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Joe Krown is a true Hammond B-3 organ powerhouse. A multi award-winning native of New Orleans, Joe held the keyboard chair with Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown & Gates Express from 1992 until Gatemouth's passing in the fall of 2005. Joe is featured on the chart-topping albums The Man, Gate Swings, American Music, Texas Style and most recently Back to Bogalusa. In 1995, Gatemouth and Gate's Express including Joe on keyboards did a 62-date world tour as the opening act for Eric Clapton. In 2004, Gates Express won an Offbeat award for Best Band in the Blues Category. Joe is also featured in Gatemouth's band on Carlos Santana's Carlos Santana Presents Blues At Montreux 2004 DVD.
Joe has been nominated twice and won a New Orleans Big Easy Award in the Blues category. He was selected "Best Keyboardist, Editor's Choice" at CitySearch.com for New Orleans. Joe's CD Livin' Large (2005) clocked in at #11 in overall sales for the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival 2005.
From September 1996 to June 2001, Joe held the Traditional Piano Night slot at the Maple Leaf Bar in New Orleans, which was once occupied by Professor Longhair and James Booker. Joe followed that strong tradition with his debut solo release Just the Piano...Just the Blues (1998) and the follow-up CD, New Orleans Piano Rolls (2003). Joe has been a headline performer at WWOZ's Piano Night during the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage festival every year since 1997.
In the spring of 2007, Joe started playing every Sunday night with Walter Wolfman Washington (guitar & vocals) and Russell Batiste Jr. (drums), with Joe playing all the bass parts on the organ. The Sunday nights were so successful that the Trio released a live CD, Live at the Maple Leaf (Oct. 2008). Live at the Maple Leaf was produced by Joe and was the first live CD in Joe's catalog. Live at the Maple Leaf won a 2009 Offbeat Award for "Best R&B/Funk CD". The Trio also won a 2009 Big Easy Award in the "Best Rhythm & Blues Band" category. The Trio has recorded two follow-up CDs to Live at the Maple Leaf: Triple Threat (Nov. 2010) and their most recent release, Soul Understanding (April 2013). The Trio was the feature band for a 3-week, 15-city Northeast tour called New Orleans Nights where they played a set, then backed up Grammy Award-winning artists Nicholas Payton and Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Allen Toussaint.
In the fall of 2007, Joe was invited to be a feature artist in the Solid Blues Tour. The tour was a 38 U.S.-city tour in October and November 2007, and featured Mavis Staples, Charlie Musselwhite, the North Mississippi All-Stars, and Joe. Joe performed a 20-minute solo piano set featuring music from his latest CD Old Friends, and then he joined the North Mississippi All-Stars backing up Mavis Staples and Charlie Musselwhite.
Joe was featured in an episode of the New Orleans-based HBO drama Treme. Joe plays himself in a scene in episode 4, season 1, and one of Joe's songs is used in episode 2, season 1 for background music. Joe can also be seen in several episodes of the TNT series Memphis Beat and the Deniro/Stallone movie Grudge Match.
As the keyboard player in Gatemouth's band and as an artist, Joe has shared the stage and/or recorded with superstars like Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton, Kim Wilson, Ike Turner, Jimmy McGriff, Melvin Sparks, George Porter Jr., Buddy Guy, Niles Rodgers, Shemekia Copeland, Paul Shaffer (David Letterman Show), Lenny Picket (Tower of Power, SNL band), Sonny Landreth, Dr. John, Albert Collins, Joe Sample, Irma Thomas, Kenny Neal, Frankie Ford, Luther "Guitar Jr." Johnson, Jumpin Johnny Sansone, Zigaboo Modileste, New Orleans Juice, Kid Ramos (guitarist from the Fabulous Thunderbirds), Bobby Charles, Raful Neal, Marva Wright, and many other great artists.
Walter "Wolfman" Washington has been a mainstay on the New Orleans music scene for decades. His guitar style combines rhythm and blues, blues, New Orleans funk, and modern jazz into a way of playing that is uniquely his. His singing is emotional and heartfelt. His guitar work is intricate, intimate, and full. There is a little Bobby Blue Bland, a little Kenny Burrell, a little George Benson, a little church, and a lot of New Orleans charm and experience in a Walter Wolfman Washington performance. Washington cut his teeth backing up some of the best singers and performers in New Orleans history before putting together his longtime band The Roadmasters, who have been burning down and burning up local and national stages since their first gigs in the 1980s. The band is known for doing their own soulful originals as well as some great unsung covers spanning many decade; in this day and age of musicians imitating the past or trying to recreate it, Washington stands out as a musician steeped in the history while remaining completely contemporary.
