Toronto Blues Society | » Urban Blues Groove – Tear It Down To Tear It Up

Urban Blues Groove – Tear It Down To Tear It Up

Published October 1, 1997 in Features
Jacintha Tuku

Jacintha Tuku

Jacintha Tuku

Jacintha Tuku (pictured) is one of 3 sultry vocalists fronting funk and new soul outfit, Blaxam. As past participants in the Women’s Blues Revue, Jacintha, her sister Shakura S’Aida and Shannon Maracle are no strangers to the TBS. Blaxam will back up soul stirrer Jay Douglas and long time blues and soul vocalist, Johnny Wright. Opening the du Maurier Urban Blues Groove are the funk jazz quartet JukeJoint.


So what’s a dance club, soul/R&B, and acid jazz-head doin’ in a blues joint like this? Maybe something to do with paying dues to the bedrock for the varied musical styles that constitute current dance groove trends.

When my father and his friends had their apartment parties (as newly arrived West Indian immigrants no one actually owned a house yet). They were fuelled by mixes of The Mighty Sparrow, Celia Cruz, John Coltrane, James Brown, Sly Stone and others but always in the mix was some Jimmy Rushing, Muddy Waters and other blues artists. As a teenager I’d check out the blues shows at the Ontario Place Forum like James Cotton, B.B. King, Ray Charles and Muddy Waters. This also led me at the time to check out Canadian talent like Dutch Mason. On my first day of legal drinking age although I was into checking out the dance clubs, I observed the night attending a Willie Dixon gig at the El Mocambo and was thrilled to actually meet him.

After listening to a soundboard tape from a recent performance of one of our regular soul/R&B showcases, I was struck at the amount of blues guitar work and other elements that came through. At the show itself I didn’t consciously pick up on it but there it was clear as a bell when I checked the tapes out in an analytical context. I’ve also found that the best of our live performers are those who have a clear understanding of the styles that make a live performance so dynamic. Vocalists like Divine Earth Essence (formerly Michelle Boo Boo’ Brown) with gospel, blues and jazz discipline and the ladies from Blaxam whose work with Salome Bey has provided the experience needed to achieve the vibe we know as pure soul.

I’m occasionally surprised by live cover tune selections from artists like Denosh whose recorded material is straight up pop R&B but chose to dig into “I Loves You Porgy” at a recent show. When Glenn Lewis chose Donny Hathaway‘s “Little Ghetto Boy” at one of our shows, it confirmed a pride in the new school of emerging talent and comfort in the knowledge that the next wave is well-grounded, especially when complemented by knowledgable musicians like Toronto’s Panic.

There have been interesting developments in soul/R&B music of late both in the international and local scenes. As with many popular musical forms soul/R&B has cycled back to the point of once again touching base with its fundamentals in order to hopefully gear up for new interpretations.

R&B now has a new soul vibe happening which is not so much simply retro but a new interpretation of the musical styles from where it evolved. Artists such as Erikah Badu, D’Angelo, Maxwell and several others have reached back to the organic sounds of early seventies soul and reintroduced them to a new generation. They’ve been able to find acceptance among younger audiences for whom the term R&B has been stripped down to a number of teenage cookie-cutter female threesomes and male vocal groups who wouldn’t have a clue about performing without a DAT backing.

Why then does it seem in the funky/soul/groove styles that time started in the early seventies? For acid jazz, the jazz funk fusion of Donald Byrd, Lester Donaldson, Pharaoh Sanders, Roy Ayers, self described bluesologist Gil Scott Herron and others were the touchstones. Mix in rare groove (jazzfunk/R&B numerous mostly one-hit examples), Latin soul like Eddie Palmieri, Mandrill, Pucho and Brazilian and you’ve got the acid jazz essentials. For R&B it’s period Stevie Wonder, Donny Hathaway, Marvin Gaye and Chaka Khan.

I think the seventies was another time of experimental inspiration. Inherent throughout all these styles is, of course, the earlier influence of blues which is now such a discreet element in current soul/R&B that when confronted with blues tunes such as Erikah Badu’s “Pick Your Afro” and “On And On” it’s still seen as pop R&B. When people hear Ms. Badu sound off with this type of departure she’s likened to Billie Holiday whose vocal style she does in fact emulate, but it stops there. The lineage of Holiday’s biggest influence Bessie Smith needs to be pointed out to some but the connection is thankfully not lost on everyone. New innovators with a clear historical perspective are always in the wings. Popular urban music publications like the UK’s Blues and Soul (www.bluesandsoul.co.uk) and Vibe in the U.S. also reserve sections to bestow props to the originators.

That the legacy of Blues music is still quite alive, well and relevant to the most interesting and respected current urban music artists is an international and local fact. We have very large turnouts to see live local urban music (soul/R&B/rare groove/hip hop) lately despite the absence of a mainstream radio station and the reason is a refreshing ability to channel a wealth of musical tradition through raw talent and intuitive inspiration. It’s happening at a venue near you.

– Carlos Mondesir

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The Toronto Blues Society acknowledges the annual support of the Ontario Arts Council, the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council and the Department of Canadian Heritage, and project support from FACTOR< and the Government of Canada through the Department of Canadian Heritage (Canada Music Fund) and of Canada’s Private Broadcasters, The Canada Council for the Arts, the SOCAN Foundation, SOCAN, the Ontario Media Development Corporation, and the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport.