You think you know Bobby Koelble? You have no idea.
Orlando musician and instructor Bobby Koelble is most recognizable locally these days for his hard work as a jazz guitar instructor at UCF and regular gigging at the Blue Bamboo Center in Winter Park, both solo and as part of a nucleus of musicians that includes Bamboo headman Chris Cortez. Koelble also boasts a staggering list of session and collaborative credits with musicians across genre and generation. But let’s put all that aside for a minute, because Bobby Koelble has been absent from Orlando for the last month, and his whereabouts might just surprise you.
Koelble has been on tour with Death to All, an all-star tribute to the work of legendary Orlando (we’re claiming him) musician Chuck Schuldiner and his equally legendary death metal outfit, Death. Death to All consists of Schuldiner collaborators and former members of Death including Koelble, drummer Gene Hoglan, bassist Steve Di Giorgio and Max Phelps from Death contemporaries Cynic.
The quartet were on the road from the beginning of March until last weekend on an intense coast-to-coast tour. Shows featured a setlist centering on a full run-through of Death’s 1993 album Individual Thought Patterns, as a 30th anniversary celebration. (As we type that factoid, we are crumbling into dust.)
Though released at the height of grunge, Individual‘s mix of feral death metal with progressive and fusion flourishes was well-received critically and commercially. The music video for “Philosopher” even got a healthy amount of airplay — and the Beavis and Butthead nod of approval. This is an album ripe for revisiting, a nostalgic experience shorn of any longing for the good old days, such was the ferocious leaning into the future.
Through Koelble did not play on Individual, he was a member of the group for two years, from 1994-1996, playing on Symbolic and playing live with the band before Schuldiner put the band on ice. Koelble and Schuldiner, who passed away in 2001, were friends going back to high school. In short, he’s a natural fit to keep the fell torch burning for this particular era of Death.
Orlando Weekly spoke to Koelble in the early phases of the tour.
We had this wildly inaccurate notion of you wrapping up a class and then leaping onstage to play death metal. Is there any sort of balancing act in reconciling these different zones of your musical life — instructor, jazz musician, death metal innovator?
That would be hilarious, like Clark Kent emerging from a phone booth with long, scraggly hair! It’s not much of a reconciliation, really. Culturally and musically speaking, the two worlds are pretty different, but for me, the mindset is still mostly the same: Approach the music with seriousness, but still try to have fun and be in the moment. I certainly wouldn’t call myself a death metal innovator, but I was fortunate to play with one.
What does playing as part of Death to All mean to you personally?
It’s a celebration of Chuck’s life and music by those who were fortunate enough to have played with him and to have called him a friend. We do our best to play the music on the highest level that we’re capable of, and just to make it a fun, joyous occasion for everyone who comes to see it, many of whom never got to see Chuck perform live.
How do you get yourself into the proper headspace — and physical conditioning — to revisit and reinterpret the dizzying Death catalog?
Leading up to the tours, there is definitely a period of review and getting things back into shape. Things usually come back quickly, but it’s always nice to be over-prepared. Physically speaking, the neck definitely hurts a little more while these tours are happening than it used to (laughs).
All the musicians involved in Death to All are eclectic, virtuosic players, something people can tend to overlook. Do you remember, during your time in Death, everyone’s musical tastes and playing styles expanding in real time?
It’s always great to be around other enthusiastic musicians who are providing new things to listen to and check out, and Death was no exception. We all had similarities and stark differences in our musical tastes, and it was always cool to see what everyone was checking out. Chuck was definitely a metal guy, and Gene Hoglan has an encyclopedic knowledge of rock music. I would occasionally throw on some Wynton or Coltrane and it wasn’t necessarily everyone’s cup of tea, but it was still appreciated.
Would you mind sharing a memory or two of working with Chuck Schuldiner?
Chuck was actually an easygoing guy. Of course, he was very passionate about his music, but he was honestly very mellow to be around. He loved to cook, he loved his pets, he loved to smoke. He had a green thumb and was into gardening. One of the great things about playing with him is that he never told you how to play. He always let his musicians express themselves how they wanted to, as long as you were playing the songs correctly.
How did the first clutch of shows go?
Things have been going very well thus far. Lots of smiling faces that know every word to every song. There have been families coming out, older fans with their metalhead kids. It’s very encouraging to see how Chuck’s musical legacy has continued to grow across generations over the years.
This article appears in Apr 5-11, 2023.