SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY & THE ASBURY JUKES
''SOULTIME''
NOVEMBER 13 2015
41:57
**********
1 Spinning 03:27
2 All I Can Do 04:09
3 Don't Waste My Time 03:15
4 Looking for a Good Time 04:25
5 Words Fail Me 03:21
6 Walking on a Thin Line 04:30
7 Klank 02:45
8 Ain't Nobody's Bizness 04:29
9 I'm Not That Lonely 02:56
10 The Heart Always Knows 03:58
11 Reality 04:38
**********
Southside Johnny/Vocals
Glenn Alexander/Guitar
Chris Anderson/Trumpet
John Conte/Bass Guitar
John Isley/Saxophone
Jeff Kazee/Piano
Neal Pawley/Trombone
Tom Seguso/Drums
**********
REVIEW
www.bacstreets.com
Soultime!, the first Jukes studio album since 2010's Pills and Ammo, is exactly what it says on the package. It's hard to imagine a stronger collection of vintage-sounding contemporary soul than this eleven-track release. Much like 2000's Messin' With the Blues, Soultime pays tribute to a style of music that is clearly held in high regard by Mr. Lyon and his cohorts, and -- perhaps more importantly -- is clearly understood by them, as well.
The album kicks off with "Spinning," a Sam & Dave-esque treat in the best tradition of "Broke Down Piece of Man," which appeared on I Don't Want to Go Home, the Jukes' debut. On that 1976 cover, Johnny sparred vocally with Little Steven, but on this new original, co-writer/co-producer/keyboardist Jeff Kazee provides the vocal foil, and the results are fantastic. Soultime! goes on to take in the entire spectrum of vintage soul throughout its eleven tracks. Curtis Mayfield's Chicago soul/funk provides inspiration for a couple of the tracks (the "Move On Up"-influenced "Looking For a Good Time," and the "Pusher Man"-sounding "Reality"), while the Motown male group sound is represented by "I'm Not That Lonely."
It's worth mentioning the fact that Southside had a hand in composing each of the eleven cuts on Soultime. He and Kazee have become a songwriting machine at this stage, co-writing nine of the tracks on the album in addition to sharing the production duties. The result -- 42 minutes of soul/R&B tunes that manage to sound familiar and modern without sounding derivative, cartoonish or retro -- is superb.
Soultime! contains a couple of tracks that might surprise even long time Southside-watchers: an uncommon instrumental, "Klank," that touches on the kind of soul groove that was coming out of Philadelphia in the 1970's, and "The Heart Always Knows," a tasteful homage to the pre-soul era of R&B as typified by the likes of Ben E. King and Sam Cooke in the late '50s and early '60s. Both serve to mix up the proceedings a bit, while adding to the overall feel of paying tribute to one of the greatest of American musical genres.
At this stage of the game, Southside has long become a legend in his own right, and while not as well-known as the heroes whose influence reigns over Soultime!, his commitment to the blues and R&B side of American roots music is clear. If anything, his voice -- that voice -- has, through a combination of age and experience, become even more suited to sing the kind of music that he and the Jukes inherently understand.
**********
REVIEW
www.musicriot.com.uk
If you’re looking for something that’s easy on the ear to use as aural wallpaper for your commute or as background music for a dinner party, then stop right here; this is proper music. Southside Johnny has been making music with various Asbury Jukes for over forty years and compromise isn’t something that he’s about to start now. The quality of the songs, the playing and the arrangements is what it’s all about; always has been, always will be. Southside had fraught relationships with his various labels in the days when bands signed to a label and hoped that the label would make them successful but it hasn’t worked that way for a while now so Southside has moved on to a completely different way of working; he has control over the creative and business processes. ‘When’s the album being released? When it’s ready’. And “Soultime!” is well and truly ready. It’s taken a while (the last album “Pills and Ammo” was released in 2010), but Southside’s a very busy man these days; not only is he trying to keep an eight-piece rock and soul band in line, but he’s also working with his Americana project The Poor Fools, comprising various Jukes and some of the extended Jersey shore family.
