Tower Of Power Corner

[JSngry]

Taking my own recommendation from Cary's "Soul With Big Horns" thread, I toted TOP's LIVE AND IN LIVING COLOR into work last night for a listen, and it ended up being about 5 listens.

WHAT A BAND!

Along with Earth Wind & Fire, TOP was probably the most musically adroit R&B band of their era, and probably moreso. Chester Thompson was a KILLER organist (and he released a pre-TOP album on Black Jazz that I've yet to hear). Dave Garibaldi was a drummer who made EVERYBODY take notice by taking the Clyde Stubblefield trip to a whole 'nother level of limb independence and syncopation, and he did it without losing one iota of groove. Along with bassist Rocco Prestia & guitarist Bruce Conte, this foursome consistently laid down some of the slammin'est grooves ever, grooves that were distinguished by their complexity AND their naturalness.

Then there's the famous horn section. No horn band of the era (and their were many, TOO many, in fact, if you ask me) got such a sound and had such, uh, power. I only saw them once, in 1975, and they played a 2 1/2 hour show NONSTOP. The freaky thing was Mick Gillette. This motherfucker was popping out double whatevers ALL night, all the while having a valve trombone handy to hit the occasional pedal tone punches in conjunction with Doc Kupka's honkin' bari. He was STRONGER at the end of the show than he was at the beginning. THAT is just sick. And if you only know Lenny Pickett as the kinda goofy, kinda pitiful tenor player/band leader on SNL the last few years, know that once upon a time, this cat was a MONSTER funk player who could lock into a groove as well as anybody and ride it to death (in the positive way, of course...). Check out his marathon solo on LIVE AND IN LIVING COLOR's "Knock Yourself Out", and prepare to be Hip-no-tized.

The band's "golden era" was when Lenny Williams was their lead vocalist, and what a performer he was. Old-school SOUL in the middle of some of the most advanced funk ever made. It was a perfect fit, and the band lost something when he left. Although, Hubert Tubbs does a DAMN fine job on LIVE AND IN LIVING COLOR, and Williams' predecessor, Rick Stephens, was probably well on his way to greatness before going to prison on a murder rap.

The band continues on today, basically unchanged in style. Although by now it kind of sounds formulaic. it's a DAMN good formula, and one they pretty much invented for themselves. After a long dry spell of REALLY uninspired albums, some of their more recent releases have had some really good stuff, but nothing, and I DO mean nothing, compares to the run of BUMP CITY, TOWER OF POWER, BACK TO OAKLAND, URBAN RENEWAL, and LIVE AND IN LIVING COLOR. These albums are "must haves" for lovers of sophisticated greasy urban funk. They set a standard that has been often strived for, but only rarely equaled, and NEVER surpassed, at least in my opinion.

Any other fans out there?

[Jim R]

Jim, thank you for spelling it all out- saved me a BUNCH of time! All I can really add in terms of pure data is the album- EAST BAY GREASE. I saw them three or four times between '73 and '75. Had all their albums (which I foolishly let go of). Check this out- the first time I saw them was at a wild animal park called "Marine World - Africa/USA" south of SF (it later moved north). They had an open-air venue there called "The Jungle Theater". To this day I still wonder what the animals were doing during the concert! I saw the Crusaders there, too, BTW.

At any rate, you're going to get me re-motivated here (I've thought about gettiing some CD's from time to time). Anybody know if there's a boxed set? (might as well take care of it in one swell foop)...

Edited September 10, 2003 by Jim R

[Noj]

I am somewhat a fan, as I know TOP from a few records my friend Anthony has. There was a compelling discussion about them at Jazzcorner as well. If its funky and it grooves you know I'll dig it!

[Templejazz]

What is Hip, tell me tell me baby.......do you think you know???

I remember my senior year in HS our marching band did a Tower of Power show. What a MF that was. You'd think it'd be kind of corny but lemme tell you those arrangements were no freaking joke.

It opened up with a solo trumpet trio playing the opener to "so very hard to go". I had the top voice and that just killed me.....cold weather was the worst for a part like that!! After that it went into this killer arrangement of 'What is Hip?' That was a bitch as well. The ending with the subdivided drum/band hits phukked everybody up all the time......NOT THE DOWN BEATS DAMMIT, THE UPBEATS!

I can't remember the last tune but I gained a real respect for that horn line after that show. Tight as the shizznizzle.

I still snag my parents' albums from time to time....they have half a dozen including 'Bump City' and 'Back to Oakland' That's the cream of the crop right there. I have yet to see them live tho.

Edited September 10, 2003 by Templejazz

[JSngry]

  Jim R said:

Check this out- the first time I saw them was at a wild animal park called "Marine World - Africa/USA" south of SF (it later moved north). They had an open-air venue there called "The Jungle Theater". To this day I still wonder what the animals were doing during the concert!

