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Porter-Batiste-Stoltz
Their time has come at last. After spending years, even decades,
providing some of the greatest backline support New Orleans music has heard,
the brilliant sidemen George Porter Jr., Russell Batiste Jr., and Brian Stoltz,
(Porter Batiste Stoltz) are ready for their close-up. “It’s now time to focus
all of our efforts on this, right here, right now,” says Porter Jr. “This is
where we want to be. We might be walking away from some decent projects but we
believe in this and in each other.”
Everyone else who hears Porter Batiste Stoltz believes, too, which
is why the prospect of a new album from the group is reason to get excited.
There’s no denying the trio’s pedigree, and their chops are miles wide and
oceans deep. Porter is the original bass player for the Meters, a group that
virtually defined
New Orleans
rockin’ funk, while
Batiste and Stoltz joined Porter in the latter day incarnation of that band,
the Funky Meters.
“We all come from old school
New Orleans
,” says Stoltz. “I grew
up listening to the Beatles and Hendrix, but we still have that deep
New Orleans
background.”
A few years ago, when Funky Meter Art Neville opted to go back to
the band bearing his family’s name, Porter Batiste Stoltz saw opportunity, not
disappointment. Rather than continue on with the measured but explosive
Meter-like grooves, Porter Batiste Stoltz decided to explore a little, to
tinker with the foundation of their funky sound.
The result of that tinkering was a debut album, the aptly titled
Expanding
the Funkin’ Universe (2005). “The stuff we do together can only happen with
the three of us,” says Batiste. “We have a deep respect for the groove. We
sound like Porter Batiste Stoltz and only Porter Batiste Stoltz, that’s what’s
so special about this band.”
All the tracks on the new album begin with a great idea, and
improve from there. “It’s more like a funk rock kind of thing with a strong
pocket,” says Porter, “a bass line that connects with the drummer and allows
for the rhythm stuff and the lead chords to do whatever.”
The rhythms are inimitable, as only first-call
New Orleans
players can lay down.
But they’re also real songs. Stoltz, who has a songwriting background, adds
greater dimension to the PBS collaborations, casting the melodies of classy pop
and rock into the rawness of great R&B. “There’s a big difference in our
approach,” says Stoltz. “We work very fast in Porter Batiste Stoltz, with the
grooves coming first and finding topics to sing about later. There’s more
intuition and less thinking, which makes it really fun.”
While
their debut album offered funk, groove, fusion, rock, hyphenated style
freakout,
the new album, says Porter, promises to
feature more focus and less wild-eyed indulgence. “We’ve taken a real step
forward in the groove and we learned some things from the first record that’s
made this next one really special.”
Batiste, accustomed to the more spontaneous approach in the
studio, agrees: “To me it’s better because we’re more unified. The
constructions on this album came from jams, right off the top of our heads. Now
we’re talking grooves!”
Stay tuned for
information on the next album release by Porter Batiste Stoltz.
The three funky kings have worked up musical resumes that make
even those in the
Crescent
City
envious:
GEORGE PORTER
JR.
Few bass players in the history of modern
New Orleans
music are as storied as
George Porter Jr. During the course of a career spanning four decades, Porter
has not only made a deep impression with his work in the Meters, but he’s
notched sessions with artists as diverse as Paul McCartney, Jimmy Buffett,
David Byrne, Patti LaBelle, Robbie Robertson and Tori Amos. Early in his
career, Porter worked with seminal
New Orleans
artists like Allen
Toussaint, Earl King, Lee Dorsey, and Johnny Adams. Back in 1965, Porter joined
on with the Meters, considered by many to be the ultimate fusion of rock, funk
and R&B, and gained recognition as one of the scene’s elite bass players.
Porter’s rhythmic work in the Meters in lockstep with drummer
Zigaboo Modeliste was epic. Those pockets, the long notes and fat holes,
provided the cushion for Leo Nocentelli or Art Neville to play or sing over and
created some of R&B history’s most memorable grooves.
Today, Porter features that epic bottom end in his latest collection
of Porter Batiste Stoltz tunes. “It’s the ultimate jam band,” Porter says, “one
that actually is more musical than just playing everything you know in every
song. This band slaps people in the face until they see how good the stuff is!”
RUSSELL BATISTE
JR.
As a member of one of N’awlins legendary musical families, Russell
Batiste Jr. knows his way around a sound stage. He’s played multiple
instruments, and has been at the drum kit since the age of four. Even before
that, Russell recalls watching his daddy, David Batiste (of the city’s seminal
funk band David Batiste and the Gladiators), jam with an endless array of the
city’s most talented musicians. That band hosted a virtual “Who’s Who” of ’60s
musicians. One of Russell’s earliest memories is sitting on Jackie Wilson’s
knee listening to him sing “Lonely Teardrops”!
Russell joined the Funky Meters in 1989 and, like Porter, has
played with a wide variety of performers, including Harry Connick Jr., Champion
Jack DuPree, Robbie Robertson, and Maceo Parker. An industrious artist and
creator, the busy Batiste also manages to put time into his own projects, too,
like Orkestra from da Hood, who released their debut
The Clinic a few
years back. “I believe music is in you naturally and you just have to tap into
it,” he says. “It’s got to be an emotional thing. When we play together in
Porter Batiste Stoltz, what we do touches all three of us emotionally. That’s
music to me.”
BRIAN
STOLTZ
Brian Stoltz’s playing is a perfect fusion of virtuosity, emotion,
and instinct, and the combination has helped him to develop a reputation as one
of
New Orleans
’ most sought after guitar players.
Stoltz originally made a name for himself with the Neville Brothers, then later
the Funky Meters with Batiste and Porter. He’s done session work with some of
music’s best, including Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Daniel Lanois, Dr. John, Edie
Brickell, and Linda Ronstadt.
But in addition to his instrumental work, Stoltz has also worked
as a singer-songwriter. With the release of his two solo discs,
East of
Rampart Street and
God, Guns & Money—both efforts in the rock
and pop vein—Stoltz has added skills as a songwriter, lyricist and melodicist
to his repertoire. He even received a Grammy nomination in the Traditional
Blues category for a track he contributed to a Mississippi Fred McDowell
tribute in 2004. “For a long time I had been stereotyped as a funk guitarist,”
he says, “But I’ve always been about songs as opposed to groove or guitar.”
For Stoltz, PBS is a breathtaking departure from the Funky Meters’
routine. Despite its legacy, that band refrained from creating much original
material. Porter Batiste Stoltz is diametrically opposite to that; it’s a
wellspring of spontaneous creativity, a canvas upon which all three of its very
talented members can dabble with color. And often those colors combine to
create gorgeous pictures.
“When we play together, there’s one mind at work,” says Stoltz.
“It’s scary sometimes. In the middle of battle, we can be doing some fierce
jamming, and George and I will go to the wrong chord
together. How does
that happen? It only happens when you’re of one mind.”
Official Website
Show Schedule
MP3 Sample Tracks:
All We Wanna Do
I Believe
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