Will Bernard -
Guitar Robert Walter -
Synthesizer, Piano, Organ (Hammond), Programming, Producer, Engineer, Sampling, Fender Rhodes, Effects Todd Burke -
Engineer, Mixing George Sluppick -
Drums Jim Brick - Mastering
Cochemea Gastelum -
Flute, Clarinet (Bass), Sax (Alto), Effects Chris Stillwell -
Bass Mike Fratantuno -
Bass Joe Russo -
Drums Chuck Prada -
Percussion Jeff Kelley -
EngineerRobert Walter continues to balance on twin peaks of dance and jazz cultures with Giving Up the Ghost, whose breezy grooves cool sizzling keyboard and sax lines down to a simmer. The band includes alumni from
Black Eyed Peas, T.J. Kirk, and Walter's own
Greyboy Allstars, which means that the playing is consistently top-notch. There's enough angularity in the arrangements to bear occasional comparison to
Medeski, Martin & Wood. And there's a cinematic aspect to some of the track sequences, as in the movement from an Eno echo in the filmy shimmer of "Underbrush," to the holy-rolling handclaps that follow on "Sacred Secret"; listeners with long memories might discern a whiff of Beaver & Krause in this formula. But these elements serve mainly to paint Giving Up the Ghost as an audio adornment, whose varied colors seem fashioned more to enhance the ambience than to draw any particular attention to themselves. —
Robert L. Doerschukby Ann Wickstrom Instrumental jazz-funk is the name of Robert Walter's game. The top-notch organ/piano player was a founding member of the Greyboy Allstars, with whom he played for five years and toured extensively throughout North America and Europe. He has also played and recorded with jazz and funk icons Fred Wesley, Melvin Sparks, Andy Bey, and Reuben Wilson, and he contributed to the soundtrack of the 1998 film Zero Effect. In 1996, Walter released a solo album featuring sax great Gary Bartz called Spirit of '70. Two years later he formed Robert Walter's 20th Congress in San Diego. The band also includes Cochemea Gastelum on alto sax and flute, Chris Stillwell on bass, George Sluppick on drums and percussion, and Chuck Padra on congas, bongos, and percussion. The band tours the U.S. and Canada steadily, playing originals (including some of the songs Walter wrote for the Greyboy Allstars) as well as material from Grant Green, Reuben Wilson, and others. An EP, Health and Fitness, preceded the band's July 2000 full-length release Money Shot on Fog City Records.
