Weasel Walter
Encyclopedia
Weasel Walter is a composer
and instrumentalist who founded the band The Flying Luttenbachers
in Chicago in 1991 with late jazz cult figure Hal Russell
and is a current member of Cellular Chaos and Behold...The Arctopus. Over the years, The Flying Luttenbachers included noted Chicago musicians such as Ken Vandermark
, Jeb Bishop
, Fred Lonberg-Holm
, Dylan Posa, and Michael Colligan, while creating an uncompromising and mercurial body of abstract music drawing equally from no wave
, death metal
, free jazz
, gamelan
, noise music
, hardcore punk
and modern classical. Walter moved to the San Francisco Bay Area
in 2003, where he formed the latest of many Luttenbachers lineups, remaining on percussion with the addition of bassist Mike Green (Burmese), and virtuoso guitarist Ed Rodriguez (ex-Colossamite
, Gorge Trio
). Singular guitar phenomenon Mick Barr
(Octis, Orthrelm
) joined the group in 2005. The Flying Luttenbachers ceased to operate in late 2007. In addition to leading various free jazz ensembles under his own name, currently he is a member of Burmese. On November 25, 2009, Weasel Walter announced that he was moving to New York City to join the band Behold... The Arctopus
on drums and will be writing "new, more extreme material from scratch." Since moving back to New York, he has also formed Cellular Chaos
with Marc Edwards (drummer)
and Ceci Moss.
, Miss High Heel (with Jim O'Rourke
and Azita
of The Scissor Girls
), Lake of Dracula (with Marlon Magas and Heather M. of the Scissor Girls), To Live and Shave in L.A. 2, 7000 Dying Rats and Hatewave (replacing founder Nandor Nevai) among others. Walter has most recently relocated to New York City.
Walter has collaborated with artists like Evan Parker
, John Butcher
, Marshall Allen
, Peter Evans
, Mary Halvorson
, Henry Kaiser
, Damon Smith, Vinny Golia
, Joe Morris
, Frank Gratkowski, William Winant
, Marlon Magas, Jim O'Rourke
, Tom Smith in To Live and Shave in L.A.
, and Ken Vandermark
as well as many influential underground rock bands including Lair of the Minotaur
, Bobby Conn
, U.S. Maple
, Cock E.S.P.
, Curse of the Birthmark, the Scissor Girls, Erase Errata
, The Chicago Sound, Harry Pussy
, Quintron, Sharon Cheslow
, and Cheer-Accident
, in addition to producing albums by the Coachwhips
, Burmese, Total Shutdown, Arab on Radar
, AIDS Wolf, and Glenn Branca
.
Walter is also known in underground circles and filesharing sites for his series of bootleg "Revision" albums, wherein he takes an existing recording of another artists and adds his own tracks. These include: David Wertman's Kara Suite, Ornette Coleman
's Body Meta, John Coltrane
's Interstellar Space, Cecil Taylor
's Cecil Taylor Unit, Roscoe Mitchell
/Sunny Murray
's Wildflowers 5, Derek Bailey's Solo Guitar Volume One, Marilyn Crispell
's A Concert In Berlin, ]]Borbetomagus]]' Zurich, The Music Improvisation Company, Cecil Taylor
Indent, Masayuki Takayanagi
/Kaoru Abe
's Mass Projection, Steve Lacy
/Maarten Altena's High, Low and Order, Anthony Braxton
/John Lindberg
's Six Duets, Oliver Lake
's Passin' Through, Eugene Chadbourne
/Polly Bradfield
's Torture Time, Peter Brotzmann
& Bill Laswell
's Lowlife, Frank Lowe
's Black Beings, Derek Bailey & Evan Parker
's The London Concert, Ornette Coleman
's Skies Of America, Keiji Haino
's - I Said, This Is The Son Of Nihilism; and 17 more titles.
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
and instrumentalist who founded the band The Flying Luttenbachers
The Flying Luttenbachers
The Flying Luttenbachers were an instrumental unit led by multi-instrumentalist / composer / producer Weasel Walter. The Luttenbachers have created a large body of work focusing on an agenda of musical extremity and dissonance...
in Chicago in 1991 with late jazz cult figure Hal Russell
Hal Russell
Hal Russell was an American free jazz musician. He performed mainly on drums and saxophone, but occasionally on trumpet or vibraphone. Russel's fiery music was marked by significant humor, not unlike much of Dutch drummer Han Bennink's output...
and is a current member of Cellular Chaos and Behold...The Arctopus. Over the years, The Flying Luttenbachers included noted Chicago musicians such as Ken Vandermark
Ken Vandermark
Ken Vandermark is an American jazz composer and saxophone and clarinet player.A fixture on the Chicago-area music scene since the 1990s, Vandermark has earned wide critical praise for his playing and his multilayered compositions, which typically balance intricate orchestration with passionate...
