Jimmy Walker puts on memorable performances in Las Vegas at out-of-the-way venues such as the Champagne Café on Maryland Parkway (Thursay nights) and Daddy Mac’s in Henderson(Sundays).

No, not that Jimmy Walker – not the Jimmy JJ Walker from “Good Times” and stand-up comedy fame.

Another Jimmy Walker, the drummer/vocalist – a musical purist who followed his heart and soul instead of the money trail to fame and fortune.

Both Jimmy Walkers are from the Bronx, but the comedian is 63 – the musician is 69 and on Social Security, which frees him up from serious money worries so he can continue to pursue music seriously.

Jimmy Walker the musician has several claims to fame.

He was drummer with The Knickerbockers from 1964-67. The pop/rock band is best known for its 1965 hit, “Lies.”

He left the group to replace Bill Medley in The Righteous Brothers, one of the nation’s top duos from 1962-‘68.

“Bill wanted to establish himself as a soloist,” Walker says.

Bobby Hatfield wanted to keep the pop and blue-eyed soul act alive and invited Walker to join him.

“Bobby knew me from the Knickerbockers  – he used to sit in for me and sometimes I’d sing with Bobby,” Walker says.

He was a Righteous Brother from ’68 to ’71.

You may have seen them performing on the Smothers Brothers TV show, and on Glen Campbell’s show.

“We did tons of TV shows,” he says.

Also casinos, including the Sands, and college campuses and countless other venues.

But eventually the friends went their separate ways.

In ’74 Hatfield and Medley reunited, performing together until Hatfield’s death in 2003.

Walker decided to step away from the music scene for awhile and in 1971 moved to Wyoming, where for a couple of years he played occasionally with local bands more or less to keep up his chops.

But he couldn’t stay away forever. Music is in his blood.

Walker started singing on the neighborhood street corners when he was growing up in the Bronx, harmonizing acapella versions of radio hits with three friends and later adding drums and guitars, learning along the way, playing local events and parties.

The group called themselves the Castle Kings after Castle Hill Ave., the street where they started

singing.

Walker drove a truck driver for a couple of years, until he landed with the Knickerbockers, who opened for the likes of  Roy Orbison, Peter & Gordon, Manfred Mann and the Rolling Stones among others.

AFTER WYOMING

When  he ended his self-imposed exile, Walker moved to California and joined the band Fatback, along with former Righteous Brothers’ guitarist Barry Rillera and his brother Butch Rillera, who had been a drummer with the righteous Brothers.

For 30 years  Walker explored music, expanding his taste as he traveled around California.

He was with Oasis for a couple of years, a band formed by sax player Jim Waller.

Oasis performed with the likes of Roberta Flack, the Commodores, the Temptations and Tower Of Power.

Tower of Power guitarist Bruce Conte recruited Walker to join a new band, Hot Street, which performed throughout the Bay Area as well as Fresno to the south and Santa Rosa to the north.

Seven years ago, Walker moved to Las Vegas.

“It was curiosity,” he says. “I wanted to see what was going on. I wasn’t playing with bands I wanted in California and I wanted to start my own thing.”

But the formation of The Jimmy Walker Band was more by accident than design.

He kept running into musicians he knew from the old days and eventually they formed a perfect union.

The group includes Walker (drums/vocals); keyboardist Pat Marlin; guitarist Tim Manion and Saxophonist Dewey Dehran.

“There’s a lot of great players in the band,” Walker says.

Even so, it’s not easy to get a gig.

“I really love it here in Vegas, but playing music is very difficult,” he says. “It tough for a nightclub band to get work.

“The small clubs don’t pay very much, and there’s not many of them anyway. The choices are being in a casino band or doing Top 40 stuff, but that’s not me – I can’t stomach the casino fare and I’m not going to get a girl singer and do Top 40 stuff. I do my own thing.”

His thing is blues and R&B, mostly.

“We’re like a jazz group, but we don’t play lot of jazz,” Walker says. “We have the dynamics of a jazz group, but we play mostly blues and R&B.”

He likes the Champagne Café, a small, neighborhood bar across from the Boulevard Mall on Maryland Parkway.

“We can call all the shots, play anything we want,” he says.

Word is getting out. They’re starting to draw crowds.

“Young people aren’t showing up,” he says. “They come up to us and say things like, ‘We’ve never heard a band like this.’ But it isn’t anything that amazing – we do some Van Morrison, some Otis Redding, different kinds of styles they’ve never heard.”

Eventually, Walker wants to take the band on the road.

“I really like Las Vegas, but I want to stretch out,” he says.

He’s looking at Carolina Beach.

“There’s a movement in the Carolinas,” he says. “They’re playing my music.”

He thinks Europe would appreciate the band.

Wherever he performs, he’s happy with Vegas.

“It doesn’t matter where you live anymore. What matters is how you conduct your business.”

Walker has no regrets.

“I followed my musical instincts and did everything I wanted to musically,” he says. “I could have made better money decisions while in Los Angeles, but I hated L.A. – that place kills the artistic spirit and turns you into a robot.”

by Jerry Fink

thejerryfink.com

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