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- FILET OF SOUL: Soulive
Soul music is dead. A few die-hards dig up the casket and give it a kick from time to time, trying to shake some life back into its moldering skeleton, but for the last 30 years, little has come of it. When Stax records lost its soul and its life to bankruptcy in '76, it was the end of an era. Wilson Pickett and James Brown briefly reanimated the corpse before their life force ebbed as well. Solomon Burke is the only one left who can still call up the spirit.
There is hope for rejuvenation. Stax Records -- home to Otis, Rufus, Sam and Dave, and a host of other venerable soul men -- has recently been reactivated. There's some new blood coursing through its veins these days, mixed with some of the old. Isaac Hayes is back, resurrecting his career as a Stax producer, writer and performer. The label's first release of new material, Interpretations: Celebrating The Music of Earth, Wind & Fire, released in March, has artists including Chaka Khan, Kirk Franklin, Angie Stone and Musiq Soulchild interpreting EW&F classics. New blood includes Angie Stone and the New York-based former jazz funk trio Soulive.
But before participating in the transfusion, contributing the label's first new release of all new material, Soulive had to undergo a makeover. The trio, Neal Evans on organ, brother Alan on drums and guitarist Eric Krasno, had a sound reminiscent of the laid-back groove/jazz feel of B-3 bluesman Jimmy McGriff.
With the addition of vocalist Toussaint, the quartet has morphed into a funk/soul outfit. "We had worked with different singers on different cuts on different albums, like Chaka Khan and Ivan Neville and others," Krasno said, phoning from his NYC home. "This time, we really wanted to make more of a cohesive record, really wanted to have one voice."
The result, No Place Like Soul, is a complete departure from the band's previous five releases. The revamped Soulive sounds like Col. Bruce Hampton's former band the Codetalkers with a 1970s soul feel and a Meters/Galactic funk anchor. "As we've evolved, we've brought in more influences from our upbringing, more different flavors that we were really into, added to the sound of the group," Krasno says. "We've always liked change. It keeps us excited about the music, keeps us fresh because we're touring and playing so much."
The record mixes gospel and reggae with funk alongside Toussaint's soulful vocals, which sound like a mix of Stevie Wonder, Kool and the Gang and Larry Graham. In addition to his vocal contribution, Toussaint, who formerly headed up the Boston--based reggae group the China Band, writes as well. "The good thing about having a singer that's willing to write is that we can all write together so songs have more of an organic feel," Krasno says. It also helps to have a singer onsite. "If he gets a lyrical idea or I get a lyrical idea we can form the music around that and the song can take form in an organic way," Krasno says.
The guitarist points out that the problem with collaborations is scheduling the session in the first place, then figuring out if the collaborator can work in a live performance. And even if all that falls into place, it's still difficult to write a track for a collaborator, send it out for them to record at another location and still keep the original energy intact.
"That's the good thing abut Soulive: We're really like all about the moment, spontaneous, we don't like to overproduce," Krasno says. "We also felt that performing kept the flow rather than saying, 'OK, here's the writing session, now we go into the studio and record it.' It just seemed to work this way."
The group has some big shoes to fill, stomping around in the hallowed halls of Stax with the voices of venerable soul men still echoing through the vaults. But Krasno says they'll look forward, not back. "We're definitely trying to make our own version of soul music imbued with some hip-hop and some reggae and stuff.
"We try not to put any boundaries on what we're gonna do," he says. "So who knows what we'll do?"
Soulive plays the Visulite Theatre Aug. 24 at 9 p.m. Tickets are $20 in advance and $22 on the day of the show.
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