Rubber City Review

Recently I took a peek at Google Analytics and noticed that RCR’s readership was up. So I thought, I’ll fix that… Time to do a post on soul jazz.

What exactly is soul jazz? Well, I’ll give you my take and we can argue about it later.

You’ve probably heard terms like acid jazz, hard bop, jazz-funk or jazz fusion. For the most part, they all refer to strains of jazz informed by blues, soul and gospel – as opposed to popular show tunes like I Got Rhythm and Love for Sale that kept swing bands and be-boppers in business through the Thirties and Forties.

But don’t take my word for it… Here’s a definition offered by the good folks at allmusic:

“Although soloists follow the chords as in bop, the basslines (often played by an organist if not a string bassist) dance rather than stick strictly to a four-to-the-bar walking pattern. The musicians build their accompaniment around the bassline and, although there are often strong melodies, it is the catchiness of the groove and the amount of heat generated by the soloists that determine whether the performance is successful.”

Put another way, black jazz artists who were playing predominately black clubs knew what their audiences wanted to hear, and it wasn’t Broadway show tunes. In the Fifties, they were listening to Ray Charles, Ruth Brown, Jimmy Reed and John Lee Hooker. And hard boppers like Nat and Cannonball Adderley were starting to incorporate more blues-based riffs and danceable grooves in their jazz compositions to create classics like this one: Work Song

As soul and funk became the dominant sounds of the next two decades, those influences were often channeled through the organ combo and jazz artists like Jimmy Smith and Grant Green. We touched on the former and a few of his many B3 disciples here, and sang the praises of Green in this post. If you like your jazz served up with a lot of funky guitar, heavy grooves and late-night ambience, you can’t do much better than this next tune, which features Green with organist Big John Patton: Soul Woman

While Green and Patton were laying down this little nugget in ’66, Miles Davis and John Coltrane were heading in far more ethereal and abstract directions – with Coltrane traveling through Interstellar Space the following year before leaving his mortal coil behind in July. But Miles had his ear to the dancefloor and eventually recorded some of the nastiest, funkiest music that can still be tagged (albeit loosely) as jazz. I wouldn’t call this next number “soul jazz,” but it definitely proves that Miles was paying a lot of attention to James Brown and Sly Stone in 1970: Duran (Take 4)

That number features guitarist John McLaughlin, who went on to form the jazz fusion supergroup the Mahavishnu Orchestra. Now I’m not going to head down that path, even though I listened to a fair amount of fusion in my younger days. Some of that stuff makes me cringe today – and I’m not sure the word “soul” can be applied to bands like Return to Forever and The Eleventh House that mainly seemed interested in performing daring feats of technical prowess rather than music with a human essence to it.

But I also won’t suggest that all the great soul jazz was recorded 40 or 50 years ago (although we’ll include a few more classics from the era at the end of this post). In fact, I’d argue that Charlie Hunter, Galactic, Medeski Martin & Wood, The Bad Plus, Garage a Trois and a few other contemporary acts are building on the soul jazz tradition by recognizing the most important lesson from those wayward fusion years: It’s all about the groove, stupid. Case in point: Bear No Hair

As you can tell, the guys in Garage a Trois have chops for days – and I’m sure guitarist Charlie Hunter could play an entire song in 32nd notes if someone put a gun to his head. Hell, he already learned how to play bass and lead guitar at the same time. But why play blazing fast leads if they don’t serve the song? And why write a song that requires a shitload of 32nd notes?

Stanton Moore

OK, I’m done ranting. Here’s another modern soul jazz standout. This one features Stanton Moore, who leads his own band… drives the rhythm section for Galactic, Garage a Trois and a few other bands I’m not even aware of… and remains the most dangerous drummer in a city with many great ones, New Orleans (this cut also features Charlie Hunter on guitar). Tchfunkta

Another first-rate contemporary band in the soul jazz vein just turned 20 – Medeski Martin & Wood. And they’re celebrating the occasion by releasing 20 new tracks (digital only), two per month until the end of the year. The songs are available on iTunes, Amazon, MusicToday and other digital retailers. Before you check those out, I’ll play you a sample from one of the band’s Blue Note releases… must be a tribute to the esteemed label that practically invented soul jazz back in the Fifties and Sixties. Note Bleu

Speaking of Blue Note, let’s head back to the era and touch on a few classics that should be part of any self-respecting soul jazz collection.

