented all that beautiful stuff with the left hand on Rhodes. Is there a name to that?

RW: I just call it Herbie stuff. If you listen to the quintet stuff, especially the end of that stuff, it starts to sort of make itself apparent. It’s not just that the rhythmic thing is different but like the kind of ways he’s playing, and laying out the left hand a lot and playing really ambiguous voicings..it just allows you a lot more freedom. If you make the chord smaller the soloist has a much more freedom as far as where they want to go. It’s great for the piano player, because I can always support what I’m doing. If you’re a horn player, then you’re relying on the piano player to be doing what you want him to do.

AAJ: Well you really nailed his style without being a total rip-off.

RW: Part of it is that playing with Mike Clark brings it out of you. You just really want to play in that style.

AAJ: That whole band was incredible. I mean, take Charlie for instance. I love his usual playing, but the most exciting parts of that gig, in terms of his playing, for me, is when he brought the right hand up over the guitar and just played the bass lines with two fingers!

RW: We talk about that a lot. He says one of the reasons he developed his technique, covering all the harmony, is so that he wouldn’t overplay. Because his head is working so quick, if he played one or the other, he ‘d probably be all over the place, but it’s so difficult for him just to make it through the tune , playing both parts, it makes him slow down quite a bit. Super talented.

AAJ: You have a nice hookup with some of my favorite guys. Him and Skerik. Skerik was working the crowd in Boston when you guys played. Like, “This is Mike F*@*ing Clark. What else do you want? This guy wrote the book!What about this guy behind me, Robert Walter!”

RW: He’s great as far as getting both the crowd and the band worked up. He’s a big one ..if you’re repeating yourself night after night or fall into ruts he’ll yell at you until you get out of it. He will yell at me and Charlie and say , “Don’t play that shit you played last night!”, y’know. It scares you into keepin’ it fresh, so it’s great.

AAJ: Are there plans to release any material from that tour?

RW: We recorded a live gig in Boudler… there’s talk of putting it out but nothing concrete.

AAJ: So you grew up an are still from San Diego, right?

RW: Yeah. I took music when I was a kid and played in various bands, a lot of blues bands around town, and then the thing that got me going was the Greyboy Allstars, who are from here. Karl Denson was on sax . We did that for five years, touring Europe and the states a lot . That was a launching pad for my thing.

AAJ: How old were you guys in the Greyboy era?

RW: I’m 31 now and I started in that band in ’94 so, 24. I was in the original thing.

AAJ: Do you think that, over the years, there will be continuing collaboration between yourself and various Allstars?

RW: Yeah in one way or another. I just played on Karl’s new record. We play a lot of gigs together and I still see him a lot.

AAJ: He just did a new one for Blue Note, huh?

RW: I don’t know if this is public knowledge or not..but I don’t wanna be the guy..

AAJ: Oh , yeah, he got dropped right? No, I heard that. These labels, what are they thinkin’?

RW: Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t think jazz labels at this point have really figured out what to do with this music that sits in between... they’re not exactly jazz records..you know. The majority of the audience for this stuff is like, sort of kids into dance music or into jambands..hippie kids. They largely do not read DownBeat and they don’t know about that stuff. A certain portion of the jazz audience will be receptive to it, but some of those people aren’t even into this stuff cause there are electric instruments or whatever, or your chops aren’t as great as the next guy..so ..

AAJ: I disagree on the chops thing, by the way, but… these are the issues I want to touch on with you because this is just not a conundrum for the companies but for the press, the industry, etc. I think it’s great, that this kind of stuff can only increase the jazz audience, not decrease it, but I guess there are two schools of thought on that.

RW: For one thing, straight jazz records are not expected to sell a whole lot of copies. They’re made very quickly, their budget is fairly small, and they’re seen as this niche music that is going sell to a certain number of hardcore aficionados.

AAJ: How many records are they talkin' anyway?