Like many African-American musicians in the South, Washington started singing in school and the church. He had just hit double digits when he formed an a capella spirituals group in his neighborhood called the True Love And Gospel Singers. One Sunday, they went on the local gospel show on WBOK to sing, and Washington noticed the guitar player in the studio who was playing behind them. "I just sat there and watched him," Washington recalls, "He was playing with all his fingers." When Washington got home, he made his own guitar from a cigar box, rubber bands, and a clothes hanger. One of his uncles saw this and gave him a real guitar, and Washington started practicing guitar. His dad supported his music, and took him to see a musician he knew across the river from New Orleans, and those two played his first gig in Gretna, LA. Even though his parents were not musicians, "I had lots of uncles who played guitar Guitar Slim and Lightnin' Slim were my uncles." says Washington. And Ernie K-Doe (renown New Orleans performer and singer of international hit Mother In Law) was his cousin. "One of the reasons I got interested in music was because of my cousin Ernie K-Doe, laughs Washington, He was out there playing music and bringing home money and taking care of my auntie."
Another one of Washington's uncles sang with the Zion Harmonizers, and he would invite many of the gospel singers over for Sunday breakfast. One of those singers was Johnny Adams, who befriended Washington. When Washington decided that he wanted to play music and not go to school in his later high school years, Adams helped convince Washington's mother by saying Adams would take care of Walter.
Adams got Walter a room in the Dew Drop Inn on LaSalle Street in Central City for 7 dollars per week. The Dew Drop Inn was a combination nightclub, hotel, barbershop, and restaurant. Every African-American musician in New Orleans -- and those simply passing through -- came and played and hung out there, from Big Joe Turner to Duke Ellington to Allen Toussaint. Washington played with house band where he met bassist Richard Dixon, who told Lee Dorsey about Washington. Dorsey was a New Orleans singer with a couple of big hits, "Ride Your Pony" and "Working in a Coal Mine" under his belt. Dorsey hired the 19 year-old Washington to go on the road with him. "The furthest Id ever been from home was Mississippi or Baton Rouge," chuckled Washington, "Our first gig was at the Apollo Theatre in New York, and we drove straight there in a red Cadillac."
Wolfman stayed on the road with Dorsey for two and a half years before coming home. When he returned, he helped singer Irma Thomas start her own band. The two of them and the band worked the Southern chitlin circuit for two years. He then moved on to splitting time between bands; one with saxophonist David Lastie, and another with the Tick Tocks. Lastie gave Washington the nickname "Wolfman" due to his lack of front teeth and the fact that, as Walter remembers, "I would challenge anyone onstage. No matter who or what or what style they would play, I would challenge them. David used to say, 'You sure know how to wolf them'."
After five years of playing with those two bands, Johnny Adams came back into the picture and asked Walter to be his personal guitar player. Wolfman had also started playing with his longtime onstage foil drummer Wilbur "The Junk Yard Dog" Arnold. They went on the road with Adams, and also backed him up at a now-infamous gig at Dorothy's Medallion on Orleans Avenue in Mid City. Washington says, "The gig started at 3 AM, and they had shake dancers who would be dancing and stuff. The place would packed until daylight. You go in there, and you come out and its daylight."
Wolfman also started recording with Adams. He backed him on his long run of acclaimed albums on the Rounder label. Wolfman formed his current band, The Roadmasters, in the mid 1980s, with drummer Arnold and singer Timothea. The band recorded three albums for Rounder, Wolf Tracks (1986), Out of the Dark (1988), Wolf at the Door (1991), and one for Rounders subsidiary Bullseye Blues, Funk is in the House (1998). The Roadmasters have proven to be Washington's longest-lasting band at nearly 30 years strong.
Russell Batiste Jr. is a member of one of New Orleans' legendary musical families, and knows his way around a stage. He plays 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 Whos 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. Russell has recorded with Allan Toussaint, Robbie Robertson, Harry Connick, Jr., performed on the last two Wild Magnolias Mardi Gras Indians' CD's, and two unlicensed CD's of The Funky Meters featuring the JB Horns, recorded live in Switzerland. Russell has played with a wide variety of performers including Mike Gordon (Phish), Eric Krasno (Soulive), Champion Jack DuPree and Maceo Parker. In 2001 Russell joined the legendary trio Vidal Blue with Page McConnell (Phish) and Oteil Burbridge (Allman Bros, Dead & Company). Vida Blue toured for almost 5 years and released 2 CDs. An industrious artist and creator, the busy Batiste also manages to put time into his own projects, too, like Orkestra from da Hood and Russell Batiste and Friends.
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LocationCafe Istanbul (View)
2372 St Claude Avenue
New Orleans, LA 70117
United States
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