For Soulive, March 2011 marked twelve amazing years of touring all over the world from the U.S. to Europe, Russia, Japan, Brazil, and more. While maintaining a home base in the U.S., mainly out of New York, they have laid it down all over the place. Any band that can make it this far has “crossed-over” a musical line in the sand. Saying to the rest of us out there, “We’ve Made It.” New Orlean’s Jazz Fest will always have funky memories of the Soulive legacy left behind.
Over the years, many music reviews have described them as funk, jazz, R&B, blues, rock, hip-hop, or soul music. That pretty much covers the spectrum of genres if you think about it. I venture to re-categorize the likes of Soulive into a fused genre called “Soul-Jazz”. Not to exclude the funk, of course. We will always and forever have the funk. Especially with Alan Evans keeping the steady beat on the drums. His brother, Neal Evans, fell like the proverbial nut from the tree in the same musical area as Alan, hammering the bass and keys on his Hammond B-3 and other keys stacked on and in between. Then, we have Eric Krasno’s guitar style, which is reminiscent of a Grant Green and Pat Martino combo. Now, if you think that’s not a recipe for a damn good time, you’re out of your mind! Soul-Jazz is more than a genre, though. Just as the Funk, it’s a way of life.
I’m catching up with these amazing musicians in Northern California at The Arcata Theater Lounge. It’s one of the better venues in Humboldt County, with newly renovated and tiered flooring. The “ATL” has high quality sound given it’s history as an actual movie theater. There isn’t a bad spot in the place to hear and see these guys tear it up. They started out the show with DJ Krasno spinning records instead of Break Science due to unknown reasons. Break Science did make it to the after party, however, where they kept it raging into the wee hours of the morning. Soulive, as the opening act, played classics like “Hatrick,” “Turn It Out,” and “El Ron.” The middle of the set included multiple tracks off of their recent album, Rubber Soulive. It was awesome to hear “Come Together,” “I Want You,” and many others done in an intense soul-jazz style. As a three-piece soul-jazz band, Soulive took the lead that night leaving the closing to a high energy, seven-piece, funk-soul group that actually pre-dates Soulive.
Now…. How’s bout some Lettuce? Hailing from the same label as their co-constituents Soulive, Lettuce is a crazy, seven-member side project of Krasno’s that formed back in 1992. They’ve returned from the hiatus with a new album titled Rage! Krasno calls it “… a tribute to all the funk greats.” “Move On Up” is track three. This, obviously, pays tribute to the great Curtis Mayfield. Lettuce has been lucky enough to play with the likes of Dr. John, Fred Wesley, and Maceo Parker, just to name a few. Lettuce dedicates themselves to all classic funk songs on their latest album, and they proved it live in Arcata, CA. They picked it right up, opening with their “regular intro” into “Blast Off,” the first track on Rage! “Suppit” came up next, and then they played a new song never heard live before called “Lettuce Play.” They mentioned a possibility of it being the title track to a new album that’s soon to come. Unfortunately, Lettuce had to cut three or four songs off of the set list due to time constraints, but the songs played included “Dilla,” “Flu,” and a number featuring the three-piece horn section called “Need To Understand.” They came back for the encore, playing one of my favorites, “Express Yourself.” This was an amazing show, and I encourage you all to get into Soulive, Lettuce, and Break Science. Until next time.