I went to college w/a Bay Area trumpeter who was a HUGE TOP fan, and the way he tells it, they were very much a "band of the people" - they were one of those bands that came out of a tight-knit local community and stayed true to their roots for as long as they could, and that included hanging with the "locals" before, during, and after gigs, and living the same kind of life everybody else did (except for practicing and gigging, obviously). In fact, this guy says that Lenny Pickett got to be the kind of player he was by dropping big bunches of acid, skipping high school, and going to some park and just PLAYING all day long for anybody and everybody who was there. Don't know how true that actually is, but this guy was not one to exaggerate, so take it for what it's worth. But no doubt, this was a band that knew all about hard partying firsthand, and you can definitely feel it in their music.

Oh yeah. Kids - DON'T try that at home!

[Soul Stream]

Man, not to rain on the parade or anything. But I'm not a TOP fan in any way shape or form. If I had a drink, a turntable and a TOP album.....I'd use the LP as a coaster for my drink. B)

[JazzRules]

Count me in. I've been a big fan since 1973 or so.

One of the first concerts I ever saw was TOP, who opened up for Santana in 1974. The best of the bay area was smokin' in NYC that night, at the old Paladium.

Some of their newer CDs are fine too, I especially liked "Monster on a Leash" and "TOP". While ol' Lennie was by far their best singer, that Tommy Boyles (????) (think that's his name) was really good.

[Jim Alfredson]

  JSngry said:

Chester Thompson was a KILLER organist (and he released a pre-TOP album on Black Jazz that I've yet to hear).

I've got it. When I get you that copy of "It's Necessary" I'll include this (I haven't forgotten, just busy, my man!)

[Templejazz]

  Templejazz said:

What is Hip, tell me tell me baby.......do you think you know???

I remember my senior year in HS our marching band did a Tower of Power show.  What a MF that was.  You'd think it'd be kind of corny but lemme tell you those arrangements were no freaking joke.

It opened up with a solo trumpet trio playing the opener to "so very hard to go".  I had the top voice and that just killed me.....cold weather was the worst for a part like that!!

Yowzaaa!!!

Wrong tune. I really meant 'You're Still a Young Man'. THAT'S the one with the crippling trumpet trio introduction. That's the one that was a bitch to play in cold weather at marching band festivals

Edited September 10, 2003 by Templejazz

[RainyDay]

Love this band. Just the best. Who was the vocalist on East Bay Grease? Rufus somebody or other? He was my favorite vocalist.

A couple of weeks ago, I had a chance to see Lenny Williams perform in Oakland City Center at an after work free concert with a TOP-like band. The crowd was really in heaven as he sang some of the old TOP material.

[chris olivarez]

Count me as another TOP fan."Live and in Living Color" is one of the best and it has got grease-I'm sorry GREEEZE!!!! to spare.

[wolff]

We were always very impressed by their arrangements and how polished they were. A frown cannot stay on your face when you hear these guys.

Saw them about 10 years ago. Same energy and stage presence. My 15 year old (who was then 5) still thinks it was a great show.

Still have their lp's. One still has an' iron on' inside it. It says," Oakland...they done found the stroke..."

I also have a direct to disc lp on the Sheffield Lab label called "TOP Direct". Guest percussionist is Victor Feldman.

[John L]

"Band of the people" is right. I grew up in Berkeley and TOP was a integral part of our street community. You could go down to Flint's BQ on a given night and see the TOP front line sitting at one of the tables working out some charts with ribs and cornbread. (Sadly, I believe that Flint's shut down very recently.)

It is hard for me to think objectively about their music. It was so much a part of my youth. Every song brings back the anguish of young love.

Conan should check in here. I remember a thread that he participated in at the old Jazz Central Station BBS some years ago where it was noted that the horn section of TOP was much tighter than Miles, Coltrane, and Adderley in the classic sextet.

Edited September 11, 2003 by John L

[.:.impossible]

Nice! And I thank you for the recommendations. I have been looking around town for this album lately. No luck yet. May have to order off the internet...

It never occurred to me that Lenny Pickett was in TOP. That's funny.

[JazzRules]

  John L said:

"Band of the people" is right. I grew up in Berkeley and TOP was a integral part of our street community. You could go down to Flint's BQ on a given night and see the TOP front line sitting at one of the tables working out some charts with ribs and cornbread. (Sadly, I believe that Flint's shut down very recently.)

It is hard for me to think objectively about their music. It was so much a part of my youth. Every song brings back the anguish of young love.

Conan should check in here. I remember a thread that he participated in at the old Jazz Central Station BBS some years ago where it was noted that the horn section of TOP was much tighter than Miles, Coltrane, and Adderley in the classic sextet.

Hey, I love Cannonball.

Your comparison is off though. It was comparing Miles and Coltrane to DeFrancesco's horn section on " Dr Jeckyl". Joey's band seems to have practiced the song more than Miles' band did.

