Oliver Wang

Side Dishes

O-Dub's Weekly Serving of Soul

MENAHAN STREET BAND: THE ROAD LESS TRAVELLED

Posted 10/21/2008 at 3:08 PM | Comment? | Category: jazz, new music, retro-soul

Menahan Street Band: Make the Road By Walking

Menahan Street Band: Home Again!

From Make the Road By Walking (Dunham, 2008)

The Menahan Street Band (MSB) comes out of the Daptone Records camp - the Band's leader, guitarist Tommy "TNT" Brenneck, is part of the Dap-Kings (of Sharon Jones/Amy Winehouse fame) and he branches off here with a remarkable instrumental soul album where Brenneck himself plays guitar, bass, drums, organ and piano while having back-up from some of the leading Brooklyn soul players such as Leon Michels (of Truth and Soul), trumpeter Dave Guy and vibraphonist Toby Pazner, among several others. (For the full line-up, see here).

"Instrumental soul" is a rather awkward label - most folks would just call it "jazz" and I'm not one to get too hung up on genre labels. At the end of the day, the music is soulful and that's all that matters. MSB does bear similarities to another underrated album in the same ilk from a few years back, the El Michels Affair's Sounding Out the City and both share a knack for patient, but intricate arrangements, strong rhythm sections and to me, the deal-sealer - excellent horn sections that fill the tracks with a sense of drama and intensity.

That's certainly the case on "Make the Road by Walking," which first came out last fall and was promptly (remarkably fast!) sampled by Jay-Z for "Roc Boys". You can hear how the power of the brass is what Jay-Z's track zeroes in on.

However, my favorite parts of the MSB album are sometimes the subtler, quieter parts - such as that guitar that begins "Home Again!" and how the bassline lines slide in as a warm, but understated complement to the brighter parts of the melody. There's a lot going on in the song and you have to marvel and how well the pieces fit together - it's sublime.

In case you're curious to hear what the MSB sound like with vocals thrown on - check out Dunham's 7" single version of "Tired of Fighting" with Charles Bradley singing over it.

By the way, it'd be wonderful for a week to go by without having to acknowledge the death - or deaths - of remarkable artists but these days, it just seems like we're losing more and more everyday. As some of you likely have heard, Levi Stubbs, lead singer for the Four Tops with his legendary baritone, passed away last week. My fellow Vibe.com blogger, Mark Anthony Neal, wrote an excellent post on Stubbs and his legacy.

I wanted to also acknowledge the passing of Dee Dee Warwick. Dee Dee was the older sister to Dionne Warwick but despite a long recording career, she never enjoyed the same successes as her younger sibling. It's a shame because Dee Dee had one of those voices that could pierce through any setting and demand attention. Here's one of my personal favorites:

Dee Dee Warwick: Foolish Fool

From Foolish Fool (Mercury, 1969). Also on Best Of.