'Retox' by Lakecia Benjamin [album review]

Before we get stuck into the album, it feels only right that we start with a quick public service announcement celebrating the label home this brilliant album comes from: Motema Records.  If you’re a fan of contemporary, and even world, jazz, but perhaps don’t know where to start, stick to Motema Records (and of course Blue Note) and you sincerely cannot go wrong. 

Founded by artist, Jana Herzen, the label commemorated their tenth anniversary in 2014 and certainly had a lot to celebrate.  Motema probably received their biggest introduction to many via the breakthrough jazz vocalist, Gregory Porter, whose single ‘1960 What’ became something of a sensation spurring his first two albums, ‘Water’ and ‘Be Good’, on to great success.  David Murray’s Infinity Quartet ‘Be My Monster Love’, Rene Marie’s ‘I Wanna Be Evil’, music by Marc Cary and Geri Allen are just a few of the names and projects showcasing the virtuosic jazz you benefit from having to look just that little bit harder to find.  And then there’s Lakecia Benjamin!

Released in 2012 – yes, I’m late! – the debut album from saxophonist, band leader and producer, Lakecia Benjamin, was unveiled in a blissful cloud of funk and soul that’s a pure treat to your ears.  Citing the album as something of an ode to her heroes, tracks entitled ‘Maceo’ and her cover of Stevie Wonder’s ‘Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing’ paint a very clear picture of what this album aims to convey.  The band personnel include Solomon Dorsey on bass – a man who I’m convinced could be a huge star if he wanted to be – plus Soul Cycle’s Jesse Fischer on keys and organ. 

The album’s guest list is just as impressive with Melanie Charles appearing on the sublime ‘Dreams’, Chinah Blac on the oh-so-funky ‘Jump and Shout’, Mavis Swan Poole on ‘Human Being’ and a fairly reduced vocal performance from Amp Fiddler on the soul-thumping number, ‘Keep Talkin’.  All songs come from the pen and production of Benjamin (aside from the aforementioned Stevie cover) and she skillfully creates songs whereby the album works as an excellent showcase to her immeasurable all-round talent. 

I’m not normally a fan of rating albums, for numerous reasons, but I’ll openly rate this: 5/5, 10/10.  Whatever the max is, I’ll give it.  Here’s the album’s lead single ‘Jump and Shout’ to win you over…

"The Eternal Hustle": The Soul Immigrants [Interview]

If the name ‘The Soul Immigrants’ rings a bell, you were probably fortunate enough to have stumbled upon some of the band’s terrific music or live performances (which include Glastonbury, Craig Charles' Funk & Soul Show and London’s Jazz Café) over a career spanning more than 20 years.  Now in 2015, The Soul Immigrants return to assert themselves for an entirely new generation of funk devotees with their brand new album, ‘The Hustle Is On!’.

Reformed in 2011, with a new lineup including Emrys Baird (vocals and guitar), David Bouet (drums), Ian Bailey (sax), Dee Byrne (sax), Stu Ross (keys) and Al Gibson (bass), the band had actually issued stellar previews on what they were now capable of back in 2012 with their singles ‘The Ghetto (There’s No Way Out)’ and ‘Sunk Without The Funk’.  The singles served as excellent (re)introductions to South London’s musical veterans on the thriving and, dare I say, highly competitive UK funk and soul music scene.

‘Highly competitive’ is probably a fairly apt way to describe the genre of music in this country: bands like The Baker Brothers, Nick Pride & The Pimptones, Crowd Company, The Impellers, Hannah Williams & The Tastemakers… it’s a long list of indelible talent; to find a way to stand tall among them, and garner noteworthy praise from luminaries like Craig Charles, Charles Bradley, Carleen Anderson and the phenomenal Angeline Morrison is nothing short of extraordinary.

The Soul Immigrants were initially formed back in the 1990s by front-man, Emrys Baird, along with Nitin Sawhney, now an established solo artist and producer in his own right.  Baird however has continued to roll out the brand of old-school funk with the distinctly contemporary twist that was always envisioned for the band – having played with The Funk Ambassadors in his teen years, and backed the iconic JBs on their first UK tour in the late-1980s, Baird’s credentials, knowledge and experience speak for themselves.

Now signed to Dry Rooti Records, the 6-piece – initially named due to the diverse backgrounds comprising the band’s members – have comfortably created their own lane.  Not only does the album feature Fred Wesley on two of the tracks (‘Yard of Hard’ and ‘Why Don’t You Funk Me?’), we have the pleasure of sweet soul songs like ‘Golden Summer Rays’ (perfectly-timed for the summer) and grittier funk numbers like ‘Sweet Beat’ and ‘Pressure Point’.  There’s also the additional benefit of the aforementioned 2012 singles as bonus tracks at the album’s close.

