The package includes extensive liner notes, two CDs and two DVDs. We still have a tight approach, but there’s always room for solos and improvisation, especially on the ride out at the end of the tunes.”ĥ0 Years of Soul & Funk is impressive. Some of the arrangements were significantly different from the originals. Since we had seven horns, we expanded the charts. We brought in some alumni, expanded the horn line and added a string section, which we’ve never used before.
Once we had a plan, we rehearsed for five days. “We started talking about the gig six months in advance. “We looked around for a venue and thought the Fox, in Oakland, was perfect,” Castillo said. I’ve been told that JB once remarked something to the effect that, ‘Tower of Power is the only band out there that does justice to my sound.’”Īs they approached their 50th anniversary, they made plans for a celebration. “We have always, from the beginning, tried to do the lesser known and obscure tracks when doing covers. “Brown was a huge influence on our sound,” Castillo said. The just-released album is the band’s 34th, and celebrates their longevity by recreating 23 of their hits, alongside an excursion into four James Brown obscurities. I said, ‘Let’s give it a try.’” The first song they wrote together was “You’re Still a Young Man,” still a crowd favorite and one of the tunes featured on 50 Years of Funk & Soul – Live at the Fox Theater. “Doc told me the covers were solid, but said we should start writing our own tunes. When Emilio Castillo hired baritone sax player Stephen “Doc” Kupka to fill out the band’s horn section, everything clicked. When I traveled from city to city, Oakland always struck me as more soulful than anywhere else, even Detroit and Memphis.”ĭavid Garibaldi soon replaced Jack Castillo on drums. Everybody listened to the radio in those days, before streaming. There were excellent soul radio stations there, going back to when Sly Stone was a DJ at KSOL. “I always say, ‘You can take the boy out of Oakland, but you can’t take Oakland out of the boy.’ Everywhere you went, soulful music was playing in Oakland. The band moved up to Oakland and took off, packing clubs with their horn-driven sound.
We called ourselves the Motowns and played covers, leaning heavily on the sound of Stax and Hi-Otis Redding, James Brown, Sam and Dave, and other soul acts.” Kennedy High, with my brother Jack, who was the original drummer. “I started the band in Fremont, at John F. “We were hoping to get good enough to play the Fillmore,” Castillo said. When sax player Emilio Castillo put together the band that would evolve into Tower of Power in 1968, he had no grand expectations. Fifty Years of Oakland soul and East Bay funk
0 kommentar(er)