Through the various incarnations of The Jukes, Southside has always had a collaborator helping with songwriting and musical director duties; Steve van Zandt moved on to the E Street Band as Springsteen went up through the gears and Bobby Bandiera took on the ‘safe pair of hands’ role with Bon Jovi on his seemingly endless world tour. Which, after an overlap with Bobby, left Jeff Kazee, keyboard virtuoso with a great high tenor soul voice, as the partner in crime. And, as much as I love the work of Little Steven and Bobby Bandiera, the Jeff and Johnny combination is producing some stunning results as Southside takes more credit for his songwriting contributions and Jeff Kazee adds his voice to the mix as well; it’s a potent combination.
In 2001, Southside released “Messin’ with the Blues”, an album of songs illustrating his love of blues, but also demonstrating the variety of styles within blues music; fourteen years later, “Soultime!” applies the same template to a cross-section of soul styles. It’s not too difficult to identify the influences, but the quality of the writing and the performances ensure that this is an album to be judged on its own merits.
The opening track “Spinning” throws all the ingredients into the blender to create a manic Stax feel. Everything’s there, from the horn fills to the breakdown, building back up with John Conte’s bass, Jeff Kazee’s Hammond and Glenn Alexander’s guitar, to the call and response vocal and the big horn finish. There’s barely time to get your breath back before “All I Can Do” the mid-tempo Johnny/Jeff duet. The two voices combine perfectly and a sweet tenor sax solo from John Isley is the icing on the cake. “Don’t Waste my Time” could be early Jukes, musically and lyrically as Southside tells the ‘my girl done me wrong’ story supported by backing vocalists Elaine Caswell, Layonne Holmes and Catherine Russell before Neal Pawley steps up for a trombone solo.
“Looking for a Good Time” is the album’s defining song. The inspiration for the album came from hearing “Superfly” in the booze aisle at the supermarket and watching how the shoppers reacted. “Looking…” captures the upful mood of Curtis Mayfield in 1970 perfectly; if anything ever made me wish I could dance, this is it. The namechecks in the lyrics say it all, really: ‘Isley Brothers and Curtis and Sly and Bobby Womack too’; it’s perfect. “Words Fail Me” is a mature love ballad with very tasteful backing (even drummer Tom Seguso is reined in), muted horns and a lovely flugelhorn solo from Chris Anderson; Johnny’s voice is sublime and it would melt a heart of stone. “Walking on a Thin Line” has a faintly menacing Latin feel evoking Isaac Hayes, The Temptations and The O’Jays but still totally Jukes.
What comes next is a very rare thing indeed; an instrumental on a Jukes album. “Klank” is the love child of “Soul Finger” and “Third Stone from the Sun” with harmonica and tenor sax solos; they’re allowed to have fun as well, you know. Carrying on with the levity, “Ain’t Nobody’s Bizness” is a bit of light-hearted fun with a cast of Damon Runyon characters and a nod to “Check Mr Popeye” from way back when, which takes the intensity down a little bit before the final three songs.
“I’m Not That Lonely” totally nails the Motown sound (Four Tops, anyone?) while “The Heart Always Knows” harks back to a much earlier time (Sam Cooke, or maybe The Cascades). It’s a slow, gentle ballad with some nice pizzicato strings courtesy of Jeff Kazee and acoustic guitar from Glenn Alexander and it takes off the heat for a few minutes before the final offering. “Reality” takes its influence from the psychedelic soul of the late sixties/early seventies with some interesting synth sounds and John Isley’s flute (and is that bass sax on there as well?), strings and muted horns; it gets kinda busy in there at times.
Southside Johnny set out to evoke a certain era of soul with this album; he wanted to make us feel good, the way we did when we first heard all of the great artists who influenced this album, and it’s an unqualified success. The arrangements perfectly capture the feel without sounding like The Faux Tops; he and The Jukes have created a perfect homage to music that was the soundtrack to the sixties and seventies. Over forty years down the line, he still has that raw, emotive voice that cuts through Hammond and horns and straight to the heart. Working with Jeff Kazee and the latest incarnation of The Jukes, he’s turned out a modern soul classic.