With the imminent release of ‘The Hustle Is On!’, founder and front man, Emrys Baird, took time out to chat with us about the band’s past, present and unstoppable funk-filled future…

IMRAN MIRZA: Who have been the strongest influences in developing your style of funk music?
EMRYS BAIRD: Three albums come to mind which I have listened to endlessly and they have obviously had an effect: Sly Stone’s ‘There’s A Riot Goin’ On’, Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On’ and Gil Scott-Heron‘s ‘Pieces Of A Man’.  And let's not forget The Temptations, Curtis Mayfield, Donny Hathaway, Isaac Hayes, James Brown and, later on, Stevie Wonder!  As the sixties turned into the seventies, soul, like rock, got heavier, edgier and darker.  They were also raising their socio/conscious levels too! The subject of love was sidelined as their music was going deeper, more complex and hardcore.  As you will notice, there are no love songs on ‘The Hustle Is On’.

How did you initially meet the other artists to form The Soul Immigrants?
When The Funk Ambassadors ended, I was knocking around with Nitin Sawhney.  As I had an eight-track recorder in my squat, he’d come round to record his weird jazzy demos; we became friends… To where one day he was like “Let’s form a band together – what shall we call it?”... So I thought about the band names that were around at the time – Young Disciples, Jazz Warriors, Jazz Defectors – and basically said “How about The Soul Immigrants”?  We had Nitin on keyboards, an Italian rhythm section, a Trinidadian lead-singer… You know, it was quite an exotic blend!  So we became The Soul Immigrants and, over the many years of the band's existence, many fine players have come and gone: Andy Kremer, Liran Donin, Steve Taylor, and many more besides all great musicians who you will still see lighting up stages all over the place.
Currently, we have a very stable crew, we’ve got a great keyboard-player from Australia, Stu Ross, who started out in little bands at home but has settled over here now.  And the fact that he’s brought in the Hammond has really consolidated our sound.  Then we also have a great horn-section with Ian Bailey – a fantastic baritone/tenor sax-player, who plays with people like The Boom Yeh, and Dee Byrne an alto sax-player who has a very sharp and raw sound – a bit like a female jazzy Maceo!  Plus we have Al Gibson on bass, who helps with some of the arrangements, and a great French drummer, David Bouet, who I call  “Bam-Bam” because I’m always encouraging him to play the funkiest of break-beats!

How would you say the creative process in writing, producing and recording new music usually work for you as a group?
Ah yes, the best part is definitely putting it all together.  The main thrust comes from myself, David Bouet and Al Gibson.  In reggae terms so to speak, we are the carpet, the heart of the band!  The three of us pretty much determined the outcome and we worked together really well and focused a lot on the initial grooves (which I had initially sketched up on iPad) and the direction we were trying to take everything went really, really smoothly. I couldn’t be more happier with the choices to go on this CD.  The real test was to make these brand new tracks sound 'played in' and as live sounding as possible.  It's also a remit of ours to keep our artistic integrity intact.  A very important thing to me. Making records that represent who you are as opposed to attempting to satisfy some niche.  If you are making a thrash album, or whatever, and you really feel it, then great, yeah.  Whatever it is, be sincere about it.  We had a mental motto in the studio "If it's fresh and tough then it will be good enough".

You must have been thrilled with the success of the singles 'Ghetto' and 'Sunk Without The Funk'?
Yes, we got lucky with that single! Snowboy got behind it, as did Pete from Sticky Records and, of course, Craig Charles, and with a stroke of good fortune, it soon came to the attention of legendary funk label P-Vine Records Japan, who signed us up resulting in ‘The Hustle Is On’ being born!  I really didn't think we'd ever record an album again, I was just content with releasing 45's.  So we have them to thank for making us go that extra mile.

How did you come to the attention of Dry Rooti Records?
That's simple, it's our own label, primarily set up as a 45's release label.  We have also joined up with Saxology Ents (management) and to help us promote our music, band and label, we are working with QG Enterprise, our agent.

How did Fred Wesley come to be a part of 'The Hustle Is On'?
Being a massive JBs fan, I had always dreamed of having the likes of Fred Wesley on a track or two – you must remember James Brown himself said [Wesley] was without doubt the best musician he'd ever played with!  Although I had some past connection, I had lost touch until I noticed Fred had guested on The HornDogz new album – a French hip-hop band I was friends with.  I asked sax player, Eric Roehner, for Fred's manager's email and thus a two-year chase began.  Eventually, I saw Fred was playing in London, he agreed to a session but it had to be near his hotel and 2 hours max including travel!  So we hired the basement of a pub in Soho but we were already pushed for time as Fred had been stuck in a taxi and time was ebbing away.  We needn't have worried, he's a quick worker and with the session over, we stuck him in a rickshaw and bid him farewell as he went back to his hotel for his afternoon nap.