RW: Well it all depends. If you make a record in two days you can afford to not sell a whole lot, but if you spend a week in the studio with guest stars … There was a mad rush to sign all these sort of funk bands. At this point the labels are having trouble capitalizing on that in a way. I don’t think it has to do with the level of demand for the bands… it’s due to the label having to refigure out how to get it to the audience. Because the people who are going to buy a whole lot of these records…there’s only the same amount of jazz fans, so it’s gotta cross over to the other crowd, you know.

AAJ: They only recently grabbed up Karl..and Soulive.

RW: Well Soulive did great

AAJ: I just reviewed their new one. (www.allaboutjazz.com/reviews/r0202_999.htm)

RW: We’re about to go on tour with them. I’m friends with those guys… they’re great.

AAJ: Yeah, Neal’s a great player.

RW: Oh yeah. And Stanton’s got a record coming out on Verve. I like that record a lot.

AAJ: Funky and freaky…Skerik and Karl. And Chris gets such a great sound, as usual. But getting back to the labels, they didn’t really scoop up that many of these bands.

RW: I don’t know. I think they’re still worried about it. We were talking to some people at the same time and decided to go for something a little more…scrappy. I’d sort of rather be high priority at a tiny label than low priority at a big label. For the next 20th Congress thing, we haven’t decided. So far my thing has gone ..every records a different label. Eventually, one will stick.

AAJ: "Money Shot" was a great record, too. I thought the multimedia track at the beginning (live video performance, interview, etc. ) was a fantastic idea as well. Like the DVD extra content idea, except on a cd.

RW: Yeah, it’s a cool record. I’d like to do the multimedia piece again. “Money Shot” spread the word about the band, without making a lot of money off the record or anything. As far as spreading the word and establishing something concrete.. stylistically it sort of separated it from everything going on..sometimes if you go see funk bands play live they all sort of blur into each other..the record helped us focus on what sound we really wanted. It was sort of an hyper-aggressive sort of thing..you know

AAJ: So tell us about Stanton’s special contribution to that record.

RW: Stanton will never let it not happen. He’s got such an energy he won’t allow it to be lifeless. That’s why I’m happy that he’ll be touring behind my new record as well.Every time I’ve seen him play he brings it up a level. It may not be the most accurate thing, depending on the night, but he’s never failed to bring the energy of the room up, and that’s such a great thing. I go through that problem where sometimes I have trouble keeping the focus on. Sometimes when you’‘re having a bad night, you can let it get to you.he never does that..he’s always on.

AAJ: You’re not on his record huh?

RW: He really wanted to stay away from having chords behind the horns very much.

AAJ: It does give it a different vibe.

RW: It allows the horns to not have to play in a harmony.

AAJ: Plus if you want to give Skerik room to manipulate sounds…

RW: Yeah.

AAJ: Getting back to Greyboy…they were certainly ahead of the curve on the DJ/Jamband tip. Were you guys doing it before MMW and Logic?

RW: Well, I guess we started doing it at around the same time. We didn’t know of them when we started doing it, and we met them…we actually played a gig together, around ’96. Well, now that you mention it, they didn’t have Logic yet, so maybe they started afterwards. There were some bands in England doing it ..that band Galliano (www.800.com/artist~54352~a~)..there was an English scene. A Latin thing, Snowboy (www.mrpmusicgroup.com/snowboy.htm), the James Taylor quartet... (http://www.jtq.co.uk)

AAJ: He’s like the English version of you, that guy.

RW: Yeah, I’ve met him before too. He’s a great, funny guy. They came out of the mod scene, a kind of 60’s obsessed kind of deal. He ended up making some more modern records, with a house music influence.

AAJ: They got lumped into acid jazz.

RW: Well, they were kind of like the beginning of that in a lot of ways. And a lot of that acid jazz came from mod guys into 60s jazz records that they melded with modern music. Many of those records were part of a scene I wasn’t particularly interested in, because I love to hear a rhythm section, and most of that was programmed beats. I’d rather hear drummers.

AAJ: Greyboy made his own DJ cd last year, right?

RW: Yeah, Dave Pike, the vibes player is on that. I actually went in and played a little bit but the stuff I did never made it on there. He worked on that record for a long time, having different people in and editing it down. An interesting process.

