Frederick Martin Roulette (May 3, 1939 – December 24, 2022) was an American
electric blues
Electric blues refers to any type of blues music distinguished by the use of electric amplification for musical instruments. The guitar was the first instrument to be popularly amplified and used by early pioneers T-Bone Walker in the late 19 ...
lap steel guitar
The lap steel guitar, also known as a Hawaiian guitar, is a type of steel guitar without pedals that is typically played with the instrument in a horizontal position across the performer's lap. Unlike the usual manner of playing a traditional ...
ist and singer. He was best known as an exponent of the
lap steel guitar
The lap steel guitar, also known as a Hawaiian guitar, is a type of steel guitar without pedals that is typically played with the instrument in a horizontal position across the performer's lap. Unlike the usual manner of playing a traditional ...
. He was a member of the band Daphne Blue and collaborated with Earl Hooker,
Charlie Musselwhite
Charles Douglas Musselwhite (born January 31, 1944) is an American electric blues harmonica player and bandleader, one of the white bluesmen who came to prominence, along with Mike Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield, and Elvin Bishop, as a pivotal ...
album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...
s. One commentator described Roulette as an "excellent musician".
A short documentary of Freddie Roulette appears on the video-sharing site
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most ...
that chronicles Roulette's time with the Daphne Blue Band. The online Blues encyclopedia, "All About Blues Music," describes Roulette's long tenure with the Daphne Blue Band and notes: "Freddie has also released an album, ‘Daphne Blue: Legendary Blues Instrumentals’ which contains 15 excellent tracks, which reddieconsiders to be among his finest works."
Juke Blues'', no. 61, pp.16–21. but he was born and raised in
Evanston, Illinois
Evanston ( ) is a city, suburb of Chicago. Located in Cook County, Illinois, Cook County, Illinois, United States, it is situated on the North Shore (Chicago), North Shore along Lake Michigan. Evanston is north of Chicago Loop, Downtown Chicago, ...
. He learned to play the steel guitar in high school. He started playing in clubs in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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in his teens, and in 1965 began work in Earl Hooker's backing band, touring and performing with him until 1969.
Hooker's band, with the pianist Pinetop Perkins, the harmonica player Carey Bell, the vocalist
Andrew Odom
Andrew Odom (December 15, 1936 – December 23, 1991) was an American Chicago blues and electric blues singer and songwriter. Born in Denham Springs, Louisiana, United States, he is best known for the close resemblance of his singing style to ...
, and Roulette, was "widely acclaimed" and "considered one of the best Earl had ever carried with him". Roulette performed on several of Hooker's singles; his 1967 album, '' The Genius of Earl Hooker''; and the 1969 follow-up, '' 2 Bugs and a Roach''.
Roulette later developed a friendship with
Charlie Musselwhite
Charles Douglas Musselwhite (born January 31, 1944) is an American electric blues harmonica player and bandleader, one of the white bluesmen who came to prominence, along with Mike Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield, and Elvin Bishop, as a pivotal ...
and (credited as Fred Roulette) recorded with him on the 1969 album ''Chicago Blue Stars''. He toured with Musselwhite and backed him on the albums ''Tennessee Woman'' and ''Memphis, Tennessee'', before relocating to the
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...
, area where he has lived ever since. He played there in a band with Luther Tucker and recorded with Earl Hooker's cousin
John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1912 or 1917 – June 21, 2001) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. The son of a sharecropper, he rose to prominence performing an electric guitar-style adaptation of Delta blues. Hooker often ...
.
After leaving Chicago for the San Francisco Bay area, Roulette began "teaming up with the 14-year-old guitarist Ray Bronner ('Daphne Blue Ray'), and some veterans from Chicago in the band Daphne Blue, Freddie was often joined by ‘Big Moose’ (Johnny Walker), ‘Pinetop Perkins’ and Clarence ‘Gatemouth’ Brown at gigs and on record." "Freddie released an album, ''Daphne Blue: Legendary Blues Instrumentals'', which contains 15 excellent tracks, which he considers to be among his finest works."
In 1973, Roulette released his debut solo album, ''Sweet Funky Steel'', which was
produced
Producer or producers may refer to:
Occupations
*Producer (agriculture), a farm operator
*A stakeholder of economic production
*Film producer, supervises the making of films
**Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...
by the guitarist Harvey Mandel.Don "Sugarcane" Harris played on several tracks. Over the next twenty years, Roulette continued to perform with other musicians and occasionally led his own band, while also working full-time as an apartment manager. On the 1996 album ''Psychedelic Guitar Circus'', he worked in a group with Mandel, Kaiser and
Steve Kimock
Steve Kimock (born October 5, 1955) is an American rock guitarist. He was a member of San Francisco Bay Area bands Zero and KVHW.
His tone and some of his playing approach has been compared to Jerry Garcia, who was a friend of his, and he h ...
. Grammy nominee, producer/composer Larry Hoffman brought Freddie to Chicago where the artist recorded his 1997 solo album, ''Back in Chicago: Jammin' with Willie Kent and the Gents'', with
Willie Kent
Willie Kent (February 24, 1936 – March 2, 2006) was an American Chicago blues singer, bassist and songwriter.
Career
Kent was born in Inverness, Sunflower County, Mississippi. Although he had played the bass guitar in Chicago's clubs since th ...
and
Chico Banks
Chico Banks (March 7, 1962 – December 3, 2008) was an American Chicago blues guitarist and singer. He released one album, in 1997 on Evidence Music, produced by Larry Hoffman. Banks was both a band leader and sideman, having played with Chic ...
, on ''Hi Horse'' Records. The album won an award from '' Living Blues'' magazine as ''Best Blues Album of 1997''. Following that album's success, Roulette began performing widely at blues festivals and recorded the 1998 album ''Spirit of Steel'', featuring the Holmes Brothers and produced by Kaiser. He also contributed to Kaiser's album ''Yo Miles'', a tribute to
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of musi ...
.
Roulette's solo album ''Man of Steel'' (2006) featured guitar playing by Will Bernard and David Lindley; Kaiser also played guitar and produced the album. It was recorded in
Fantasy Studios
Fantasy Studios was a music recording studio in Berkeley, California, at the Zaentz Media Center, known for its recording of award-winning albums including Journey's ''Escape'' and Green Day's '' Dookie''. Built as a private recording studio fo ...
, in
Berkeley, California
Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...
, and included strains of
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a majo ...
,
country
A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, whil ...
,
soul
In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being".
Etymology
The Modern English noun '':wikt:soul, soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The ea ...
and
reggae
Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, "Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use the ...
in the overall blues setting. In the same year, Roulette played locally in a small combo including Mike Hinton.
Roulette played at numerous music festivals over the years, including the Long Beach Blues Festival, the San Francisco Blues Festival (1979), and the Calgary Folk Music Festival (2000). He continued to play club dates in the San Francisco area, often with Mandel. In 2012, ''Jammin' With Friends'' was recorded at three separate studios with various musicians. It was produced by Michael Borbridge, who also played drums on all the tracks.
As of 2015, Roulette was still playing with the Daphne Blue Band.
In February 2019, the ''
Chicago Reader
The ''Chicago Reader'', or ''Reader'' (stylized as ЯEADER), is an American alternative weekly newspaper in Chicago, Illinois, noted for its literary style of journalism and coverage of the arts, particularly film and theater. It was founded by ...
'' published an article on Roulette and his band members, along with sound clips, titled: "The Secret History of Chicago Music: Pivotal Musicians That Somehow Haven't Gotten Their Just Dues."
Roulette died on December 24, 2022, at the age of 83.