**********
BIOGRAPHY/AMG
William Ruhlmann
Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes were the second band after Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band to emerge from the New Jersey shore scene, and though they carried over a significant influence (and some key personnel) from their predecessors, they were a more generic white R&B horn band in the Memphis Stax Records tradition. The group was organized in 1974 by singer John Lyon (b. December 4, 1948, Neptune, NJ) and guitarist/songwriter "Miami" Steve Van Zandt (b. November 22, 1950, Boston). Van Zandt decamped for the E Street Band in 1975, but he continued to direct the Jukes, managing them, writing their songs, and producing their records. The original Jukes lineup was: Billy Rush (b. August 26, 1952) (guitar); Kevin Kavanaugh (b. August 27, 1951) (keyboards); Al Berger (b. November 8, 1949) (bass); Kenny Pentifallo (b. December 30, 1940) (drums); Carlo Novi (b. August 7, 1949, Mexico City) (tenor sax); Eddie Manion (b. February 28, 1952) (baritone sax); Tony Palligrosi (b. May 9, 1954) (trumpet); Ricky Gazda (b. June 18, 1952) (trumpet); and Richie "La Bamba" Rosenberg (trombone). The group signed to Epic Records and released I Don't Want to Go Home (1976), which featured songwriting by Springsteen and cameos by Ronnie Spector and Lee Dorsey. This Time It's for Real (1977) contained more Springsteen tunes and appearances by the Coasters, the Drifters, and the Five Satins. Critical consensus said that the third album, Hearts of Stone (1978), was the Jukes' peak, but they failed to break through to mass success and were dropped by Epic. Moving to Mercury, they made The Jukes (1979), on which all songwriting was handled by Lyon and Rush, and followed with Love Is a Sacrifice (1980) and the live double-LP Reach Up and Touch the Sky (1981). Moving to the Atlantic Records subsidiary Mirage, they worked with producer Nile Rodgers on the uncharacteristic Trash It Up! (1983), then returned to form on In the Heat (1984). The group had suffered personnel shifts all along, but the departure of Billy Rush left Lyon to write much of At Least We Got Shoes (1986), after which he made a "solo" album, Slow Dance (1988). Southside and the Jukes reunited with Springsteen and Van Zandt for Better Days (1991). After a nearly ten year hiatus from the studio, Lyon started his own label, Leroy Records, and released Messin' with the Blues in 2000. Going to Jukesville followed in 2004. Grapefruit Moon: The Songs of Tom Waits appeared in 2008.
**********
WEBSITE
**********
TO THE TOP
**********
''SOULTIME''
NOVEMBER 13 2015
41:57
**********
1 Spinning 03:27
2 All I Can Do 04:09
3 Don't Waste My Time 03:15
4 Looking for a Good Time 04:25
5 Words Fail Me 03:21
6 Walking on a Thin Line 04:30
7 Klank 02:45
8 Ain't Nobody's Bizness 04:29
9 I'm Not That Lonely 02:56
10 The Heart Always Knows 03:58
11 Reality 04:38
**********
Southside Johnny/Vocals
Glenn Alexander/Guitar
Chris Anderson/Trumpet
John Conte/Bass Guitar
John Isley/Saxophone
Jeff Kazee/Piano
Neal Pawley/Trombone
Tom Seguso/Drums
**********
REVIEW
www.bacstreets.com
Soultime!, the first Jukes studio album since 2010's Pills and Ammo, is exactly what it says on the package. It's hard to imagine a stronger collection of vintage-sounding contemporary soul than this eleven-track release. Much like 2000's Messin' With the Blues, Soultime pays tribute to a style of music that is clearly held in high regard by Mr. Lyon and his cohorts, and -- perhaps more importantly -- is clearly understood by them, as well.
The album kicks off with "Spinning," a Sam & Dave-esque treat in the best tradition of "Broke Down Piece of Man," which appeared on I Don't Want to Go Home, the Jukes' debut. On that 1976 cover, Johnny sparred vocally with Little Steven, but on this new original, co-writer/co-producer/keyboardist Jeff Kazee provides the vocal foil, and the results are fantastic. Soultime! goes on to take in the entire spectrum of vintage soul throughout its eleven tracks. Curtis Mayfield's Chicago soul/funk provides inspiration for a couple of the tracks (the "Move On Up"-influenced "Looking For a Good Time," and the "Pusher Man"-sounding "Reality"), while the Motown male group sound is represented by "I'm Not That Lonely."
It's worth mentioning the fact that Southside had a hand in composing each of the eleven cuts on Soultime. He and Kazee have become a songwriting machine at this stage, co-writing nine of the tracks on the album in addition to sharing the production duties. The result -- 42 minutes of soul/R&B tunes that manage to sound familiar and modern without sounding derivative, cartoonish or retro -- is superb.