AAJ: Obviously, the DJ-in-the-band thing is a subject of some controversy in the musical world. What’s your take on it? Would you consider incorporating DJ's and samples with the Congress, or are you staying "old school" there?

RW: I don’t think I’d do it on my stuff. It all depends on what you’re trying to do. A lot of the stuff I’m trying to do musically comes out of DJ Culture. That’s how I really found out about a lot of these old records…it was from hip hop and finding out where this break came from and where’s that sample from. Then I’d find out what the record was, buy the record, listen to the whole song, then the whole record. That’s how I sort of discovered this stuff. I mean I had some Herbie Hancock and Ramsey Lewis...

AAJ: Oh that’s very interesting! I just was assuming totally the other way around.

RW: No no. I didn’t really have much of a jazz background. I liked rock music and hip hop records when I was a kid. And then I would find these...and Greyboy would spin these whole records in a club…then eventually that became a whole obsession, searching out all of these out of print records. For a long time that jazz funk stuff was not reissued.. they were in the bargain bins or in thrift stores... then the market got crazy for them after a while. And also the idea of the drum break… like this is the funkiest bar on the record… this is a DJ way of thinking ..jazz musicians don’t think about that…but that whole way of thinking is how I’m thinking when I’m writing tunes… like what is the break …what is the maximum impact place to put a bass drum note or how does the bass line sit with the bass drum..compositionally, that DJ way of thinking informs what I’m doing. Which is funny, because people think of what I’m doing as being sort of retro-oriented but it comes completely out of a modern way of thinking. Basically, I’m not using a sampler but I’m picking elements that I like out of these tunes. Rather than trying to make a tune like an old tune, I’m taking the best parts of it and trying to present those.

AAJ: That aspect makes the whole interview for me…it’s kind of stunning.

RW: Yeah, I’ve never talked about that before actually!

AAJ: So tell us about the 20th Congress and again, what each member brings to that amalgam. Cochemea (Gastelum) brings a lot to the mix, with alto, flute and his little effects box. Can you clue us in to what exactly that device is that he uses?

RW: It’s made by Hammond and it’s called a Condor RMI or something like that. Actually, Eddie Harris used one.

AAJ: So it’s an old , like vintage, thing?

RW: Yeah, like early 70s late 60s box. Basically, there’s a pickup in the mouthpiece of the horn and it goes through a bunch of filters and effects . There’s a fuzz box and octaver in there. I kind of heard about the amplified sax thing form the Maestro, Lou Donaldson, playing it, and Rusty Bryant did a record, an amplified alto record. We always wanted Karl to get one. Cheme found the Condor thing in a store for super cheap, nobody wanted ’em, so he bought one, and that sort of became something he’s gotten really into. We’re big Eddie Harris fans so…

AAJ: Cheme is probably the modern-day master of that. What are the names of those Lou Donaldson and Ray Bryant records?

RW: The Lou Donaldson records are “Hot Dog” and “Cosmos”. (http://allmusicguide.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=Bw3fe4j570wau) And “Rusty Bryant Returns” (http://members.tripod.com/~hardbop/returns.html) ... all amplified alto. He’s a big influence, especially on the early days of Greyboy.. he is the ultimate guy we were emulating He played with Ivan Boogaloo Joe Jones. Sonny Phillips, the organ player, was on his records.

Chris Stillwell (bass) is from Greyboy. We’ve been playing together forever. He’s into all the same players as I am . We’re obsessed with that Chuck Rainey, Willie Weeks style of bass.

George Sluppig (drums) from Memphis, is a great drummer who has that Memphis thing. He plays a lot of blues music. I just like that he’s not coming form a highly technical point of view. He’ more about great feel and he’s got great tones on his drum set.

AAJ: I had the pleasure of catching the Charlie Hunter double bill you guys did in Boston and the jams were the highlight of the show, for me. He was great with Charlies’s percussionists, along with your guy.

RW: Oh yeah, Chuck Prada , our percussion player, who also played on my new record..he’s a great player and I’ve known him forever, too.

