Just like keyboardist Neal Evans’ two hands—simultaneously pumping out the low end and reaching for those oscillating high notes—organ trio Soulive has spent the last decade balancing a reverence for the past with a conviction to push music into its own funky future.
When brothers Neal and Alan Evans first invited guitarist Eric Krasno to get down at their Woodstock, NY studio (a session that led to the trio’s break-out record Get Down! in 1999), it was out of mutual love for the great soul-jazz organ trios of the ’60s and ’70s (Jimmy Smith, Groove Holmes, Brother Jack McDuff). Now, a decade into the band’s career, which has seen forays into hip-hop, reggae, R&B, blues, rock and soul, eras featuring horns and a vocalist, and collaborations with artists as diverse as Derek Trucks, Joshua Redman, Robert Randolph and Talib Kweli, it was another shared love that brought the trio to drummer Alan’s Playonbrother Studio to record their latest, Rubber Soulive.
“We’ve always been big Beatles fans,” says Krasno, who had been working on an arrangement of “Get Back” for his recent solo record Reminisce when all those remastered Beatles records came out last year. The stuff was on heavy rotation in the van when the band found itself with four days off mid-tour. For Halloween, they’d made a crazy show at the DC zoo even crazier by trying out an all-Beatles set and decided the material was so fun it had to be put to wax. “We thought about doing all of Rubber Soul,” Krasno says, “but that band has so many great tunes. We picked the ones that lent themselves well to our sound, and others where we could add the Soulive flavor.”
The first two cuts, “Drive My Car” and “Tax Man” sound like they were written for the group, deep-pocket grooves featuring dirty drum parts and Krasno’s buttery guitar leads. The process, Krasno says, was pretty spontaneous. The band would consult the song’s lyric sheet to get the feel right and then track the whole thing live for that up-in-your-grill energy. “Something” and “In My Life” are deft instrumental interpretations of the sentimental balladry Lennon, McCartney and Harrison were famous for penning.
“Eleanor Rigby” is the big surprise though, with Alan pushing charging syncopation into the backbeat and Neal covering a full string section with his two hands.
Handling most of the melodies on guitar, Krasno’s all over the record, but he tears the whole thing open on tracks like “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” and, naturally, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” Covered in what Krasno calls the “great crunchy, dirty sound” of Alan’s digital/analog studio, Rubber Soulive takes its place in a lineage of funky Beatles tributes, including those by George Benson and Booker T. and the M.G.’s.
Following last year’s Up Here, Rubber Soulive finds the band pushing on with its original trio formula. After 2006’s No Place Like Soul, which saw the addition of vocalist Toussaint Yeshua, Soulive decided to scale it back again and focus on the trio. This doesn’t mean, though, (to paraphrase Ringo) that the three don’t still get high with a little help from their friends. Their new artist run label Royal Family Records is home to plenty of the band’s longtime coconspirators like the Shady Horns (Sam Kininger and Ryan Zoidis) and Nigel Hall, and all the Soulive side projects, including Lettuce, Fyre Dept, Chapter 2, and Adam Deitch’s Break Science.
Creating Royal Family Records was like coming home for the band, who has spent years jumping from one legendary label to the next. On the heels of 1999’s Turn It Out, Soulive was signed by Bruce Lundvall to esteemed jazz label Blue Note Records, where they took their place in a legacy that includes Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Wayne Shorter. Doin’ Something and Next followed, featuring collaborations with Fred Wesley, Dave Matthews and Black Thought. Jazz heavyweight, Concord Records nurtured the band’s love of R&B with 2005’s Break Out, a record that found the band backing soul legends Chaka Khan and Ivan Neville. And when celebrated Memphis soul label Stax Records (Isaac Hayes, Otis Redding, Sam and Dave) decided to get back in the game in 2007, Soulive was the first band they signed. Now, with Royal Family, Soulive has been as prolific as ever, releasing Live In San Francisco last fall and Live at the Blue Note Tokyo this spring.
One decade young, Soulive is not a band to look backward, but when they do they look way back. With a quiver full of Beatles tunes and the lineup that put them on the forefront of the soul jazz revival, Soulive is grooving harder than ever. And with a fall tour on the horizon, it looks like things are starting to, ahem, “Come Together” right now all over again.