Soultime! contains a couple of tracks that might surprise even long time Southside-watchers: an uncommon instrumental, "Klank," that touches on the kind of soul groove that was coming out of Philadelphia in the 1970's, and "The Heart Always Knows," a tasteful homage to the pre-soul era of R&B as typified by the likes of Ben E. King and Sam Cooke in the late '50s and early '60s. Both serve to mix up the proceedings a bit, while adding to the overall feel of paying tribute to one of the greatest of American musical genres.
At this stage of the game, Southside has long become a legend in his own right, and while not as well-known as the heroes whose influence reigns over Soultime!, his commitment to the blues and R&B side of American roots music is clear. If anything, his voice -- that voice -- has, through a combination of age and experience, become even more suited to sing the kind of music that he and the Jukes inherently understand.
**********
REVIEW
www.musicriot.com.uk
If you’re looking for something that’s easy on the ear to use as aural wallpaper for your commute or as background music for a dinner party, then stop right here; this is proper music. Southside Johnny has been making music with various Asbury Jukes for over forty years and compromise isn’t something that he’s about to start now. The quality of the songs, the playing and the arrangements is what it’s all about; always has been, always will be. Southside had fraught relationships with his various labels in the days when bands signed to a label and hoped that the label would make them successful but it hasn’t worked that way for a while now so Southside has moved on to a completely different way of working; he has control over the creative and business processes. ‘When’s the album being released? When it’s ready’. And “Soultime!” is well and truly ready. It’s taken a while (the last album “Pills and Ammo” was released in 2010), but Southside’s a very busy man these days; not only is he trying to keep an eight-piece rock and soul band in line, but he’s also working with his Americana project The Poor Fools, comprising various Jukes and some of the extended Jersey shore family.
Through the various incarnations of The Jukes, Southside has always had a collaborator helping with songwriting and musical director duties; Steve van Zandt moved on to the E Street Band as Springsteen went up through the gears and Bobby Bandiera took on the ‘safe pair of hands’ role with Bon Jovi on his seemingly endless world tour. Which, after an overlap with Bobby, left Jeff Kazee, keyboard virtuoso with a great high tenor soul voice, as the partner in crime. And, as much as I love the work of Little Steven and Bobby Bandiera, the Jeff and Johnny combination is producing some stunning results as Southside takes more credit for his songwriting contributions and Jeff Kazee adds his voice to the mix as well; it’s a potent combination.
In 2001, Southside released “Messin’ with the Blues”, an album of songs illustrating his love of blues, but also demonstrating the variety of styles within blues music; fourteen years later, “Soultime!” applies the same template to a cross-section of soul styles. It’s not too difficult to identify the influences, but the quality of the writing and the performances ensure that this is an album to be judged on its own merits.
The opening track “Spinning” throws all the ingredients into the blender to create a manic Stax feel. Everything’s there, from the horn fills to the breakdown, building back up with John Conte’s bass, Jeff Kazee’s Hammond and Glenn Alexander’s guitar, to the call and response vocal and the big horn finish. There’s barely time to get your breath back before “All I Can Do” the mid-tempo Johnny/Jeff duet. The two voices combine perfectly and a sweet tenor sax solo from John Isley is the icing on the cake. “Don’t Waste my Time” could be early Jukes, musically and lyrically as Southside tells the ‘my girl done me wrong’ story supported by backing vocalists Elaine Caswell, Layonne Holmes and Catherine Russell before Neal Pawley steps up for a trombone solo.
“Looking for a Good Time” is the album’s defining song. The inspiration for the album came from hearing “Superfly” in the booze aisle at the supermarket and watching how the shoppers reacted. “Looking…” captures the upful mood of Curtis Mayfield in 1970 perfectly; if anything ever made me wish I could dance, this is it. The namechecks in the lyrics say it all, really: ‘Isley Brothers and Curtis and Sly and Bobby Womack too’; it’s perfect. “Words Fail Me” is a mature love ballad with very tasteful backing (even drummer Tom Seguso is reined in), muted horns and a lovely flugelhorn solo from Chris Anderson; Johnny’s voice is sublime and it would melt a heart of stone. “Walking on a Thin Line” has a faintly menacing Latin feel evoking Isaac Hayes, The Temptations and The O’Jays but still totally Jukes.