AAJ: So all the guys live locally?

RW: They’re all originally from San Diego except the drummer George…and he’s been here now for years too..

AAJ: Do you gig locally ? Any things on the SanDiego scene you might do closer to home in terms of musical extracurriculars?

RW: George plays in town a lot, mainly with blues bands. I sort of come home and don’t go out..I try to get some r and r..and I write music. So I tend not to do gigs around town.

AAJ: Getting back to the jamming you do with other bands..such a great part of the whole ethic.

RW: It’s really nice now, since I know so many other musicians and there’s constantly that going on ..it’s great when you happen to be in the same town as someone else. It’s especially great when you’re touring with someone ..we did that every night with Charlie. It was great to..I look forward to that part of the night almost more than our gig. Just playing with friends that you don’t always get to see.

AAJ: Tell us about the special relationship you have with Charlie. You guys are developing a special thing.

RW: Me and Charlie have a good connection. We have done so many special little things together it’s starting to get really fun.

AAJ: But you’re not on any of his records and he’s not on yours. That could happen right?

RW: Not yet. We’ve talked about doing something together

AAJ: What would you say regarding the jamband tape trading phenomena?

RW: Well, it’s definitely the gigging that builds the audience. I don’t know , I haven’t decided yet if the audience taping thing impacts that in a good way or a bad way. I think a lot of people go to the shows and want to just… go and dance, so they’re not going to buy the records. I don’t think it really competes with sales. Most of the people who make or get tapes buy the records, but there’s only a small scene of those people, you know.

AAJ: I love getting live tunes, it’s just where the music happens.

RW: I just love the idea that there’s a document of it. What happens over the course of a bunch of nights, not any one of those nights by itself. I love listening to bootlegs that might give you an idea of a week’s worth of material and hear how things progressed. I get requests for releasing a live record constantly. I’m not ready to do it as of yet, partly because it keeps getting better. If you release a live record, it becomes the thing that represents what your live show was . I want to make sure that happens once it starts to peak out, if it ever does, you know. I don’t want to do it too early. If I had done it six months ago I’d be bummed now because it’s gotten so much better.

AAJ: It’s very rare a band makes one early. Aquarium Rescue Unit did that for their first record.

RW: Yeah, and that’s sort of the classic record from them; that’s the record to get.

AAJ: You are one of the most sought after players in the “jamband” world. Besides that Prescription Renewal thing, what other collaborations do you do?

RW: I’m in “Theory of Everything” with Michel Kang (mandolin) from String Cheese Incident and Dave Watts (drums), from the Motet (www.themotet.net) out of Boulder and Jans (Ingber), their singer, usually does it. It’s a revolving cast of characters, including Tye North (bass) formerly of Leftover Salmon. It’s just a jam type of thing..we haven’t done any recording.

I just did a recording of all P-Funk tunes with Clyde Stubblefield, Melvin Gibbs, Skerik , Phil Upchurch and DJ Logic. It’s all P-Funk covers but all tweaked out and weird. That’s another Brinkerhoff record.

AAJ: Melvin Gibbs is incredible in that style.

RW: Yeah. Which brings me back to playing bass with the organ… it’s a big part of the lost tradition. Neal Evans is real good at it. He has a new way of doing it that hasn’t…He’s changed to a synth thing for the bass lines..he sounds great…he is influenced a lot by hip hop and R’n’B records.

AAJ: Is there a style that you haven’t delved into you’d like to?

RW: I want to do an acoustic piano trio record.

AAJ: Anyone you haven’t worked with that you’d like to?

RW: I’d like to play with Idris Muhammad (www.offbeat.com/ob2001/backtalk.html) on drums.

AAJ: What are a handful of your own favorite cuts (work that you appear on)?

They are ALL essential (laughs).

AAJ: So what’s coming up that we should look for?

RW: The next recording will be a 20th Congress studio record. And the next tour with be with the 20th Congress in April look out for that. The special element of that, and someone I’m extremely excited about collaborating with…is that Fred Wesley (www.fredwesley.com) will be touring with us.