I first saw Soulive at the 2003 ACL Festival. The forty-five minute festival set didn’t really give them time to open it up so it was cool to catch them on Saturday night at La Zona Rosa.
Soulive is the kind of band that’s bringing back the organ-based jazz-funk sound of the late sixties and early seventies and playing it to audiences comprised of jazz, hip hop, and jam band lovers. I’m a fan of guitar and organ based jazz and there’s nothing I enjoy more than seeing a band play, and I mean really play in the truest sense of the word where experiments and improvisation are all part of the fun.
The crowd was small, which I like, though I think Soulive deserved a bigger audience, but it wasn’t one of those come-to-be-seen crowds. People listened and danced and just generally dug the whole vibe.
I tend to watch guitarists and so I tried to focus on what Eric Krasno was doing. His playing just amazes me whether it’s on CD or live, he seems to get to a place that’s so inside the music that I just follow each line, each riff with rapt attention. Neal Evans on organ and Alan Evans on drums kept things simmering through the set.
I’ve always felt that the trio format can be a bit limited and start to sound the same after a few tunes whether it be jazz, rock or punk, but Soulive kept things interesting through their own interplay and by bringing out singer Reggie Watts to do a few numbers with them.
One highlight of the show was their funky jazz rendition of the 2Pac and Dr. Dre gangsta rap classic “California Love,” which drew a cheering response from the small crowd. I’m a big fan of jazz bands delving into the realm of pop music to find the new standards for modern audiences, and it’s always a treat to hear a band find jazz in unlikely places be it 2Pac, Radiohead, Pavement or Nirvana.
Afterwards, we stopped for a slice at the Roppollo’s Pizza truck and sat on the curb, enjoying the cool night air and mild humidity that carried bass notes and snippets of songs, barely heard, from countless other acts in other bars. A good night in a good city.
(My wife posted about this as well.)
James Brush is a teacher and writer who lives in Austin, TX. He tries to get outside as much as possible.
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