A hybrid of jazz, blues and gospel music, soul jazz enjoyed its original heyday in the 1950s and ‘60s; some of its prime exponents were Ramsey Lewis (“The In Crowd”), Les McCann (“Compared to What”), Herbie Hancock (“Cantaloupe Island”) and the inimitable Cannonball Adderley (“Mercy, Mercy, Mercy,” “Walk Tall,” “Why Am I Treated So Bad” and many others). What makes soul jazz so special is that it has the emotional intensity of gospel, the groove of soul, the intensity of rock and the accessibility of mainstream pop. But for all that, it’s still uniquely jazz. If you watched a TV crime drama in the 1960s and early ‘70s, the music you heard as the backdrop to the onscreen action was most often soul jazz of a sort. Accessibility is built into the form’s musical DNA.
Today’s rock bands – especially in some corners of the jam/improv scene – owe a huge debt to the subgenre. Bands like New Mastersounds would be unimaginable without the foundation of soul jazz. But it’s appreciated within the jazz sphere as well. A six-man, Chicago based outfit, the Chicago Soul Jazz Collective brings the style back to a new audience on Soulophonic.
The eight tunes here are all classics of the genre, from estimable composers like Hammond B3 organ legend Jimmy Smith (“Prayer Meeting”), Stanley Turrentine (“Soul Shoutin’) and Lalo Schifrin (Smith’s classic single, “The Cat”). Even “The In Crowd” gets the Soulophonic treatment. The sextet makes these well-worn (and well-loved) gems its own, breathing its own life into the works while remaining faithful to the qualities that made the tunes classic to being with. Like the other two albums covered here, Soulophone sounds as if it could have been recorded most any time during the last half century-plus; a reliance on recognizable tools of the style (notably electric piano) gives it that same timeless/classic feel. With this set, the Chicago Soul Jazz Collective offers up a welcome reminder that soul jazz is music for the heart, mind and soul.