Tag Archives: Soul

Margie Joseph: Feeling My Way

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Soft soul and disco abyss

Perhaps “abyss” is too strong a word, since there are a few fine string-lined ballads and mid-tempo numbers to be found on this 1978 release, Joseph’s fifth for the Atlantic label group. Having worked with Arif Mardin on her earliest Atlantic albums, then with Motown legend Lamont Dozier on 1976’s Hear the Words, Feel the Feeling, Joseph hooked up with Motown writer/producer Johnny Bristol this time out and lost herself in his unmemorable songs and clichéd production. Joseph’s voice remains fetching, but the majority of the tracks pass by without leaving an impression, and the phased guitars, swooping strings and backing singers sound dated. Highlights include a passionate cover of Bristol’s 1976 original “You Turned Me on to Love,” and the faithful, romantic “Picture of a Clown.” Those who enjoy the soft soul sounds of mid-70s may very well enjoy this album, but fans of her Joseph’s early works on Stax, and her Mardin-produced albums for Atlantic (particularly 1973’s Margie Joseph and 1975’s Margie) won’t find the same funky spark here. [©2008 hyperbolium dot com]

Margie Joseph: Hear the Words, Feel the Feeling

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Atlantic soul singer teams up with Motown mainstay

After a pair of albums for Stax and three Arif Marden-produced albums for Atlantic, Joseph took to the studio with the legendary Lamont Dozier. Unsurprisingly the production and Dozier-penned songs retain a good deal of the Motown sound. What sets this album apart, again unsurprisingly, is Joseph herself, whose gutsy vocals are more rooted in the South than the typical Hitsville singer’s. Freed of Motown’s conventions, Dozier let Joseph vocalize passionately, providing contrast rather than conformity with the arrangements of McKinley Jackson. As on her next album, Feeling the Way, there are some proto-disco sounds here, but Dozier and Jackson keep things fresh, and the players, which include Detroit transplants and Los Angeles hotshots, combine the heat of Motor City with the cool of Southern California. This is an unassuming album whose charms are more subtle than Joseph’s earlier work, but still quite intoxicating. [©2008 hyperbolium dot com]

The Soulful Strings: Groovin’ With the Soulful Strings

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Second album from brilliant Chicago string-jazz-funk-soul outfit

At first glance the Soulful Strings could be lumped into the many mainstream opportunists who adapted popular hits songs of the 1960s and early 1970s to orchestral and string arrangements. But unlike aggregations such as the Living Strings, Melachrino Strings or the Leon Russell led Midnight String Quartet, the Chicago-based Soulful Strings weren’t an attempt to lure young listeners to easy listening or older listeners to pop. Instead, Cadet producer Esmond Edmunds and arranger-conductor Richard Evans were interested in exploring the intersection of a soulful Chicago jazz band and a full string section. At the time of the Soul Strings’ creation, Evans was already an experienced bassist and arranger, having worked with Ramsey Lewis, Kenny Burrell and others. Even more importantly, the Soulful Strings albums were populated by the cream of Chicago’s jazz and soul scene, including Charles Stepney, Lenard Druss, Bunky Green, Phil Upchurch, and many others. This second Soul Strings LP (their debut was titled Paint it Black), was released in 1967, and includes their best-known (and most thoroughly anthologized) tune, Richard Evans’ “Burning Spear.” Also heard here are reworked jazz tunes (Miles Davis’ “All Blues”), psychedelic pop (George Harrison’s “Within You Without You”) and top-40 pop (The Rascals’ “Groovin’”). Evans’ arrangements are masterful, weaving the string section and jazz players together without artifice or novelty, lending the weight of the former to the solid funk of the latter. Sadly, as of the writing of this review, all seven Soulful Strings albums are out of print, and Universal (which currently owns the Cadet catalog) doesn’t seem in any hurry to get them reissued. [©2008 hyperbolium dot com]

OST: Soul Men

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Sweet soul music soundtrack celebration

