Soul Sessions were a big deal. Wednesday showed me that they still are.

Old Soul has regularly (for the most part) thrown two main types of events. The first is the Soul Sessions. You’d have to go to one to really understand it, but they are essentially the dance party of choice for the intellectuals and creatives within the middle class. If you stopped and talked with all the beautiful people in nice suits, lovely dresses, earth-tone turtlenecks, and classy shoes, you’d discover the wildest selection of administrators, accountants, business owners, musicians, painters, photographers, graphic designers and published poets that you ever saw.

These folk will come out and boogie like you wouldn’t believe. Plus, the DJs always spin my favorite party songs there. The woman are lovely and social. Plus, the organizers have always been very welcoming to dancers. If there are dance parties in the after-life, I already know what they’ll be like.

The other side of the coin is The Roots Movements. These are traditionally live performances on the first Wednesday of every month. They are most often centered around music that’s at the core of the Old Soul experience: Funk, Soul, Jazz, and Hip-Hop. Poets and electronic musicians have also performed there. I have only been to one of these but it was a cozy affair with enjoyable music and a hip crowd. Definitely a sit-down type affair, though.

Both types of events have consistently been that rare combination of passion and tastefulness. I think that’s why they really fit well with the Jazz Kitchen as home base.

Now that we have a context, It will make sense when I say that this particular Soul Session had a Roots Movement at the beginning  as a part of the 5th anniversary celebration. This was something special.

Photo by Andrew Severns (http://asdesign.co)

According to Doug Morris, the overall theme was Life and it was split into three acts. I don’t believe that the first two had titles but the third was announced as “Love and War”.

When Brandon Meeks came out and started playing the stand-up bass, I started smiling. It was just a light, jazzy bassline. Perfectly appropriate for spoken word… and spoken word ensued.

Along with Brandon’s ill bass, Saint Peace began his spoken word flow about a young girl in Appalachia being witness to the appalling violence inherent to the life of coal miners. It made me feel like industry is waging war on our own people, in our country, while focusing on the wars we wage elsewhere. I’m pretty dense so there might have been deeper symbolism. That’s what I took from it, though, and I thought both the content and delivery were moving.

The entirely instrumental song that followed was easily one of the highlights of the night, for me. Brandon Meeks stayed on bass but switched over to an electric. He was joined by Pancho Hedrik on guitar, Brandis Gossett on keys, Ed Lanier on auxiliary percussion, Stacia Murphy on trombone, and my boy Sleepy Floyd on drums. The song, itself, was a shock to my system. It was like a dark funk song that was as merciless as it was deep. Breathtaking!

Photo by Andrew Severns (http://asdesign.co)

Sleepy, Brandis, and Ed actually stayed through virtually every song despite there being rotation on most of the other musicians. For example, Bashiri Asad came up next and sang wonderfully over everyone except Stacia and Pancho who had headed back to the green room.

This was a treat. I had seen Bashiri on flyers but had never taken the time out of my schedule to see him live. I’ve been missing out. He has a refined style of soul which never quite jumps over into Neo-Soul territory. This works for me. I think of Neo-Soul as being half-way between radio R’n'B and classic Soul, both in terms of music and vocal style. That’s an oversimplification but, overall, it’s not my cup of tea.

Izzy Amor came up next and brought Pancho back with him. It was a pleasant song but closer to Neo-Soul and, therefore, harder for me to enjoy objectively. It was the beginning of a recurring theme where a poet or MC would deliver verses on the same song as a singer. This was done really tastefully, throughout the night, and this occurrence was no exception. The particular song was my first time hearing aLLEN iMAGERY. I have to say the that I, now, believe the hype. His delivery is masterful in terms of timing and vocal intonation. His words were incredibly powerful, as well. Possibly, finest Spoken Word Poet that I have heard in the city.

This was followed up by Alpha Live spitting verses about relationships. Alpha is a powerful MC and this particular song wasn’t one designed to test his full strength as a lyricist, but it still fit perfectly into Act 1′s overall theme of angst. The music and his flow did work, harmoniously, though. Very well done.

Mr. Kinetik brought up the next song. I believe the subject matter was about being real as opposed to being fake. I have to admit that my attention, throughout the night, was way more focused on musical details than lyrical content, regardless of who was on the mic. I did note that the original production from this song was present via Kinetik’s laptop. This wasn’t a big deal, but it prevented Ed, Sleepy, and Brandis from really contributing as much as they could. At the end of the song, Kinetik hopped on the keyboard and started playing out some pleasant chords. They were cool but I didn’t know what to make of them. When he started singing “Eleanor Rigby”(a Beatles classic), everything came together in my mind, and I really enjoyed it. Nice touch.

This was pretty much the end of the first act (according to my notes) and it was a really good representation of what followed over the course of the next two. As in the first, most of the hosting on the mic was done by aLLEN and Bashiri. Both have great stage presence and charming personalities which kept the the show moving in between songs.

Robert Hornberger leading the band in an instrumental jam, on his 5-string bass, was another highlight of the night. Brandon and Robert killed it on their solos but Brandis and Sleepy especially shined. I had never seen Sleepy attack the drum set like a pitbull before, and it got me and the whole crowd hype.

The Brazilian-flavored jazzy piece that Bashiri opened the third act with was priceless. It was heavily driven by a ridiculous bassline from Brandon Meeks and featured my favorite raps of the night by a one-time appearance of Pariah the Poetic. Even Tony Styxx hopped on stage to give a quick but tight spoken word performance, towards the end of the song.

Overall, this was an even more amazing night than I expected when I walked in. I got to hear an amazing cover of Hendrix’ “Hey Joe,” Alpha sang (and well, I might add), Rob L. made an appearance, and I saw Bashiri and wife literally pull people to the dance floor. All the music was done well and the craftsmanship of each musician was apparent on each song. The concept wasn’t executed perfectly, but it still added another level to the night.
This was possibly the most creatively ambitious thing that I have seen Old Soul attempt. The gamble payed off and it was definitely a night to remember.

Photography by Andrew Severns (http://asdesign.co)