Keith Spera for NOLA.com
Walter “Wolfman” Washington closed out 2013 at the Umbria Jazz Festival in Italy, far from the New Orleans music clubs that are his natural habitat. But, he happily reports, his Roadmasters had no trouble translating his distinctly Big Easy hybrid of funk, soul, and rhythm & blues for the Italians.
He is one of the living legends of New Orleans music, an especially soulful singer and guitarist who has haunted the city’s clubs and festival stages around the world for 50 years. He cut his teeth as a sideman to Lee Dorsey, Ernie K-Doe and crooner Johnny Adams before founding the Roadmasters 28 years ago.
“I lead the band with my movements. You never know what I’m going to do on the bandstand. Every night I do something different with each song. If I was to play a song the same way every night, everybody would get bored. Even me. So I try to do something different just to keep it alive.”
The current Roadmasters may be his tightest unit yet, he says, “because all the cats are older now, more settled. Five pieces, and they sound like 10. The connection we have with each other is good.”
Read more at NOLA.com
Walter Wolfman Washington on TKA