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6/4/2004

Lou Friedman

Revivalism can be a dicey issue when it comes to music. Imitators can capture a sound from years past, but what’s hard to capture is the spirit. That’s why old-standard blues and jazz are so hard to replicate. But Scott Bomar, a former garage-band bassist from Memphis decided to take a shot at something and boy, did he ever hit the target dead solid perfect. Bomar gathered together some of the finest musicians under the old Stax label, went to the oldest active recording studio in the country, and created 10 songs of pure, unadulterated soul (with touches of hip-hop, R&B, Latin, and even jazz) - instrumentals, might I add (except for the odd rap here and there) - and came out with a gem. Bomar’s band is called the Bo-Keys, and the album is named after the studio from whence it came, The Royal Sessions. Royal Studio is where Al Green created all those fantastic soul hits for Hi Records. In fact, Willie Mitchell, who ran the studio back then, is still in charge, though it was his son Archie who engineered The Royal Sessions.

For starters, the guitarist here is Charles "Skip" Pitts. The name may not be familiar, but if you ever listened to Isaac Hayes’ classic "Theme From Shaft," that’s Pitts on the "wah-wah" guitar. Throw in veteran Hammond B-3 organist Ronnie Williams and drummer Willie Hall (both from the Bar-Kays), add Bomar on bass and to finish things off, a trumpeter (Marc Franklin), a saxophonist (Jim Spake) and a percussionist (Hector Diaz), and what you have are ten pieces of work that will transport you to an era when only Stax/Volt/Atlantic and Motown dominated the soul charts. We’ll skip the debate about which style of soul was more vibrant between the Memphis and Detroit versions, but let’s just say that with Motown, it seemed like you could plug in damn near any singer or group to sing any one of their hits, while the Memphis soul practitioners tended to make the songs unique to each artist. (Trivia: only one Motown singer actually played an instrument - Stevie Wonder on harp & keyboards).

The opening song leaves no doubt as to where Bomar and crew are headed, and it seems that they’ve found and resurrected Mr. Peabody’s Wayback Machine and set the dial to the 1960’s. "Coming Home Baby" is just an amazing body of work, and even though it’s one of a few cover songs, it just sounds so refreshing. Mitchell’s engineering work makes it sound as though you were right there in the studio with these musicians. The album takes enough twists and turns to make it interesting, but never detracts from the warm, friendly sound that made the old Stax records so irresistible. Three covers grace the album: While "Coming" is pure Stax soul, "Chicken Shack" is soul soaked in blues, and "Doin’ It to Death" is (naturally) funk central. As far as original songs, "Deuce and a Quarter" is a fun and funny rap, while "I Remember Stax" does just that with slow style and grace.

There aren’t enough superlatives in the dictionary & thesaurus combined to lavish on The Royal Sessions. The playing is structurally tight, but the feel is so loose and relaxed; it’s the best Catch-22 you can have, musically speaking (Pitts didn’t even rehearse with the band - he just came in cold and nailed each song as it was being performed). As far as soul music goes, the Bo-Keys are unique in today’s market. They’ve managed to capture the greatest soul music in the world (60’s & 70’s Stax/Hi/Volt/Atlantic) and bring it into the 21st century intact and updated. Unquestionably, The Royal Sessions is one of the best releases of 2004, and one of the best soul releases over the last 10 years. It "Stax" up to anything back in the day.