Sir Waldo Weathers – The Saxophone’s Funky Ringmaster

How did you become “Sir” Waldo Weather? 

I played at a breakfast for the Duke of Meinburg, Germany. I was playing and out in the field I see a bunch of horses and some guys in their knight outfits. They came to the stage and laid the red pillow down for me to kneel, and he took this sword out. And that was scary—for a Black man, this sword over his head—and they pronounced me Sir Walter with the sword.

How did you develop your signature saxophone sound? 

My first professional nightclub gig, I was about 12 years old. To develop my sound and style, I just play what I play and try to let the people feel. I’m not a jazz musician; I don’t really call myself a blues musician either. I’m an entertainer that plays saxophone. I love to play slow, beautiful ballads and make the ladies feel something. 

We love ballads as dancers too.  How do you bring your raw emotions into your playing?

I take a song—for instance, Get Here If You Can by Oleta Adams, I try to play my horn as if I am singing through my horn. You can play one or two notes and it’s the way that you play those notes that would hit somebody’s heart or spirit. Whether it’s in a fast song or a slow song, it’s about the approach of the note. I try to play like a singer would sing, like Jerry Butler, or Aretha Franklin, or somebody like that. 

How much of your playing is improvisation versus structured parts during live performances?

Depending on the groove that the band is playing and the feeling. If it’s funk, I try to get all of the funk out of me into my horn to give to the people. I remember playing it at B.B. King’s Club. After I finished the song, my friend’s wife stopped me, grabbed me by my neck and pulled me in close to her face and said, “Let me tell you something—nobody, and I mean nobody, makes my husband cry but me.”  It was like, if I don’t play another note in my life, that’s so fulfilling for me. I’m just a person of feeling, of groove.

You toured during a time when blues and funk were spreading globally. What did it show you about the universality of the music, in particular Blues?

Musically, everyone speaks the same language, whatever it is. I feel that if you play and sing your feeling, every language will get the message and appreciate it. I learnt a lot from James Brown—he taught me that you can play funk loud, but you can get the same reaction playing funk softly. It’s like Prince used to say "let the grass grow"—means to play quietly. that groove just hits you, like the grass is growing. Let it grow up under your feet, and then it just surrounds you, wraps you up, and then it’s there. It’s there. Music is a wonderful thing.

You’ve been part of keeping the blues alive—what do you think is the key to passing it to generations and honour the culture?

We just have to focus on keeping the festivals alive. A lot of the promoters want to try to keep it more blues than funk. If the promoters let the artists be themselves—rather than trying to pinpoint: “Well, this is a blues festival, you must play only blues”.  If they say, “play whatever you want, just keep the people happy,” then I think it would be a better situation. Because there are new feelings, new emotions, different kinds of messages about freedom, about politics, about this and that. People want to tell their side of the story and it’s not always in blues. Some of it is in ballads, some is in funk. There are different kinds of messages in all kinds of music. 

As a big funk fan, I would like to ask how was it working under James Brown leadership, especially on stage?

Being with Brown was almost like being in the military, where he commanded certain things. He taught us a lot about his side of the music. As the Godfather of Soul, he had a perspective of music and the way things should be done from being the artist to the show business-to perfection. So it was: rehearse, practice, play it, play it again. was a real training camp being with him.

After your time with James Brown, what did you keep from that experience, and what did you choose to do differently?

I would say it was like going to a Catholic school, where the teachers are very, very hard. Then, after you leave that school, you are in the world on your own. Then you must make your own way, make your own decisions. Everything you are taught by any teacher or learn is only an opinion.   When you get out into the world, you have your chance to build your own opinion. 

Is there any question you’ve never been asked about James Brown, but you would love to?

During the time of James Brown’s death—I was very surprised that no newspaper, no TV, no magazine ever came to me on that day or the day after and asked me my feelings or anything about the death of James Brown... His death was very hard to believe. It’s something that I still haven’t really gotten over. He called to hire me back. I was coming back on a festival over here and he died the day before we left. I always try to make kind of a half-funny statement about it—it was like, “Damn, he died the day before the tour!”.  I would say, “Yeah… he f*cked us again.”  The man is really missed.

Any other funk musician that you listen to or would love to play with but haven’t yet? 

I would like to play one time with Tower of Power, very great guys—we know each other, but we haven’t had the opportunity to play together.  Also, Bootsy Collins!

If you describe blues and funk with one word what would they be?

Blues came out of gospel. That’s why a lot of gospel has a bluesy feeling. Blues is simple, blues is sweet—it’s something that just gets the message across. You just put your emotion in, and motion is the key.  Blues is Ford and Chevrolet, where funk is more Jaguar and Rolls-Royce. It’s another level. But if you can get both mixtures into one it would be special. With the—the Kings of the Blues, we try to take a little bit of what the five of us have experienced, and put it all in one pot, cook it up, mix it up, put some salt and pepper in it. Hopefully the people will enjoy everything that we do, and we will try to make everyone happy and dance and sing along with us—and just have a good funky time.

We are looking forward to it!