Bernie Mac’s final film (he passed away August 9th, 2008) teams him with Samuel L. Jackson as partners whose soul music careers and friendship dissolve with the departure of their group’s lead vocalist, played by real-life soul singer John Legend. The film follows their cross-country trip to a reunion twenty years later to the funeral of their former lead singer, and lines the way with superbly reworked versions of classic soul songs, a couple of original hits from Isaac Hayes and Eddie Floyd, and the deep-soul single “You Don’t Know What You Mean (to a Lover Like Me)” from Lee Fields and Sugarman 3. If you hadn’t guessed, “s-o-u-l” is spelled here “S-T-A-X,” and in addition to classic songs, the album sports the formidable backing talents of original Soulsville players Willie Hall, Charlie Pitts and Ben Cauley, and contemporary vocal talents Legend, Anthony Hamilton, Leela James, Ryan Jones, Sharon Jones and Meshell Ndegeocello.

Chris Pierce and Leela James provide a moving rendition of William Bell and Judy Clay’s “Private Number” that’s faithful in arrangement, but given an original spark by James’ edgier vocal. Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings rescue Kenny Rogers’ “Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)” from its kitschy neo-psych origins with the toe-tapping go-go arrangement of a mid-60s spy film. Ryan Shaw provides a winning soul shout on a punchy backbeat-and-horns cover of Rufus Thomas’ “Memphis Train,” and the film’s acting stars rock the mic for both Rufus Thomas’ “Boogie Ain’t Nuttin’ (But Gettin’ Down)” and the closing revival of Isaac Hayes “Do Your Thing.” Hayes’ own cover of The Jackson 5’s “Never Can Say Goodbye” remains as sultry and fresh as when originally issued on 1971’s Black Moses, and Eddie Floyd’s “I’ve Never Found a Girl (to Love Me Like You Do)” bridges from the nostalgic covers to the real deal. The album’s most startling remake is also its simplest, with Sharon Leal stripping Carla Thomas’ “Comfort Me” of its horns, backing singers and gospel inflections to render it stark and moody as a piano and voice ballad, exquisitely stretching to the upper end of Leal’s range.

In an age where the marketing value of a pop soundtrack usually outweighs both the music’s value to the story and the experience of the soundtrack as a CD, executive music producer Alex Steyermark has winningly serviced all three. As accompaniment to the film, the songs create a mood that’s of the time rather than purely nostalgic, and as a musical experience, these new performances are worthy updates. There’s no substitute for the originals (many of which can be found on the Stax 50th Anniversary Celebration, The Stax Story, or the three volumes of the Complete Stax-Volt Singles 1 2 3), but as a solid fifty-minutes of soul that stretches from original sides through inventive covers to new compositions based on the Stax theme, this is a great spin. [©2008 hyperbolium dot com]

The Heavy: Set Me Free

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Sophomore EP from UK mash-up soul quintet

This UK quintet’s second domestic release (following up their debut album Great Vengeance and Furious Fire) is a five-song EP that continues their mashup of 1970s blaxpolitation soul, bone rumbling bass and lo-fi samples that add the warmth of well-worn vinyl grooves. This time out they add Zeppelin-weight rock, grungy blues guitars and most importantly of all, more cowbell. The latter is courtesy of the title track’s use of the opening of the Stones’ “Honky Tonk Women” and an earworm percussion riff on the disc-closing alternate version. Kelvin Swaby’s falsetto combines the passion of Curtis Mayfield, the seduction of Prince and the Johnny Mathis-like stylings of Roland Gift. With the vocals providing the top-line hooks, the instrumental mélanges are the underlying motor. The opener lays a lyric of a half-faded love with acoustic rhythm guitars, deep bass, sustained cymbal strokes and a propulsive tambourine. The monotone bass and drums of “Easier” are more standard issue, as is the metal-jam guitar and pounding percussion of “You Don’t Know,” yet in both cases the vocal contrast generates drama and interest. More inventive is the acoustic treatment of “Coleen,” which hangs between soul and blues with drums, bass and dripping guitars beneath the call-and-response vocals. Those purchasing the full EP from iTunes get the bonus track “Doing Heavy Time,” which covers Johnny Cash’s Sun-era “Doin’ My Time” with a combination of original and sampled vocals, dance-ready bass and a rockpile backbeat; never before has the connection between Johnny Cash and Curtis Mayfield been so clearly drawn. This is a nice taste of The Heavy, issued on the eve of several East Coast concert dates; for the full story, check out their debut. [©2008 hyperbolium dot com]