Someone at the label (maybe the boss, Alfred Lion) had the bright idea to team up jazz guitarist Kenny Burrell with master conguero Ray Barretto. And the smooth sound of Mr. “Hard Hands” lifts Burrell’s Midnight Blue into the realm of soul jazz nirvana: Midnight Blue

Sonny Stitt

This next track also includes Barretto, but this time with sax legend Sonny Stitt and one of the great B3 players of all time, Brother Jack McDuff. It’s from a sizzling session recorded in 1962 for the Prestige label: Nother Fu’ther

On some of his funkier soul jazz outings, Stitt liked to use an electric sax called a Varitone – which is sort of like putting Charlie Parker through a digital delay or Billie Holiday through Autotune. Interesting, but unnecessary. Still, you can’t deny the greatness of Stitt, especially when he’s settling into a deep groove like this one – with a perfect handoff from guitarist Melvin Sparks: Turn It On

That cut features three unsung heroes of soul jazz – Sparks, organist Leon Spencer and drummer Idris Muhammad. Other standouts of the form include guitarists Boogaloo Joe Jones and Billy Butler, organists Shirley Scott and Charles Earland, and sax man Rusty Bryant (a long-time resident of Columbus, OH). Seasoned musicians who could easily play straight-ahead jazz, but really earned their keep as session players on some of the best soul jazz outings of the Sixties and Seventies. And none of them ever got the recognition they deserved.

Here’s Boogaloo Joe burning through one of his originals, with fine backing from Earland and Bryant: Right On

Idris Muhammad

And here’s Idris Muhammad driving a dance tune originally recorded in 1969 by The Fabulous Counts, a Detroit-area funk band. The leader for this live date from ’71 at Detroit’s Club Mozambique? The one and only Grant Green: Jan Jan

We’ll close with one of the most soulful sounds in all of jazz – the big, bad sax of Gene Ammons. Just ask Texas blues guitarist Jimmie Vaughan, who has an obvious weakness for Ammons-inspired instrumentals with healthy doses of B3. Here Ammons is joined on a ’61 studio date by Brother Jack on organ and our go-to guy for soul jazz conga, Ray Barretto: Twisting the Jug

Birth of a power trio… Enjoy the first 10 minutes of a film by Marie Pierre Jaury on Medeski Martin & Wood – part documentary, part primer on modern soul jazz (or whatever you want to call it). Includes great clips of MMW in action.

About a year ago – in one of my feeble attempts to prove I listen to living, breathing musicians – I waxed poetic about The Wood Brothers. Since then, they’ve gone from being great to scary great. Slap your mammy great. The kind of great that makes you forget all about good.

What do I base this on, you might ask? Well, there’s that unerring factor known as the “chicken skin” test, as Ry Cooder would call it. When I caught them live last week in nearby Kent, Ohio – and was treated to a first listen of their soon-to-be-released album “Smoke Ring Halo” – I had those tell-tale bumps on my arms that told me I was on to something rare in this world of reality-show divas and painfully hip dilettantes. The title song itself is almost a perfect distillation of what this band does best – rootsy, but not reverent… deeply soulful, but all about left-field hooks (like the phrase Smoke Ring Halo, for example) that suck you in right away… and far more musically accomplished than just about any other band playing in that unfortunately named “Americana” sandbox (think Avett Brothers and Mumford & Sons – good bands, but in my mind, just not on the same level as the Woods).

I think of The Wood Brothers as part of that grand American tradition of brother acts, mainly because these guys have come up with some funky harmonies that sound like back-alley tributes to the Louvins, the Everlys, the Delmores… that perfect blend of voices that seems to come naturally to blood relatives. But once again, the Woods aren’t the least bit slavish about this tradition. And again, I’ll go back to the new album’s title song, which marries an insistent groove and a churning organ (courtesy of John Medeski) with almost Beatle-esque harmonies in the chorus: Smoke Ring Halo

That was the song they opened with at the Kent show. So about five minutes into the night, I’d already experienced one of the best live performances I’ve seen in a few years. I felt like speed-dialing my 2-3 friends and family members and begging them to join us so we could start to fill up some of the theater’s empty seats, which seemed like cruel reminders that American Idol was on TV that night.