, Jeb Bishop
Jeb Bishop
Jeb Bishop is an American jazz trombone player.He grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. He has studied music at Northwestern University, engineering and philosophy at North Carolina State University, and philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Arizona,...
, Fred Lonberg-Holm
Fred Lonberg-Holm
Fred Lonberg-Holm is an American cellist based in Chicago. He relocated from New York City to Chicago in 1995.Lonberg-Holm is most identified with playing free improvisation and free jazz. He is also a composer of concert works...
, Dylan Posa, and Michael Colligan, while creating an uncompromising and mercurial body of abstract music drawing equally from no wave
No Wave
No Wave was a short-lived but influential underground music, film, performance art, video, and contemporary art scene that had its beginnings during the mid-1970s in New York City. The term No Wave is in part satirical word play rejecting the commercial elements of the then-popular New Wave genre...
, death metal
Death metal
Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, tremolo picking, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, minor keys or atonality, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes....
, free jazz
Free jazz
Free jazz is an approach to jazz music that was first developed in the 1950s and 1960s. Though the music produced by free jazz pioneers varied widely, the common feature was a dissatisfaction with the limitations of bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz, which had developed in the 1940s and 1950s...
, gamelan
Gamelan
A gamelan is a musical ensemble from Indonesia, typically from the islands of Bali or Java, featuring a variety of instruments such as metallophones, xylophones, drums and gongs; bamboo flutes, bowed and plucked strings. Vocalists may also be included....
, noise music
Noise music
Noise music is a term used to describe varieties of avant-garde music and sound art that may use elements such as cacophony, dissonance, atonality, noise, indeterminacy, and repetition in their realization. Noise music can feature distortion, various types of acoustically or electronically...
, hardcore punk
Hardcore punk
Hardcore punk is an underground music genre that originated in the late 1970s, following the mainstream success of punk rock. Hardcore is generally faster, thicker, and heavier than earlier punk rock. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A...
and modern classical. Walter moved to the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
in 2003, where he formed the latest of many Luttenbachers lineups, remaining on percussion with the addition of bassist Mike Green (Burmese), and virtuoso guitarist Ed Rodriguez (ex-Colossamite
Colossamite
Colossamite was a mid-to-late 1990s math rock band based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They were one of the most prominent exponents of the genre....
, Gorge Trio
Gorge Trio
Gorge Trio is an American experimental rock band based in Oakland, California. It is composed of three-fourths of the critically acclaimed math rock band Colossamite, which disbanded in 1998, and is survived by three releases on Skin Graft Records....
). Singular guitar phenomenon Mick Barr
Mick Barr
Mick Barr is an American avant-garde metal guitarist. Notable for his relentless speed and agility on his instrument, he is most well known for being one half of the band Orthrelm, currently signed to Mike Patton's Ipecac Recordings label....
(Octis, Orthrelm
Orthrelm
- Biography :Orthrelm is a duo with Mick Barr on guitar and Josh Blair on drums, experimenting in many forms of unconventional songwriting styles and musical concepts in general....
) joined the group in 2005. The Flying Luttenbachers ceased to operate in late 2007. In addition to leading various free jazz ensembles under his own name, currently he is a member of Burmese. On November 25, 2009, Weasel Walter announced that he was moving to New York City to join the band Behold... The Arctopus
Behold... The Arctopus
Behold... The Arctopus is an experimental metal band from Brooklyn, New York, United States.-Biography:Behold... The Arctopus was formed by Colin Marston and Mike Lerner, who had been playing guitar together for over a year-and-a-half by the time they found a drummer. Their demo We Need a Drummer ...
on drums and will be writing "new, more extreme material from scratch." Since moving back to New York, he has also formed Cellular Chaos
Cellular Chaos
Cellular Chaos is a band featuring Weasel Walter, Ceci Moss, and Marc Edwards, based in New York City. Walter classifies it as a 'guitar freakout band'. Walter says an official release will be forthcoming....
with Marc Edwards (drummer)
Marc Edwards (drummer)
Marc Edwards is a free jazz drummer who has played and recorded with artists such as Cecil Taylor, Charles Gayle, and David S. Ware. His influences include Charlie Parker and Buddy Rich. He is currently playing with a project with Weasel Walter...
and Ceci Moss.