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Ike & Tina Turner: Sing the Blues

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Late ‘60s blues sides from soul dynamos

A year before climbing into the top-40 with “I Want to Take You Higher,” and two-years before attaining rock immortality with their 1971 cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Proud Mary,” Ike Turner produced a pair of albums, “Outta Season” and “The Hunter,” that he leased to Bob Krasnow’s recently founded Blue Thumb records. Turner had been self-producing sessions throughout his career, fanning out the results to a variety of labels, including several of his own imprints, in an effort to keep fresh material in the stores as he toured with the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. For this pair of releases he reached back to his beginnings as a blues musician, selecting titles from T-Bone Walker, Lowell Fulson, Robert Johnson and Jimmy Reed, and adding just a few originals. Sung by Tina Turner in a bluesy wail that’s sadly familiar with love gone very, very wrong, many of the tracks are arranged without the backing singers or horns of the Revue, but decorated generously with Ike Turner’s twangy guitar riffs and leads.

The sparse settings show off both Turners in a stark light that their frenetic hits with the Revue rarely captured. Ike Turner is offered here primarily as a lead and rhythm guitarist, and Tina Turner creates emotionally informed first-person vocals from standard blues progressions. Highlights include a chillingly distraught rendition of Otis Redding’s “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long,” the bedspring guitar twang on “Five Long Years” and the original instrumental “Grumbling,” the Motown vibe given Sonny Boy Williamson’s “Crazy About You Baby,” Tina Turner’s sassy holler on Lowell Fulson’s “Reconsider Baby,” her strutting, self-assured reading of “The Hunter,” and a terrifically convincing take on Don Robey’s “I Smell Trouble.” The albums’ biggest commercial success was the funky soul workout “Bold Soul Sister,” which reached #22 on the soul charts and crossed over to #69 pop. Both Turners show a deep connection to the blues, both as the roots of their soul sides with the Revue, and particularly in Tina Turner’s case, a very personal expression of her life’s troubles.

Acrobat’s anthology cherry-picks 18 of the combined albums’ 22 tracks, replicating most of the selections on the out-of-print Bold Soul Sister, but falling short of Blue Moon’s import two-fer (which, to be fair, is twice the price of this set for only four more tracks). Blame U.S. royalty rules for the disparity in track counts. More notably absent is the Grammy-winning album cover of Outta Season, which famously depicts the Turners in whiteface eating watermelon – a visual complaint about white musicians cashing in on the blues while many of the genre’s originators struggled for recognition. The audio quality of these masters is excellent, with plenty of presence in the vocals and detail in the instruments. New liner notes provide a concise history of Ike & Tina Turner’s musical career and brief context for these specific recordings. This isn’t the place to start an Ike & Tina collection, but it’s a great place for fans to stretch out their appreciation of the Turner’s talents. [©2008 hyperbolium dot com]

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Otis Redding: Live in London and Paris

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Soul master at the peak of his powers

Redding’s live performances of the mid-60s are surprisingly well documented. Individual pieces of his work on Stax’s package tours of Europe can be heard on Live in Europe, The Stax/Volt Revue: Live in London, the Ace Records collection 1,000 Volts of Stax, and the DVD Stax/Volt Revue Live in Norway 1967. His stateside performances have turned up on several Monterey Pop artifacts, and two albums worth of tracks document his shows at the Whisky A Go Go (1 2). What separates this new release from the rest is the full picture of Redding’s set at the top of the Stax ticket. Stretching to over an hour, the nineteen tracks collect performances from back-to-back concerts in London and Paris, showing off not only the incendiary songs, but the excitement of the shows, from Emperor Rosko’s name-spelling introduction in London to the climactic renditions of “Try a Little Tenderness” that leave both audiences chanting for more.

