The Bright Light Social Hour
Austin, Texas, United States
Location: Terminal 5 • 610 W 56th St, New York, NY 10019, USA
Date: Saturday March 26 2016, 8:00 PM
$30 advance, $40 door
Show starts at 8pm
It's been more than 20 years since Ben Ellman, Robert Mercurio, Stanton Moore, Jeff Raines and Rich Vogel began exploring the seemingly limitless musical possibilities born out of their work together as Galactic. Since then, the seminal New Orleans band has consistently pushed artistic boundaries on the road and in the studio, approaching their music with open ears and drawing inspiration as much from the sounds bubbling up from their city's streets as they do from each other.
A key part of that creative spark comes from the teamwork of Mercurio and Ellman, whose ever-evolving production and arranging skills helped usher the band into a new phase of studio work beginning with the loop-centric "Ruckus" in 2007. A series of albums focused around specific concepts like Carnival followed, as did collaborations with guests hailing from worlds outside the one Galactic calls its own.
On "Into the Deep," the band members look within themselves instead, drawing inspiration from people and ideas that have long been close to their hearts - and, in turn, close to the development of their unique sound. Shot through with soul, funk, blues and rock, the result is an organic riff on elements of Galactic's past, filtered through the lens of where they're headed in 2015.
"I see this album as a kind of culmination of all of our collaborations or experiences, from [trombonist] Corey Henry to the people we met on the road, touring," says Mercurio, referencing Ellman's first full-time gig in New Orleans, which kicked off when Henry hired him into the Little Rascals Brass Band in 1989.
"The previous albums took us in the opposite direction," Mercurio says. "We collaborated with rappers that we had never dealt with and even on the New Orleans tracks, we didn't have working experience with most of those artists before the recordings."
In contrast, "Into the Deep" contributors like JJ Grey, David Shaw and Maggie Koerner spent significant time touring with Galactic. A few years ago, Mavis Staples sat in with the band, all of whom are longtime fans of the legendary singer's R&B-meets-gospel soul style. They caught up with Macy Gray when she performed a memorable concert at Tipitina's where Ellman says he could see from the outset "how much she cares about the music." And each of the players had also developed a deep appreciation for the Honorable South's Charm Taylor, whose contribution, "Right On" was written specifically to suit her vibe.
"Quint Davis [the producer of] Jazz Fest always has a couple people he books at the festival that aren't big names but that Quint knows are going to be super cool," says Ellman. "That's how we met Brushy One-String. We originally wanted to bring him in to do anything, just to see what would happen. But when we heard his song 'Chicken in the Corn,' we really wanted to do our version of it."
In the end, he joined them on the road for over a month, collaborating with the band onstage at each show.
For the instrumental tracks, Galactic mined the interests and tastes they've cultivated together for years in New Orleans. "Buck 77" was written via improvisation, a long-standing cornerstone of their live shows. The funky bass line and tumbling guitar part on "Long Live the Borgne," meanwhile, represents an updated, more composed take on some of the concepts that made early albums like "Coolin' Off" so strong.
As for the opener "Soogar Doosie," Ellman points out Galactic tends to record at least one track on each album that speaks to the band's collective love of brass band music.
"We write [those songs] with the idea of how awesome it would be to hear the Rebirth going down doing the street in a second line playing one of our songs. We try to think of a real second line song that would get people slapping stop signs and dancing on cars," he says.
The album, Ellman says "is all about people. It's these connections we've made over 20 years. They're people in our orbit that have come into our little world and affected us in some way."
It's also about how the individual musicians within Galactic have grown over time. When it comes to trying new approaches as players, producers, songwriters and arrangers, Ellman muses, "it's an evolution."
In their 13 years together, Soulive has followed the muse in the direction of hip-hop, R&B, blues and rock, collaborating with the likes of Chaka Khan, Dave Matthews, Talib Kweli, John Scofield, Derek Trucks, Maceo Parker, Susan Tedeschi, Robert Randolph, Joshua Redman, Kenny Garrett, Fred Wesley, The Roots, Ivan Neville and so many others, even going so far as to record a full album of covers by The Beatles (Rubber Soulive). But, no matter how they push the limits of the organ trio, they always come back to their bread and butter: blistering solos and grooves that don’t quit.
Their latest, a four-track EP entitled, SPARK, deserves a place on your record shelf right between Booker T. and a bottle of some damn good single-malt. Recorded over a day and a half with saxophonist/flautist Karl Denson (The Greyboy Allstars, Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe), the record captures the smoky vibe of early-’70s-era CTI Records releases by the likes of Freddie Hubbard, Grover Washington Jr. and George Benson. It’s the stuff Denson grew up on. “I’m older than the Soulive guys,” he says. “When I heard those records being sampled back in the late 80s, early 90s, popping up in clubs when I was over in Europe touring with Lenny Kravitz, that’s what really prepared me for this whole thing we’ve been doing for the last 20 years. It was a natural progression for me to finally do something in the CTI vein.”
Each tune was ultimately just a vehicle for the musicians’ playing, so, sticking to this formula, the quartet used very few overdubs. “Back in that era,” Krasno explains, “you bought a piece of vinyl and it had two tracks on either side. The grooves were kind of dark but really open and each musician got a chance to breathe.” Denson continues: “SPARK is really about the playing, less about the tunes. It’s the four of us collectively getting back to more of a jazzier thing than we’d done in recent memory.”
The first side opens with Yusef Lateef’s sultry “Nubian Lady,” featuring Denson on flute. It was a mutual love for Lateef that brought the quartet together to begin with—Kraz having studied with the legend and Denson having idolized his records. The laid-back tempo lets the group simmer on the theme until Kraz decides to slice the whole thing open with some Middle Eastern fretwork, leaving Karl to pick up the pieces. Denson describes the sound as “Something a little more chilled out but funky at the same time.” “Povo” is a perfect evocation of the era, first recorded by Freddie Hubbard on CTI in 1972, featuring some of Kraz’s most sinewy lines and a caterwauling climax on tenor from Denson. When the two lay out, the Evans brothers remind the listener why an organ and a drum kit have always been plenty good for funky jazz. “We’ve always loved James Brown and music that’s going to make you groove,” says Krasno. “But there’s so much more vocabulary from jazz that you can put in it.” Art Farmer would have agreed. The band’s rendition of his 1972 tune “Soulsides” slips plenty of ideas into the deep pocket, putting Neal Evans out front on piano.
“Spark,” the only original song on the record, was written in homage to legendary soul-jazz guitarist Melvin Sparks, who passed away only days before Soulive entered the studio. Known for his fleet fingers and deft sense of the blues, Sparks made his name backing organists like McDuff and Dr. Lonnie Smith. Krasno grew up listening to Sparks play at a regular gig in New Canaan, CT, and credits the guitarist with inspiring many of his own sensibilities. When Denson asked Sparks to open for the Greyboy Allstars’ first East Coast tour in 1994, it revived his career. “We totally got along and had a great time over the years,” says Denson. Sparks joined Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe to record Dance Lesson No. 2 in 2001 and “just annihilated it. He was a great cat and a total musical mentor.” So, it was with sadness that the four musicians collectively penned the tune and with reverence that they perform the slinky strut, while dedicating the EP to his memory. Denson eulogizes on both flute and tenor while Krasno’s tone impeccably channels the musician he calls, “one of the great guitarists of our time and the coolest dude I knew.”
Attendees : 2