History
Before relocating to the West Coast, Walter was a major contributor to the Chicago no-wave/noise/improvised music underground during the '90s and early 2000s. During this period, he performed as a founding member of bands such as The Flying LuttenbachersThe Flying Luttenbachers
The Flying Luttenbachers were an instrumental unit led by multi-instrumentalist / composer / producer Weasel Walter. The Luttenbachers have created a large body of work focusing on an agenda of musical extremity and dissonance...
, Miss High Heel (with Jim O'Rourke
Jim O'Rourke (musician)
Jim O'Rourke is an Irish-American musician and record producer. He was long associated with the Chicago experimental and improv scene...
and Azita
Azita
Azita Youssefi is an experimental musician and artist based in Chicago. She is usually associated with the Chicago no wave scene, which included bands like the Flying Luttenbachers, U.S. Maple and Bobby Conn.-Background:...
of The Scissor Girls
The Scissor Girls
The Scissor Girls were a Chicago no wave band formed by Washington D.C. natives Azita Youssefi, Sue Anne Zollinger, and Heather Melowic in 1991. The idea to form the group was conceived during the late eighties by Azita Youssefi and Heather Melowic while they were living in their hometown of...
), Lake of Dracula (with Marlon Magas and Heather M. of the Scissor Girls), To Live and Shave in L.A. 2, 7000 Dying Rats and Hatewave (replacing founder Nandor Nevai) among others. Walter has most recently relocated to New York City.
Walter has collaborated with artists like Evan Parker
Evan Parker
Evan Shaw Parker is a British free-improvising saxophone player from the European free jazz scene.Recording and performing prolifically with many collaborators, Parker was a pivotal figure in the development of European free jazz and free improvisation, and has pioneered or substantially expanded...
, John Butcher
John Butcher (musician)
John Butcher is an English tenor and soprano saxophone player who has lived in London since the late 1970s. He began playing at the University of Surrey where he was studying physics...
, Marshall Allen
Marshall Allen
Marshall Belford Allen is an American free jazz and avant-garde jazz alto saxophone player. He also performs on flute, oboe, piccolo, and EVI ....
, Peter Evans
Peter Evans (musician)
Peter Evans is an American trumpet player based in New York, who specializes in improvisation and avant-garde music. Evans has been a member of the New York City musical community since 2003, when he moved to the city after graduating from The Oberlin Conservatory of Music...
, Mary Halvorson
Mary Halvorson
Mary Halvorson is a guitarist from Boston, Massachusetts, currently living in Brooklyn, NY. She is a 2002 graduate of Wesleyan University. She has performed with many artists, including Anthony Braxton, Jessica Pavone, Taylor Ho Bynum and Trevor Dunn's Trio-Convulsant. As of 2008, she leads a trio...
, Henry Kaiser
Henry Kaiser (musician)
Henry Kaiser is an American guitarist and composer.Recording and performing prolifically in many styles of music, Kaiser is a fixture on the San Francisco Bay Area music scene. He is considered a member of the "first generation" of American free improvisers.-Biography:His grandfather was the...
, Damon Smith, Vinny Golia
Vinny Golia
Vinny Golia is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist specializing in woodwind instruments. He performs in the genres of contemporary music, jazz, free jazz, and free improvisation....
, Joe Morris
Joe Morris (guitarist)
Joe Morris is an American jazz guitarist. In addition to leading his own groups, he has recorded with William Parker, Whit Dickey, Rob Brown, Joe Maneri and others...
, Frank Gratkowski, William Winant
William Winant
William Winant is an American percussionist.In addition to his work in contemporary classical music -- notably performing Lou Harrison's compositions—Winant has worked in a variety of genres, including noise rock, free improvisation and jazz. Notable collaborators include Glenn Spearman, Thurston...
, Marlon Magas, Jim O'Rourke
Jim O'Rourke (musician)
Jim O'Rourke is an Irish-American musician and record producer. He was long associated with the Chicago experimental and improv scene...
, Tom Smith in To Live and Shave in L.A.
To Live and Shave in L.A.
To Live and Shave in L.A. is an experimental music collective founded in 1993 by avant-garde composer/producer Tom Smith and Miami Beach musician/producer Frank "Rat Bastard" Falestra...
