Robert Walter - Cure All (2008)

01 - Snakes and Spiders
02 - Money Changes
03 - Cure All
04 - Coupe
05 - Scores of Spores
06 - Parts and Holes
07 - Rivers of Babylon
08 - Maple Plank
09 - Box of Glass
10 - Measure Up
11 - Hillary Street
12 - Bulldog Run
13 - T


Personnel
Robert Walter - Hammond organ, Fender Rhodes, piano, clavinet, percussion
James Singleton - double bass
Johnny Vidacovich - drums, cymbals

Keyboardist Robert Walter really does know how to capture one’s attention. Known for his fat and heavy Hammond B-3 sound, the artist struts pizzazz and funk, and yet his material here on Cure All and the direction that the material follows also often gives some serious acknowledgement to some of the finest in traditional jazz style. In fact, there’s really a great collage of styles here.
This music is full of rich, beautifully blended and decently funky melodies, played with the passion you know Walter feels as he travels across the ivories, be it in a Jimmy Smith manner or something more subtle like a smooth touch of elegant piano. While many of the cuts here (particularly the early ones) are soaked in funk, Walter’s touch with the blues is also quite impressive, as is shown in “Measure Up,” and I can’t omit his handling of the honky tonkish up-tempo number, “Scores of Spores,” which is about as contagious a “happy dance” piece as you care to hear. Those familiar with Ozzie Ahlers will hear a lot of his style here, as well as traces of Walters’s early rock influences. If that’s not diverse enough, there are also very stylish straight-up jazz offerings like “Parts & Holes” and “Hillary Street.”
The artist says that he wrote the music here with a couple of New Orleans musicians in mind, drummer Johnny Vidacovich and bassist James Singleton, both of whom are fixtures in New Orleans music and who also join him here. The tunes do reflect that N’Orleans flavor. “Rivers of Babylon” and “Maple Plank” immediately come to mind.
The funk element tapers off after track 8, but the music still goes to some interesting places certainly deserving of a listen. Walter’s obvious decision to use the Hammond, piano, and keyboards in the diverse fashion demonstrated on Cure All was a wise one that should truly impress listeners of different tastes in one way or another.
(Review: Ronald Jackson, jazzreview.com)

"...these guys are locked in a threeway conversation that is almost always loud, colorful and illuminating."
(Wayne Robbins, Billboard )

Soul jazz organist Robert Walter built a reputation as one of America’s heaviest jazz-funk crossover musicians. He earned international acclaim for his work with the Greyboy Allstars, who were credited with bringing the 60s/70s soul jazz sound to a modern jamband audience. Robert Walter toured extensively in the U.S. and Europe for the past 15 years with the Greyboy Allstars and his own ensemble 20th Congress.
Robert wrote this collection of originals with drummer Johnny Vidacovich and bassist James Singleton in mind. Johnny is an elder statesman in New Orleans. He taught many of the local drummers and has been a fixture of the music scene there all his life. James Singleton has an intimate and extensive affiliation with the New Orleans music scene and a member of Astral Project, a fixture there since 1978.
(Record company website)

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