A little background… The Wood Brothers started out as a duo in 2005, with Oliver on guitar and lead vocals and Chris on bass, harmonies and the occasional harmonica. Although raised in Boulder, Colorado, the brothers eventually set off on very different musical paths, with the elder Oliver kicking around various blues bands in the Atlanta area, and Chris making a name for himself in NYC as half of the dynamic rhythm section for progressive jazz band Medeski, Martin and Wood. So although I knew nothing about Oliver before ’05, I’d been a fan of MMW’s heady jazz-funk brew for about 10 years. Here’s the song that got me hooked, from their ’95 release “Friday Afternoon in the Universe”: The Lover

During this same time, Oliver had gone from playing second guitar for Georgia stringbender Tinsley Ellis to forming sort of a blues-based equivalent of MMW with a band called King Johnson, combining two popular blues surnames and possibly a nod to someone’s, er… junk. I recently checked out some of their stuff on iTunes – sounds like they did a fine job of combining southern blues with the second-line rhythms of New Orleans. Damn good horn section, too. But their secret weapon may have been Wood, whose casually proficient blues guitar seemed perfectly suited to the slightly warped songs he was writing for the band.

It’s interesting to hear King Johnson’s take on one of these songs, Spirit, and compare it to the later version by The Wood Brothers. The former has a lot going for it – sassy horns and whorehouse drums – but the latter seems more vital without the busy arrangement. Certainly more menacing and true to the spirit (sorry) of Oliver’s lyrics. I spliced the two together on this sample… you be the judge: Spirit (King Johnson/Wood Brothers)

So on the one hand, you’ve got a first-rate songwriter and blues guitarist – not to mention a singer who can deliver this material with a healthy dose of soul. On the other, you’ve got a bona-fide jazzbo – a guy who graduated from the Boulder High jazz band and later took lessons from Miles Davis alum Dave Holland. Two guys with serious chops and that common bloodline that can make for heavenly harmonies.

Now throw into the mix a drummer who really knows how to do this stuff justice. I’m not sure when the Wood Brothers made the official move to a trio format. But prior to the new album, they tended to use drummers on an “as-needed” basis, and always to great effect. “Smoke Ring Halo” features drummer Tyler Greenwell (Derek Trucks Band) on every track, and the tour seems to make the three-piece official by substituting Greenwell with Nashville favorite Jano (pronounced “Johnno”) Rix… an excellent name for a porn star, as Oliver pointed out at the Kent show. Thankfully, Rix opted for a career in music. He has a wonderful touch, using a small vintage kit that serves as the perfect foil to Chris Wood’s 1920 acoustic German bass. And the two locked in tight during the show, especially in the opening of this tune off the new album: When I Was Young

Rix also threw in some tasty harmony vocals (including the third harmony on Smoke Ring Halo) and played a uniquely rigged instrument that the band referred to as the “shit-tar” – essentially, a stringless acoustic guitar that Rix turned into a makeshift drum kit with the help of a few well-placed mics. I’m predicting a run on shit-tars when they show up at the Guitar Center.

The trio format also gave The Wood Brothers an opportunity to retool some of their older songs – including Twisted from the album “Loaded,” which became a full-blown New Orleans stomper. But mainly, it seemed to energize Chris Wood (who literally danced with his standup bass at one point) and make the band’s live show a deeply satisfying experience.

Check here for tour dates. Then gas up the car, feed the pets, tether the kids to a pole in the basement and head out for a club near you.

Jessica Lea Mayfield

It’s barely April and, next to Smoke Ring Halo, I’ve already come up with my favorite song of the year. Even better, it was recorded by nephew Dan in West Akron, not far from the world headquarters of Rubber City Review (bastard left for Nashville, but we’re keeping him on the Christmas card list… for now). It’s by the artist formerly known as Chittlin’, aka Jessica Lea Mayfield. More important, it’s everything a pop song should be – an unexpected, sing-song-ey vocal that grabs you by the throat (in a gentle, folksy kind of way)… wonderfully original lyrics… a killer chord progression… great groove… surf guitar… and a slow build to a near-perfect bridge. Our Hearts are Wrong is from Jessica Lea’s strong new album, “Tell Me.” Buy it on your way to The Wood Brothers gig, then make sure you thank RCR profusely on the interwebs: Our Hearts Are Wrong

If you’re anywhere near Cleveland Wednesday night, go see Jessica Lea at the Beachland Ballroom.

