The Soul Connection

Three giants of soul music have recently transcended to musical nirvana. In a sense, this signifies the end of a musical style which fused elements of gospel, swing and blues.
Jerry Wexler, record producer who died on Friday, August 15 at the age of 91, once described soul music as “funky, it’s deep, it’s very emotional, but it’s clean.”
Wexler, a New York Jew, is credited with coining the term ‘Rhythm and Blues’ while working as a cub reporter for Billboard Magazine. At the time, the black popular music charts were referred to as ‘race records’. Gerald Wexler tells how the change came about, this way- “One Friday, the editor got us together and said, ‘Listen, let’s change this from race records.’ A lot of people were beginning to find it inappropriate… I said “rhythm and blues”, and they said ‘Oh, that sounds pretty good. Let’s do that. In the next issue, that section came out as Rhythm and Blues.”
In 1953, Wexler became partner and vice president of Atlantic Records, eventually becoming very influential in the works of Black artistes of USA’s deep south. Initially, he used his drive, sales and promotional skills to help make Atlantic a leader in the recording industry, as they produced records by the Drifters, The Coasters, Tippie and the Clovers, Ruth Brown and Joe Turner, among others.
In the 60’s, the niche sounds being produced by Stax Records, a small label located in Memphis, Tennessee, emphasising spontaneity and improvisation, caught his attention; with renewed fervour, he used these facilities and musicians to record songs by Otis Redding and Dusty Springfield. This is where Wexler’s career crossed paths with Isaac Hayes. At Stax, from 1964, Hayes, who died on Sunday, August 10 at age 65, was a principal songwriter and performer. As fate would have it, his first recording session under this arrangement, as a back-up musician, was with Otis Redding. Soon, Isaac Hayes and co-writer, David Porter, penned tight, gritty, unpolished hits like Soul Man and Hold On, I’m Comin’ by Sam and Dave and Baby by Carla Thomas, symbolising the unique Stax sound- a southern alternative to Motown.
Isaac’s first album as a solo artiste, Presenting Isaac Hayes, was released in 1968, but was not a financial success for the Stax label. Like a bolt of lightning out of nowhere, however, Hot Buttered Soul (1969), his second album released by Al Bell after Stax split with Atlantic, became a landmark in soul music by radically forsaking the standard three-minute song format. The album had only four sons, including two extensive covers, Walk On By (Burt Bacharach, al David) – 12:03 minutes- and By The Time I Get To Phoenix (Jimmy Webb)- 18:42 minutes. Hayes introduced the latter with 8 minutes of rap. The album’s production and engineering techniques instantly became the lasting model used for future soul and hip hop songs, including Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On.
Using local musicians, Jerry Wexler also began producing records at Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, for singers like Wilson Pickett and Aretha Franklin. One famous story tells how, Wexler, unable to express the sound he wanted in musical terms, he created a new dance called the jerk, to demonstrate the stronger back beat he required of musicians who were recording Wilson Pickett’s In Midnight Hour.
Eventually, on the Atlantic label, Wexler produced 14 albums for Aretha Franklin encompassing hits like Respect, Dr. Feelgood, Chain of Fools and two of my all time favourites, Spirit In The Dark and an awesome remake of Simon and Garfunkel’s Bride Over Troubled Water.
Concurrently, Isaac Hayes was creating the score and along with the Bar-Kays, a studio band at Stax, recorded all the music for the film Shaft (1971). To quote Ben Sisario writing in the New York Times on August 11, 2008, “with a cymbal pattern borrowed from Otis Redding’s Try A Little Tenderness, which Hayes had arranged, the song [Theme from Shaft] layered funk guitars, horns, woodwinds and strings, prefiguring disco, it became a number one hit.” Hayes followed up with a double album called Black Moses, also released in 1971. Unfortunately, after that, he lost me as a fan, as his music leaned predominantly towards disco.
In 1997, Hayes began voicing the character of the chef on Comedy Central’s two-time Emmy Award-winning, animated comedy series South Park. This, along with the 2000 remake/sequel of Shaft, starring Samuel L. Jackson, spurred resurgence in his popularity and longevity of his music.
Ironically, both Isaac Ayes and Bernie Mac, who died a day before Isaac, have roles in a comedy, Soul Men, starring Samuel L. Jackson, and set for release in November.
The influence of American soul on Roy Shirley’s musical style is immediately obvious, even to the uninitiated listener. A soul-infused ballad called Shirley, done on the Beverley’s label was his first release and local hit in 1965. Along with Ken Boothe, Joe White and Chuck Josephs (aka Chuck Berry Jnr.), he then formed the vocal group, the Leaders. They did not have a significant impact however, so Roy teamed up with Slim Smith and Franklyn White and launched the Uniques. After they split up, in 1967, as a solo act, Roy recorded the first distinctly Rock Steady vocal, Hold Them. It was the first recording financed by Joe Gibbs. This was followed up by two more hits in quick succession. Coincidentally, Get on the Ball and Music Field, were Bunny Lee’s first releases as a producer.
Continuing in the soulful vein, Heartbreaking Gypsy, a popular version of Ben E. King’s hit was later released on Shirley’s own Public Label. Referred to as the high priest of Reggae, a la James Brown (high priest of soul) Roy was one of the most eccentric and quirky performers in Jamaica’s recent musical history. He used his mastery of three octaves and dynamic energy to deliver some of my most memorable stage performances. To quote Shirley, in reference to himself, “Al Green is the man that confessed in Jamaica that he has learnt his style from Roy Shirley because I was the only singer first, who sing the double voice thing with falsetto.” Born in 1944, Roy passed away in early July 2008, at age 64.
To end on sad note, Johnny ‘Dizzy’ Moore of Skatalites fame, passed away yesterday, at 2:30pm, Saturday August 16, 2008. To quote Herbie Miller, “Dizzy Moore, the internationally recognized trumpeter, founding member of the Skatalites and a Ska innovator, bravely battled colon cancer for the last seven months. Arguably the most recorded soloist of the era, among the hundreds of recordings on which Moore is featured are Something Special, Ringo, Man in the Street, Schooling the Duke, the Wailers’ Love and Affection, Lonesome Feeling, and Nice Time.” Long live his music!