, and Ken Vandermark
Ken Vandermark
Ken Vandermark is an American jazz composer and saxophone and clarinet player.A fixture on the Chicago-area music scene since the 1990s, Vandermark has earned wide critical praise for his playing and his multilayered compositions, which typically balance intricate orchestration with passionate...
as well as many influential underground rock bands including Lair of the Minotaur
Lair of the Minotaur
Lair of the Minotaur is a thrash/sludge metal band from Chicago, Illinois.-History:Lair Of The Minotaur was formed by vocalist/guitarist Steven Rathbone in 2003 due to his other band, 7000 Dying Rats, becoming solely a studio project, giving up playing live...
, Bobby Conn
Bobby Conn
Bobby Conn is an American musician based in Chicago, Illinois, known for his pop-rock. He often collaborates with other artists such as musicians Colby Starck and Jim O'Rourke, and film-maker Usama Alshaibi. In 2003, Conn produced a session for UK punk band The Cribs, whom he met when they were a...
, U.S. Maple
U.S. Maple
U.S. Maple was an American noise rock band. The group formed in Chicago in 1995. The band consists of Al Johnson , Mark Shippy , Pat Samson , and Todd Rittmann — who banded together with the intent of becoming the deconstructionists of rock and roll.-Formation and first single:U.S...
, Cock E.S.P.
Cock E.S.P.
Cock E.S.P. is a US-American band based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The group draws on the most extreme, subversive and absurdist elements of both popular and experimental Twentieth century music and performance art, creating abstract high-energy entertainment. Influences include noise music, punk...
, Curse of the Birthmark, the Scissor Girls, Erase Errata
Erase Errata
Erase Errata is a band from San Francisco, California. They often name experimentalists such as Captain Beefheart, The Fall, and the Minutemen as inspirations...
, The Chicago Sound, Harry Pussy
Harry Pussy
Harry Pussy was a noise rock band from Miami, active from 1992 to 1997. The main members were Bill Orcutt on guitar and vocals and Adris Hoyos on drums and vocals. Other members included briefly Ian Steinberg on accordion, and later either Mark Feehan or Dan Hosker on second guitar...
, Quintron, Sharon Cheslow
Sharon Cheslow
Sharon Cheslow is an American musician, composer, and artist. In 1981, she formed Chalk Circle, Washington, D.C.'s first all-female punk band...
, and Cheer-Accident
Cheer-Accident
Cheer-Accident is an American indie rock ensemble headed by Thymme Jones. Jones took the name of the band from a Hallmark Cards shopping display, and first formed the group in 1981 with singer Jim Drummond and drummer Mike Greenlees.-Biography:...
, in addition to producing albums by the Coachwhips
Coachwhips
Coachwhips were a three-piece noise/punk rock outfit from San Francisco, California formed in 2001. John Dwyer was the guitarist/vocalist. John Harlow played drums and Mary Ann McNamara played keyboard/tambourine and provided backing vocals...
, Burmese, Total Shutdown, Arab on Radar
Arab on Radar
Arab on Radar are a Providence, Rhode Island based noise rock band founded in 1994. They went on hiatus in 2002. Members of the band went on to form or join the bands The Chinese Stars, Athletic Automaton, Made in Mexico, and most recently Doomsday Student...
, AIDS Wolf, and Glenn Branca
Glenn Branca
Glenn Branca is an American avant-garde composer and guitarist known for his use of volume, alternative guitar tunings, repetition, droning, and the harmonic series. In 2008 he was awarded an unrestricted grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts.-Beginnings: 1960s and early 1970s:Branca...
.
Walter is also known in underground circles and filesharing sites for his series of bootleg "Revision" albums, wherein he takes an existing recording of another artists and adds his own tracks. These include: David Wertman's Kara Suite, Ornette Coleman
Ornette Coleman
Ornette Coleman is an American saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter and composer. He was one of the major innovators of the free jazz movement of the 1960s....
's Body Meta, John Coltrane
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz...
's Interstellar Space, Cecil Taylor
Cecil Taylor
Cecil Percival Taylor is an American pianist and poet. Classically trained, Taylor is generally acknowledged as one of the pioneers of free jazz. His music is characterized by an extremely energetic, physical approach, producing complex improvised sounds, frequently involving tone clusters and...
's Cecil Taylor Unit, Roscoe Mitchell
Roscoe Mitchell
Roscoe Mitchell is an African American composer, jazz instrumentalist and educator, mostly known for being "a technically superb—if idiosyncratic—saxophonist." He has been called "one of the key figures" in avant-garde jazz who has been "at the forefront of modern music" for the past...