Who would be a dream collaborator for The Soul Immigrants?
Prince! His talent is boundless and his work ethic is manically despotic! Wake me up if it becomes a reality.  Actually you've given me an idea I'll send a CD to Paisley Park just as a wild punt – why the hell not?  Thanks! With this dream collaborator you are asking me to dream big!

How does your music transfer to a live stage?
Good question!  This new material has only been tested on two gigs which went well but that was before Christmas [2014].  When we opened for Steve Cropper and Osaka Monaurail, the guys in the band have other music projects to attend to, so hopefully  we can roll out the new stuff and do it credit soon.  Conversely, where a lot of bands fail is transferring their music to tape, so to speak, you have to work hard to capture that energy and vitality, and watch out for a bland production!

If you were introducing your music to a prospective new fan, which song from the album would you recommend they listen to?
Blimey, another good question!  I think 'Golden Summer Rays'.  It’s our anthem – full of positive energy.  I wanted to write something really catchy but also say something lyrically.  It's dark times we live in so let the music lift your spirits, gather every man, woman and child and open your heart sunwards, let some light in.  It’s hard to write socially conscious tunes that you can whistle too so I would definitely play this to them with a glowing sense of pride inside!

‘The Hustle Is On!’ is released 1st June 2015 and available through Dry Rooti Records.

'Love Sex Passion' by Raheem DeVaughn [album review]

Raheem DeVaughn is one of those artists who really shows someone how it’s done.  I consider myself quite a champion of DeVaughn’s music – notwithstanding the excellent caliber of it, I always find myself impressed by the man’s work ethic more than anything else – now having released his fifth album since 2005’s ‘The Love Experience’, as well as a slew of mixtapes and an immeasurable amount of guest appearances ranging from Kev Brown, Jazzy Jeff, Talib Kweli, Guru, T-Pain, Ghostface Killah, among countless others, you really get the sense that this is a hungry young artist who’s in it for the long haul.

‘Love Sex Passion’ does nothing to dispel that notion.  Raheem, regardless of who he works with, can always boast that signature sound – his is an inimitable voice and when married with production that’s heavily inspired by old school aesthetics, it makes for a very unique and contemporary blend of R&B and soul.  That ‘unique blend’ is presented here over seventeen tracks that clocks in at 76 minutes, demonstrating that there’s clearly still an enthusiasm for his music and plenty for people to connect with here.

The long-running production chemistry with Kenny Dope isn’t on display this time round (note their previous gems ‘Hopeless Romantic’, ‘Guess Who Loves You More’ and ‘My Wife’) but former collaborator, Chucky Thompson, does show up on two tracks for production as well as awesome funk & soul trombonist, Trombone Shorty, who earns himself a guest spot on ‘Pretty Lady’.  The album marks a notably more mature sound which some of his previous songs probably weren’t aiming to capture, like ‘B.o.B. (Battery Operated Boyfriend)’ and ‘Microphone’ – ah yes, ‘Microphone’, the song that compares a stage to his body, and the microphone to his… well, let’s just say I’m way too prudish to finish that line off.

Highlights this time round include the aforementioned ‘Pretty Lady’, ‘Miss Your Sex’ and ‘Nothing Without You’ but the album really boasts few duds.  ‘Love Sex Passion’ is an excellent contribution to 2015 and the album also works as an excellent introduction to Raheem DeVaughn for anyone who isn’t too familiar with past songs or releases.  If you do fall into the latter category, hopefully this will be the album to change that.

"Generations of Soul"

I've been meaning to post these videos up for some time now...  Over a series of fairly short snippets - involving Lee Fields, BJ The Chicago Kid and Raphael Saadiq, the three generations of soul artists discuss what the music means to each of them.

The videos are in fact very short, average about 2mins30secs so if you're a fan of each of them - or even if you're just a fan of soul music - it's worth your time to hear them discuss the euphoria they feel about live performaces and their interpretation of 'soul' music. 

Raphael Saadiq's impact on this site's very existence has been talked about enough (we made two podcasts about him even) but the final video clip below demonstrates why Lee Fields is in fact the greatest soul vocalist performing today: the clip features an incredible performance of 'Don't Leave Me This Way' from 2014's 'Emma Jean' (purchase it immediately friends) and effortlessly proves the point.  Enjoy.