When brothers Neal and Alan Evans first invited guitarist Eric Krasno to get down at their Woodstock, NY studio (a session that led to the trio’s break-out record Get Down! in 1999), it was out of mutual love for the great soul-jazz organ trios of the ’60s and ’70s (Jimmy Smith, Groove Holmes, Brother Jack McDuff). Now, a decade into the band’s career, which has seen forays into hip-hop, reggae, R&B, blues, rock and soul, eras featuring horns and a vocalist, and collaborations with artists as diverse as Derek Trucks, Joshua Redman, Robert Randolph and Talib Kweli, it was another shared love that brought the trio to drummer Alan’s Playonbrother Studio to record their latest, Rubber Soulive.
“We’ve always been big Beatles fans,” says Krasno, who had been working on an arrangement of “Get Back” for his recent solo record Reminisce when all those remastered Beatles records came out last year. The stuff was on heavy rotation in the van when the band found itself with four days off mid-tour. For Halloween, they’d made a crazy show at the DC zoo even crazier by trying out an all-Beatles set and decided the material was so fun it had to be put to wax. “We thought about doing all of Rubber Soul,” Krasno says, “but that band has so many great tunes. We picked the ones that lent themselves well to our sound, and others where we could add the Soulive flavor.”
The first two cuts, “Drive My Car” and “Tax Man” sound like they were written for the group, deep-pocket grooves featuring dirty drum parts and Krasno’s buttery guitar leads. The process, Krasno says, was pretty spontaneous. The band would consult the song’s lyric sheet to get the feel right and then track the whole thing live for that up-in-your-grill energy. “Something” and “In My Life” are deft instrumental interpretations of the sentimental balladry Lennon, McCartney and Harrison were famous for penning.
“Eleanor Rigby” is the big surprise though, with Alan pushing charging syncopation into the backbeat and Neal covering a full string section with his two hands.
Handling most of the melodies on guitar, Krasno’s all over the record, but he tears the whole thing open on tracks like “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” and, naturally, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” Covered in what Krasno calls the “great crunchy, dirty sound” of Alan’s digital/analog studio, Rubber Soulive takes its place in a lineage of funky Beatles tributes, including those by George Benson and Booker T. and the M.G.’s.
Following last year’s Up Here, Rubber Soulive finds the band pushing on with its original trio formula. After 2006’s No Place Like Soul, which saw the addition of vocalist Toussaint Yeshua, Soulive decided to scale it back again and focus on the trio. This doesn’t mean, though, (to paraphrase Ringo) that the three don’t still get high with a little help from their friends. Their new artist run label Royal Family Records is home to plenty of the band’s longtime coconspirators like the Shady Horns (Sam Kininger and Ryan Zoidis) and Nigel Hall, and all the Soulive side projects, including Lettuce, Fyre Dept, Chapter 2, and Adam Deitch’s Break Science.
Creating Royal Family Records was like coming home for the band, who has spent years jumping from one legendary label to the next. On the heels of 1999’s Turn It Out, Soulive was signed by Bruce Lundvall to esteemed jazz label Blue Note Records, where they took their place in a legacy that includes Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Wayne Shorter. Doin’ Something and Next followed, featuring collaborations with Fred Wesley, Dave Matthews and Black Thought. Jazz heavyweight, Concord Records nurtured the band’s love of R&B with 2005’s Break Out, a record that found the band backing soul legends Chaka Khan and Ivan Neville. And when celebrated Memphis soul label Stax Records (Isaac Hayes, Otis Redding, Sam and Dave) decided to get back in the game in 2007, Soulive was the first band they signed. Now, with Royal Family, Soulive has been as prolific as ever, releasing Live In San Francisco last fall and Live at the Blue Note Tokyo this spring.
One decade young, Soulive is not a band to look backward, but when they do they look way back. With a quiver full of Beatles tunes and the lineup that put them on the forefront of the soul jazz revival, Soulive is grooving harder than ever. And with a fall tour on the horizon, it looks like things are starting to, ahem, “Come Together” right now all over again.
1 comment:
cheers yann, funny thing is I really like soulive since their beginnings long ago, with ups and downs in their discography (Im talking of my own tastes of course!) and now they covered the beatles I think this is their worst album :o)
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