/Sunny Murray
Sunny Murray
James Marcellus Arthur "Sunny" Murray is one of the pioneers of the free jazz style of drumming.-Biography:...
's Wildflowers 5, Derek Bailey's Solo Guitar Volume One, Marilyn Crispell
Marilyn Crispell
Marilyn Crispell is an American jazz pianist and composer.-Biography:Crispell studied classical piano and composition at the New England Conservatory of Music. She has been a resident of Woodstock, NY since 1977 when she came to study and teach at Karl Berger's Creative Music Studio...
's A Concert In Berlin, ]]Borbetomagus]]' Zurich, The Music Improvisation Company, Cecil Taylor
Cecil Taylor
Cecil Percival Taylor is an American pianist and poet. Classically trained, Taylor is generally acknowledged as one of the pioneers of free jazz. His music is characterized by an extremely energetic, physical approach, producing complex improvised sounds, frequently involving tone clusters and...
Indent, Masayuki Takayanagi
Masayuki Takayanagi
Masayuki 'Jojo' Takayanagi was a Japanese jazz / free improvisation / noise musician. He was active in the Japanese jazz scene from the late 1950s. In the 1960s he formed New Directions , which recorded several albums throughout the 70s...
/Kaoru Abe
Kaoru Abe
was an influential Japanese avant-garde alto saxophonist, who is often regarded as having the greatest abrasive saxophone sound.He generally performed solo. He was married to the author Izumi Suzuki, and a cousin to singer Kyu Sakamoto. He died of a drug overdose at the age of 29.-References:* Yuko...
's Mass Projection, Steve Lacy
Steve Lacy
Steve Lacy , born Steven Norman Lackritz in New York City, was a jazz saxophonist and composer recognized as one of the important players of soprano saxophone....
/Maarten Altena's High, Low and Order, Anthony Braxton
Anthony Braxton
Anthony Braxton is an American composer, saxophonist, clarinettist, flautist, pianist, and philosopher. Braxton has released well over 100 albums since the 1960s...
/John Lindberg
John Lindberg
John Lindberg is an American jazz double-bassist.Lindberg studied at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and moved to New York City in 1977. There he played with the Human Arts Ensemble alongside Joseph Bowie and Bobo Shaw, and he was in ensembles with Anthony Braxton from 1978-1985...
's Six Duets, Oliver Lake
Oliver Lake
Oliver Lake is an American jazz saxophonist, flutist, composer and poet. He is known mainly on alto saxophone but also performs on soprano saxophone and flute....
's Passin' Through, Eugene Chadbourne
Eugene Chadbourne
Eugene Chadbourne is an American improvisor, guitarist and banjoist. Highly eclectic and unconventional, Chadbourne's most formative influence is free jazz. He has also been a reviewer for Allmusic and a contributor to Maximum RocknRoll.Chadbourne started out playing rock and roll guitar, but...
/Polly Bradfield
Polly Bradfield
Polly Bradfield is a violinist from the New York City free improvisation scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Her closest musical associates were Eugene Chadbourne and John Zorn. She also played on records by William Parker and Frank Lowe. Her music career ended when she moved to California...
's Torture Time, Peter Brotzmann
Peter Brötzmann
Peter Brötzmann is a German artist and free jazz saxophonist and clarinetist.Brötzmann is among the most important European free jazz musicians. His rough, lyrical timbre is easily recognized on his many recordings.-Early life:...
& Bill Laswell
Bill Laswell
Bill Laswell is an American bassist, producer and record label owner....
's Lowlife, Frank Lowe
Frank Lowe
Frank Lowe was an American avant-garde jazz saxophonist and composer.Born and brought up in Memphis, Tennessee, Lowe took up the tenor saxophone and then moved to San Francisco...
's Black Beings, Derek Bailey & Evan Parker
Evan Parker
Evan Shaw Parker is a British free-improvising saxophone player from the European free jazz scene.Recording and performing prolifically with many collaborators, Parker was a pivotal figure in the development of European free jazz and free improvisation, and has pioneered or substantially expanded...
's The London Concert, Ornette Coleman
Ornette Coleman
Ornette Coleman is an American saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter and composer. He was one of the major innovators of the free jazz movement of the 1960s....
's Skies Of America, Keiji Haino
Keiji Haino
Keiji Haino born May 3, 1952 in Chiba, Japan, and currently residing in Tokyo, is a Japanese musician whose work has included rock, free improvisation, noise, singer-songwriter, solo percussion, psychedelic, minimalism and drone styles...
's - I Said, This Is The Son Of Nihilism; and 17 more titles.