Somethin’ Else: All-Star Tribute to Soul Jazz
October 5 @ 7:30 pm
Somethin’ Else is a seven-piece Soul Jazz revue led by Vincent Herring. The all-star rotating lineup, according to Herring, features “music that is meant to be a celebration of life.” The band plays new arrangements of soul jazz classics, originally recorded by composers like Donald Byrd, Horace Silver, Herbie Hancock and Eddie Harris. Soul jazz, born in the early 1960s, provided a pathway for the funky grooves of contemporary soul and R&B to infuse the muscular hard bop of the day. Soul jazz helped form the soundtrack for that generation, but, as it turns out, this music is multigenerational and has served as a springboard repertoire for up-and-coming young jazzers as well. It’s groove-oriented and fun to play—and to hear! Band organizer Herring states, “When we get together and play, we are having as good of a time as anybody else—we listen to each other and the music that we’re producing, and enjoying every aspect of it. One thing that will never go out of fashion is good-feeling music, and that’s what we provide!”
—Steve Futterman, The New Yorker