The Wood Brothers on Video… Here’s a tune from the new album, with Greenwell on drums:

This next video is just, well, great (there’s that word again)… It’s filmed in an old Brooklyn elementary school by a group called Mason Jar Music Presents, and I’ll let them speak for themselves: “‘Mason Jar Music Presents’ is a video concert series inspired by the peacefulness and tranquility of the old buildings that continue to dot New York City’s 21st-century landscape. These productions provide a setting and space for fresh, unique music with compelling arrangements that breathe new life into each song. Each episode is dreamed up and brought to life wholly by the Mason Jar Music team. Songs are carefully selected from the artist’s repertoire and re-imagined with arrangements for strings, woodwinds and other assorted orchestral colors. Mason Jar Music is a collective of music makers trained in production, arranging, composition and recording. They all live and work together in a residential studio in Brooklyn, NY. In addition to producing, recording and/or mixing records for a variety of artists, Mason Jar Music specializes in film scores, original music for film and television, concert videos, and other audio/visual productions.” (MasonJarMusic.com) And you get a quick glimpse of Jano playing the shit-tar too.

And here’s a nice reworking of the Allman Brothers classic, Midnight Rider:

I love the sound of a Hammond B3 doing a slow-boil under the bluesy guitar of Grant Green or Kenny Burrell, or wrapped around a warm, soulful sax.  But there’s a thin line between the best of these recordings and pure schmaltz, which is probably why the organ combo remains a criminally ignored sub-genre of American roots music.

The Hammond organ was invented in 1934 by mechanical engineer Laurens Hammond, who also invented the technology behind 3-D glasses (maybe he was a numerologist too).  And his namesake instrument was destined to remain a staple at churches, hockey rinks and old-timey movie theaters until Jimmy Smith transformed it into the “new sound of jazz” back in the 1950s.

Jimmy recorded for the Blue Note label, which found itself in a bit of a rut after a string of jazz albums that didn’t exactly light up the charts.  Upon hearing Smith for the first time at a New York City jazz club, the label’s mercurial front man, Alfred Lion, decided right then and there to sign him.  Lion eventually confessed that he wanted to sell the label to become Smith’s tour manager, just so he could hear him play every night.

Smith quickly revitalized the label by taking advantage of the new LP format with extended workouts like his take on Dizzy Gillespie’s The Champ… The Champ

At this point, it would be useful to explain that Smith is playing intricate bebop figures on top with his right hand, chording with the left, and kicking out a rock-solid bass with the instrument’s foot pedals.  So essentially, all Smith needed to fill a small club with a wall of sound was a drummer – but he created the classic B3 trio by adding a guitar, with that chair initially held by the very capable Thornel Schwartz.

But my favorite Jimmy Smith recordings are the ones that create a smoky, late-night vibe, usually with the exceptional Kenny Burrell on guitar and Stanley Turrentine on sax.  And classics like “Back at the Chicken Shack,” “Midnight Special” and “Home Cookin’” still serve as the gold standards for those who prefer the “less is more” approach.  Listen to Burrell’s perfect hand-off to Turrentine on Midnight Special… Midnight Special

Inspired by Smith’s success, many other keyboard players jumped on the B3 bandwagon and recorded their own soul-jazz classics during the ‘50s through ‘70s – most notably, “Brother” Jack McDuff, Richard “Groove” Holmes, Shirley Scott and Dr. Lonnie Smith.  Here’s McDuff jamming with a young George Benson on guitar, before Benson moved on to his own unique brand of pop-schmaltz… Scuffin’

Even jazz greats like Gene Ammons and Sonny Stitt decided they’d had enough of half-full jazz clubs and abandoned more traditional acoustic bands in favor of organ-driven soul-jazz.  And one of the finest examples of the genre features Ammons and Stitt trading riffs on this standout cut from 1971… You Talk That Talk