What comes next is a very rare thing indeed; an instrumental on a Jukes album. “Klank” is the love child of “Soul Finger” and “Third Stone from the Sun” with harmonica and tenor sax solos; they’re allowed to have fun as well, you know. Carrying on with the levity, “Ain’t Nobody’s Bizness” is a bit of light-hearted fun with a cast of Damon Runyon characters and a nod to “Check Mr Popeye” from way back when, which takes the intensity down a little bit before the final three songs.
“I’m Not That Lonely” totally nails the Motown sound (Four Tops, anyone?) while “The Heart Always Knows” harks back to a much earlier time (Sam Cooke, or maybe The Cascades). It’s a slow, gentle ballad with some nice pizzicato strings courtesy of Jeff Kazee and acoustic guitar from Glenn Alexander and it takes off the heat for a few minutes before the final offering. “Reality” takes its influence from the psychedelic soul of the late sixties/early seventies with some interesting synth sounds and John Isley’s flute (and is that bass sax on there as well?), strings and muted horns; it gets kinda busy in there at times.
Southside Johnny set out to evoke a certain era of soul with this album; he wanted to make us feel good, the way we did when we first heard all of the great artists who influenced this album, and it’s an unqualified success. The arrangements perfectly capture the feel without sounding like The Faux Tops; he and The Jukes have created a perfect homage to music that was the soundtrack to the sixties and seventies. Over forty years down the line, he still has that raw, emotive voice that cuts through Hammond and horns and straight to the heart. Working with Jeff Kazee and the latest incarnation of The Jukes, he’s turned out a modern soul classic.
**********
BIOGRAPHY/AMG
William Ruhlmann
Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes were the second band after Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band to emerge from the New Jersey shore scene, and though they carried over a significant influence (and some key personnel) from their predecessors, they were a more generic white R&B horn band in the Memphis Stax Records tradition. The group was organized in 1974 by singer John Lyon (b. December 4, 1948, Neptune, NJ) and guitarist/songwriter "Miami" Steve Van Zandt (b. November 22, 1950, Boston). Van Zandt decamped for the E Street Band in 1975, but he continued to direct the Jukes, managing them, writing their songs, and producing their records. The original Jukes lineup was: Billy Rush (b. August 26, 1952) (guitar); Kevin Kavanaugh (b. August 27, 1951) (keyboards); Al Berger (b. November 8, 1949) (bass); Kenny Pentifallo (b. December 30, 1940) (drums); Carlo Novi (b. August 7, 1949, Mexico City) (tenor sax); Eddie Manion (b. February 28, 1952) (baritone sax); Tony Palligrosi (b. May 9, 1954) (trumpet); Ricky Gazda (b. June 18, 1952) (trumpet); and Richie "La Bamba" Rosenberg (trombone). The group signed to Epic Records and released I Don't Want to Go Home (1976), which featured songwriting by Springsteen and cameos by Ronnie Spector and Lee Dorsey. This Time It's for Real (1977) contained more Springsteen tunes and appearances by the Coasters, the Drifters, and the Five Satins. Critical consensus said that the third album, Hearts of Stone (1978), was the Jukes' peak, but they failed to break through to mass success and were dropped by Epic. Moving to Mercury, they made The Jukes (1979), on which all songwriting was handled by Lyon and Rush, and followed with Love Is a Sacrifice (1980) and the live double-LP Reach Up and Touch the Sky (1981). Moving to the Atlantic Records subsidiary Mirage, they worked with producer Nile Rodgers on the uncharacteristic Trash It Up! (1983), then returned to form on In the Heat (1984). The group had suffered personnel shifts all along, but the departure of Billy Rush left Lyon to write much of At Least We Got Shoes (1986), after which he made a "solo" album, Slow Dance (1988). Southside and the Jukes reunited with Springsteen and Van Zandt for Better Days (1991). After a nearly ten year hiatus from the studio, Lyon started his own label, Leroy Records, and released Messin' with the Blues in 2000. Going to Jukesville followed in 2004. Grapefruit Moon: The Songs of Tom Waits appeared in 2008.
**********
WEBSITE
**********
TO THE TOP
**********
