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Walter "Wolfman" Washington & The Roadmasters: Funk Is in the House |
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New Orleans
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Monday, 23 January 2006 12:32 |
Funk Is in the House
Walter 'Wolfman' Washington & the Roadmasters
Bullseye Blues & Jazz BB-9599
By John Sinclair
There's nobody quite like Walter 'Wolfman' Washington & his Roadmasters. Equal parts funk, soul, and gospel blues stirred with deep feeling and simmered in a special New Orleans roux, Wolfman's music pulses with imagination and joy, framed by the guitarist's exquisitely personal compositions and relentlessly propelled by the crisp punch of his skin-tight ensemble.
Yet, with individualism and innovation at a real premium in roots music today, Washington remains a widely overlooked artist on the American blues scene. Part of this is due to the absence of any domestic recordings by Wolfman since the almost simultaneous release of Wolf at the Door (Rounder) and Sada (Pointblank) in 1991, and this lack of current product has certainly kept him from enjoying many of the benefits of the blues magazine and media boom of the 1990s.
Neglect has not deterred Washington & the Roadmasters from their musical mission, and they have continued to travel from their home base in New Orleans to nightclubs and festival stages all over Europe and the USA where pockets of rabid fans and followers delight in their every appearance. And Wolfman's last album, Blue Moon Rising, recorded in Europe in 1994 with Fred Wesley, Maceo Parker and PeeWee Ellis joining the Roadmaster horn section, provided clear proof that his music has continued to thrive and grow even without an outlet in the American recording industry.
Now the Wolfman is all the way back on the set with Funk Is in the House, and it's definitely an occasion for a music lover's celebration. A shimmering collection of inventive original songs and hard-pumping instrumentals spiced with favorites by Ray Charles, Jerry Butler, and Teddy Pendergrass, Funk Is In the House signals the arrival of the Roadmasters as a fully developed, perfectly functioning vehicle for the fluid electric guitar, exuberant, beautifully nuanced vocals, and mature musical conception of the Wolfman at his very peak.
Washington's closest musical cohorts--drummer Wilbur 'Junk Yard Dog' Arnold, bassist Jack Cruz and tenor saxophonist Tom Fitzpatrick--have formed the core of the Roadmasters for almost 15 years, weathering thousands of nights on the bandstand together to evolve into a brilliantly polished, expressively coherent unit completely attuned to everything moving inside its leader's musical universe. Trumpet man Larry Carter and trombonist Dave Woodard are seasoned Roadmaster veterans who join Fitzpatrick--here as on stage--to form an impeccably supportive horn section, and Luca Fredericksen fits his keyboards into the ensemble to enhance the richness of the mix.
Not every bluesman travels with a three-man horn section, but its sound is central to Wolfman's musical vision, and he's managed to keep the Roadmasters intact throughout an unceasing sequence of grueling ups and downs to emerge with one of the very finest bands in the land. Together they have created an impressive body of original material and have developed a unique, seamlessly integrated musical personality to give it proper definition.
There's an exuberant spirituality in Wolfman's sound, a warmth and sincerity at the heart of his identity that beams through every note, and he has been blessed with an ensemble which shares his commitment to self-expression for the sake of the music and the positive impact it can have on its audience. Whatever the exigencies of the music business--and welcome though popular success would surely be--the record clearly indicates that Walter 'Wolfman' Washington & The Roadmasters will continue to persist in their quest for more and better music and the means to express it more effectively.
Walter's been at this for a long time now, but he's still reaching for new peaks and is always trying to stretch and grow as a guitarist, singer and composer. Born in New Orleans on December 21, 1943, into a vast musical family--Ernie K-Doe is his cousin, and he's related to the illustrous Walter Nelson line--the young Wolfman was drafted into show business by Lee Dorsey as a teenager and grew into early manhood as a regular at the legendary Dew Drop Inn. He joined forces with Johnny Adams and backed the Tan Canary for many years, opening Johnny's shows with his band The Solar System and providing faultless support for the popular singer.
Walter made a fine series of singles for Senator Jones's Hep'Me label in the early 1980s and soon went out on his own with the Roadmasters, landing a contract with Rounder Records which produced three fine albums: Wolf Tracks (1986), Out of the Dark (1988), and Wolf at the Door (1991). When his contract ran out, Washington split with Rounder and producer Scott Billington, opting to try his luck with Pointblank and then with a European production team, but nothing seemed to work out right and the band toiled on without proper representation on record.
In 1997, six years after their parting of the ways, Wolfman responded to Billington's suggestion that maybe they should give it another try with a full slate of vibrant new compositions and his unbelievably well-prepared ensemble to play them with. The sessions at Ultrasonic Studios in New Orleans went smoothly and sweetly, inspired by the remarkable level of communication and mutual support sustained by all the members of the band--an almost palpable presence which can be felt from the first note to the last.
If this were a just and musically attentive world, songs like "Please Come Back To Me," "When The Answer Is Clear" and "I'm In Love" would be Top Ten hits, Wolfman's sensitive interpretations of "I Stand Accused" and "Close The Door" would gain him widespread acclaim as one of our finest contemporary vocalists, and his fervent reading of the great Ray Charles tune, "Mary Ann," would rock the nation.
If there were justice, Wolf's fluent, soulful guitar would place him at the top of the popularity polls, his hard-earned advice on "Trials & Tribulations" would be given full credence, and "The Big Easy" would be playing every night on every car radio in the Crescent City. People all over the world would be dancing their asses off to "Funkyard," "Wolf Funk" and the nasty title track, and the good times would never cease to roll.
Well, we can dream, can't we? Wolfman Washington & The Roadmasters have kept their dream alive through a little bit of thick and a whole lot of thin, perfecting their attack and keeping it intact until they could put it down on this record for you.
Now the Funk is truly In The House, right where it belongs, and Walter 'Wolfman' Washington & The Roadmasters intend to keep laying it down for quite some time to come. If you've missed them, well they're back, and if they're new to you, welcome to the party, Jack!
--New Orleans
December 23, 1997
(c) 1997, 2006 John Sinclair. All Rights Reserved.
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