Throughout the years, Robert Walter has been building a reputation as one of the America’s heaviest jazz funk keyboardist. As a founding member of the Greyboard Allstarts, he toured throughout North America and Europe with the group for five years. Along the way, he contributed to the soundtrack of “Zero Effect” and performed as and recorded with jazz and funk heavyweights like Fred Wesley, Gary Bartz, Melvin Sparks, Andy Bey and Reuben Wilson.
Now at 30, Walter leads a new band, Robert Walter’s 20th Congress, with a whole new groove and new following of huge, dance-crazed crowds. They’ll be tearing up the stage at Maxwell’s on Wednesday, Nov. 1 at 10:30 p.m. with Seeking Homer.
Twentieth Congress features Walter on electric piano and organ; Cochemea “Cheme” Gastelum on alto sax, electric sax and flute; Chris Stillwell on bass; and George Sluppick on drums. They’ve been touring together since November 1998, and they’ve just released their debut full-length recording Money Shot on San Francisco’s Fog City Records. And this CD is particularly cool because it’s enhanced, which means that CD-ROM owners can pop it in for a multimedia experience that includes a virtual “hands on” mixing board, bonus audio tracks and live performance video.
The 20th Congress’ sound is often labeled as “groove jazz,” although on a song-by-song basis, the band feels they have a more funk, soul jazz or boogaloo kind of beat. While Walter’s own songwriting may have a more harmonic complexity found more in mid-’70s fusion than in a today’s funk bands, the 20th Congress’ rhythm section cultivates a vibe from an earlier, sweatier jazz tradition.
“The problem I have with hardcore jazzbos is that they seem sort of cookie-cutter in their attitude towards other forms of music and composition,” said Walter recently. “I like to play around with ideas and get into improvisational and all that, but it’s got to be something that makes people move. That’s really where jazz started out. People forgot that.”