The organist on this cut is Leon Spencer, one of the unsung heroes of the instrument.  And his experience underscores the thin line I alluded to earlier.  Back in the day, guys like Spencer, Don Patterson, Charles Kynard, Sonny Phillips and other more obscure artists played their fair share of inner-city clubs in places like Detroit and Newark, where getting asses on the dance floor was just as important as getting your own stuff across to a new audience.  And even the best organ combo records I’ve picked up over the years have at least one tune that sounds like a second-rate version of a pop or soul standard.  Here’s Spencer cookin’ up one of his fine originals… First Gravy

And here’s Spencer toying with a watered-down version of Marvin Gaye’s Mercy Mercy Me… Mercy Mercy Me

Hey, I’m not going to begrudge anyone trying to make a decent living – but I’ll take Gravy over reheated Motown any day of the week.

If there is such a thing as a desert-island organ combo playlist, it would have at least four or five cuts with Grant Green on guitar and Big John Patton on organ.  And it would lead off with this little slice of soul-jazz nirvana from “Got a Good Thing Goin,’” a 1966 Blue Note release (the disc’s second tune, Soul Woman, is just as good)… The Yodel

On these and other cuts by accomplished players like Green and Patton, you get the overwhelming attitude that “yeah, I can burn my way through any jazz standard you throw at me… but this is what I really want to play.”

The organ combo is far from finished.  Just pick up a recent release by Medeski, Martin & Wood or even Texas blues guitar great Jimmie Vaughan, who seems to always find a way to sneak an organ-driven instrumental into the mix.  In interviews, Vaughan has expressed his admiration of Gene Ammons and other soul-jazz giants – and his own band features Bill Willis, a former house bassist for Cincinnati’s legendary King Records who learned how to play organ from Mr. Honky Tonk himself, Bill Doggett.  On this cut from Vaughan’s first solo CD, Willis uses his left hand to play bass notes on the B3… Tilt A Whirl

I’ll leave you with this cut from Medeski, Martin & Wood’s third release, “Friday Afternoon in the Universe,” from back in 1995.  If you ever find yourself kicking back with a cocktail at the space station, you definitely want to slap this one on the interplanetary hi-fi… The Lover

Blue Note Soul-Jazz Album Covers… A few favorites:

The Doctor is In… Couldn’t resist adding this youtube video of a resplendent Dr. Lonnie Smith plying his craft on the B3… I like how he dives down to play a bass solo on the foot pedals with his hands.  He may be a Doctor, but he’s not above engaging in a little schtick!

Dear Tim:  I can appreciate your interest in long-deceased artists, but when are you going to start writing about real living, breathing musicians – preferably those who don’t qualify for AARP?  Also, your posts are too long.  Don’t you know that young folks can only process information in small, twitter-sized bites?  You’re just like your mama Jane, trying to feed people too much in one sitting.  And another thing…

OK, I really didn’t receive this comment.  But I expect to get something like it any minute, so I decided it was time to prove that I have a few songs in my library that were recorded some time after 1972.

Contrary to what my friends think, I don’t listen to dead blues guys on a daily basis (although John Lee Hooker seems to work well on Mondays).  In fact, I practically beg family members – mostly nephew Dan and brother James – to send me recent stuff that would meet my high standards for iPod-worthiness.  Then again, I’m constantly surprised when I shuffle through the 20,000+ songs on my iPod… How the hell did Boxcar Willie get on there?

Based on these and other idle ramblings, I offer you my Top Six Picks (because 10 would be too many) of recently recorded songs that have earned a spot on my “heavy rotation” playlist – and therefore should be required listening in schools and workplaces throughout the nation.

I confess that I didn’t know a thing about Raphael Saadiq before his 2008 release, “The Way I See It.”  I’d heard of his first band, Tony! Toni! Tone!, mainly because it was fun to say.  But now he really has my attention, thanks to the neo-soul groove of 100 Yard Dash.  You could argue that most of “The Way I See It” is just a slavish reproduction of the Motown sound, and I probably wouldn’t put up much of a fight.  But I’ll challenge anyone who questions the integrity of 100 Yard Dash – a song that seems to live in some R&B utopia, far from the land of auto-tune and automated beats. 100 Yard Dash

I had the great pleasure of meeting the Heartless Bastards when they opened for The Black Keys at a couple of sold-out shows earlier this year at Terminal 5 in NYC.  Dan and Pat brought the Big Apple to its knees – but I loved watching the Bastards win over about 5,000 jaded New Yorkers with their relentless, rootsy drive and the powerful voice of little Erika Wennerstrom, the pride of Dayton, Ohio.  James and I were so impressed, we even schlepped their equipment!  Here’s one of two standout cuts on their latest release “The Mountain” (to fully appreciate what these Bastards are all about, play the opening of the title song at maximum volume… after you buy it here, of course).  And credit goes to Pat Carney for hooking up the Heartless Bastards with the Fat Possum label. Out at Sea

How does one describe the Wood Brothers?  Americana?  Too narrow.  Folk?  Nah.  Blues?  A little.  Maybe it’s just a soulful mix of everything that’s right about American roots music – from the Stanley Brothers to Mississippi John Hurt to a hundred other streams running from the same deep river.  It’s hard to believe these two guys hail from Boulder (no offense, Caroline!)… They sound like they grew up in some backwoods cabin in the deep south.  Chris is the bassist for the futuristic organ combo Medeski, Martin & Wood, and Oliver cut his teeth playing in Atlanta blues bands.  Together, they’re a brother band with a bad attitude – and dark secrets that even the Louvin Brothers wouldn’t think of sharing (and they killed the Knoxville Girl!).  “Sometimes the tip of my tongue is the barrel of a gun, and it’s loaded”… I think we’ve all been there. Loaded

You can always count on the U.K. for new rock bands with lots of swagger, like the Duke Spirit.  I just missed their steamy set at one of those mega music festivals earlier this year, but came back home with their new release, “Neptune.”  My teenage daughter quickly ran off with it… but not before I had a chance to sneak this little slice of nasty onto my own iPod, where it seems to live comfortably with Link Wray, Morphine, the Cramps and other masters of menace.  The Duke Spirit’s main attraction is their mighty frontwoman, Liela Moss.  She may owe a small debt to the Rubber City’s Chrissie Hynde, but she makes a very big statement of her own on The Step and The Walk.  The Step and The Walk

My vote for one of last year’s best albums – “With Blasphemy So Heartfelt” by Jessica Lea Mayfield – won some positive notice in the music press, but not as much as I thought it would.  I’d argue that Jessica, who started recording “Blasphemy” at Dan’s Akron Analog studio when she was only 15, is misunderstood by many of her peers.  Her voice is timeless, colored by the deep, lonesome twang of hard country (she started performing with her family’s bluegrass band at the age of 8).  And twang ain’t exactly what the indie nation wants to hear.  I think Jessica is poised for much bigger things… as soon as she finds the right audience.  In the meantime, I’ll just keep listening to this perfect opening to “Blasphemy.”  Kiss Me Again

Latin soul, done right, is a beautiful thing.  Salsa, meringue, Afro-Cuban, rumba, even that funky boogaloo that Fania Records put out in the ‘60s…  I’m no expert on the many forms of Latin music, but I know what I like – and I’m definitely sold on “San Sebastian 152” by Bronx River Parkway.  BRP’s myspace page notes that the project brought the New York-based band together with “a crew of legendary salsa musicians that make their home in San Juan.”  The album was recorded with old-school equipment in a 200-year-old former ballet school in Puerto Rico.  It’s another classic melding of soul and salsa – with the kind of propulsive rhythms that ruled the dancefloors of New York City during the reign of El Rey del Timbal, Tito Puente. Agua Con Sal

Bonus track… This one was sent in from Santa Rosa, CA, where the Aces seem to have a fresh take on the blues (one song ends with a blast of sitar!).  They do it “Hound Dog” style… no bass — just two guitars, a drummer and a pretty fine harp player blowin’ like mad on top.  I’d like to catch these guys at a roadhouse bar on a Saturday night — maybe I should book a flight!  Find out more at acesfan.com. Shed Some Light On Me