Heading up a bill that featured Arthur Conley, Eddie Floyd and Sam & Dave, and backed by Booker T. and the M.G.’s and the Mar-Keys, Redding’s headlining slot found the party already well under way. Even so, his introduction was enough to take the crowd to a new level of excitement. With the M.G.’s kicking off the pulsing intro of “Respect,” Redding hits the stage like a soul hurricane at full speed, pulling the band into the cyclone with all his might. In the shorter London set he slows for a cover of “My Girl,” burning with emotion on what had been his first hit single in the UK. The band plays more grittily than Motown’s funk brothers, with the Mar-Keys’ horns stretching to hit high notes and Redding scatting to close the song. The rolling drum and horn intro of “Shake” elicits a cheer from the crowd, dialing up the electricity as the crowd shouts along to Redding’s exhortations.

Redding included two British Invasion hits in this set, working the Beatles’ “Day Tripper” and the Stones’ “Satisfaction” into Stax-styled soul shouts. The former found Redding weaving his way in and around the lyrics at double-speed with the horn section on his tail, the latter revs up Redding’s soul testimony to a frenzy. The London show closes with a tour de force seven-minute version of “Try a Little Tenderness,” opening with melancholy horns that segue into the opening stanza from Redding and organist Booker T. Jones. It’s the calm before the storm, as the song rises to crescendo after crescendo, sustained for three minutes by the emcee and crowd’s invitations for more, and culminating with most of the Stax revue joining in the finale.

The Paris program opens similarly to London’s with a call-and-response introduction and the pounding intro of “Respect.” Unlike the London show, which had a curfew, Redding’s Paris set was longer, and kept up the pulsing rhythm with “I Can’t Turn You Lose” before turning to the showcase ballad “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long.” The song’s starts and stops leave the crowd breathless, and Redding’s vocal pyrotechnics elicit both shouts and applause. The set list reprises several selections from London before adding a somber version of “These Arms of Mine” and closing the show with yet another barn-burning version of “Try a Little Tenderness.”

Remixed from the original multitrack masters (recorded originally by the legendary Tom Dowd), the results are crisp and punchy, with Redding’s vocals forcefully at the fore and the Stax band solidly underneath. The disc is delivered in a digipack with a 16-page booklet that includes period photos and poster art, and liner notes from Bill Belmont, Ace Records’ Roger Armstrong, French author Jean-Noel Orgouz, and M.G. guitarist Steve Cropper. Redding’s return to Europe was a triumph, and his stage patter showed deep appreciation for his audiences as he playfully acknowledged “it’s good to be home.” Home for Redding was anywhere that people loved soul music, and at the height of his powers there were few who could unleash anything more soulful than this. [©2008 hyperbolium dot com]

Listen to “I Can’t Turn You Loose”

Margie Joseph: Margie

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Joseph’s third for Atlantic re-finds the funk

Soul singer Margie Joseph’s third album for Atlantic, originally released in 1975, revisited the funkier bottom end of her 1973 label debut (confusingly titled Margie Joseph). Where 1974’s Sweet Surrender had smoothed out the R&B grooves and nosed its way towards disco’s rhythms, this new set offered more grit on the upbeat numbers and deeper soul on the ballads. Arif Mardin continued in the producer’s chair, and the song list was again constructed with a large dose of covers and a pair of originals. Joseph and Mardin’s “Sign of the Times” opens the album with P Funk-styled synthesizer and plucked bass, and a melody that anticipates a seamless segue into Carole King’s “Believe in Humanity.” Both songs offer up early-70s social spirituality in their lyrics. A cover of King’s “After All This Time” appears later on the album, transitioning smoothly from a softer mid-tempo to a beefier soul shout as the strings and percussion start and stop for emphasis. “The Same Love That Made Me Laugh” is taken at a slow tempo, drawn out and more worn down than Bill Withers’ original, while “Who Gets Your Love,” is given a lighter treatment than Dusty Springfield’s earlier version. Joseph gets a chance to scat briefly at the end of “Promise Me Your Love,” unfortunately just in time for the fade, and the album closes with a cover of “I Can’t Move No Mountains” that’s decidedly more urban than Blood, Sweat & Tears earlier horn-lined release. Many of Joseph’s fans vote this as their favorite of her releases. It’s more sophisticated and less brash than her label debut, which is a plus or minus depending on your preference for polish over roots. What this album makes clear is that Joseph was maturing as an artist, and her pairing with Mardin, which ended with this album, had developed over the course of their three albums together. [©2008 hyperbolium dot com]