[John L]

If I was off, then sorry. I just remembered that the discussion on that thread at one time moved into an assessment of the place of "tightness of horns" in jazz. TOP was held up as the example of tightness, and you were using the example of Dr. Jeckle as "insufficient tightness," (if I recall correctly).

[DrJ]

I dig 'em a lot, although I wouldn't say I'm a rabid fan. Undeniable skills and great music, but I find a little goes a fairly long way for me.

My wife and I pretty much always have the (and I hate this moniker) "R&B and Old School" stations on the car radio when we're driving any distance together - IMHO, THE BEST driving music ever is nowadays categorized within this genre - and of course TOP is featured prominently in many of these playlists.

Like Jim R and some others (Hey, I remember Marine World - Africa/USA! I think it's in Vallejo now and is just called Marine World, right?) TOP are also a part of my growing up experience, since I lived in the South Bay. Hard for me to hear them and not be immediately transported back to my formative years (the "junior high school gymnasium dance flashbacks are the worst...).

Edited September 13, 2003 by DrJ

[Jim R]

  DrJ said:

Hey, I remember Marine World - Africa/USA! I think it's in Vallejo now and is just called Marine World, right?

I think that's right, Tony. We took our kids up there once after it moved, but it's been so long I can hardly remember!

Slightly off topic, but another great Bay Area band that featured a horn section was The Sons (Of Champlin). From what I've heard, they were a big influence on a lot of horn bands, including Chicago (whom Champlin later joined). Champlin was (and probably still is, since they've reunited) an amazingly talented musician. He was an excellent keyboardist and guitarist, an incredible singer, and wrote some good songs as well. The Sons never achieved as much popularity as some of the other Bay Area bands of the period, but I've always thought they were near the top of the heap in terms of musicianship and soul (maybe that's why they never achieved as much popularity... B)).

[JSngry]

I remeber the Sons. Good stuff.

Don't know how big of an influence on Chicago they were though. I had a REAL mindfuck of an eyeopener when I finally got around, ca. 1978 or so, to hearing the Buckinghams' TIME AND CHARGES & PORTRAITS albums, both heavily involving the production and arranging of James William Guercio. The similarities between these albums and the early Chicago ones are more than occasional, and more than passing. Defintiely something to make you go hmmmmmmmmmm in regards to Guercio's role in that band in it's early days. Now, what influence the Sons had on Guercio, I cannot say.

Howzabout Cold Blood and the profoundly nasty Lydia Pense? Seldom captured to their best effect on record, but when they were, WHOOOOO!!!! And weren't they the first to cover, if not actually record, "Va;dez In The Country"?

[Jim R]

  JSngry said:

I remeber the Sons. Good stuff.

They were really something in person. I saw them in a high school gym once, and they performed like they were on national TV. Naturally, most of the material on their major label LP's was really watered down and abbreviated, and that was a band that truly excelled at stretching out. All those guys could play extended solos with meat on the bone. Champlin just blew me away the first time I saw them. I had heard a couple of their Capitol LP's, and really had no idea who was playing what for awhile, but seeing Champlin wail on organ AND on guitar (sometimes challenging Terry Haggerty's chops) AND singing with more soul than just about any other white man on the planet... wow.

Cold Blood certainly had its following around here, too. I think the girls got off more on Lydia than the guys, from what I experienced, at least. I have to admit, I never saw them live, though. Saw TOP and The Sons numerous times.

I was just remembering a night I saw Albert King in a little (tiny) club here in the south bay area. That night he had a trumpet, a trombone, a tenor and an alto in the band. To this day I wonder who those guys were. The arrangements weren't spectacular, but very cohesive and powerful. And of course, hearing Albert wail in a small club is something that I can not only still remember, I can still FEEL. But I digress. B)

[chris olivarez]

I had forgotten about the Sons of Champlin and I can't believe it because I used to play the fuck out of their first album.Time to research them on the net.Adios.

[PHILLYQ]

Have any of you good folks given a listen to 'Soul Vacinnation'? It's a live set from around 1999 that is very tight and carries tons of groove. The singer(whose name escapes me right now) does a fine job on the vocals, and Rocco kills as usual on the bass.

[Jim R]

  On 9/10/2003 at 3:44 PM, JSngry said:

Taking my own recommendation from Cary's "Soul With Big Horns" thread, I toted TOP's LIVE AND IN LIVING COLOR into work last night for a listen, and it ended up being about 5 listens.

WHAT A BAND!

Along with Earth Wind & Fire, TOP was probably the most musically adroit R&B band of their era, and probably moreso. Chester Thompson was a KILLER organist (and he released a pre-TOP album on Black Jazz that I've yet to hear). Dave Garibaldi was a drummer who made EVERYBODY take notice by taking the Clyde Stubblefield trip to a whole 'nother level of limb independence and syncopation, and he did it without losing one iota of groove. Along with bassist Rocco Prestia & guitarist Bruce Conte, this foursome consistently laid down some of the slammin'est grooves ever, grooves that were distinguished by their complexity AND their naturalness.

Then there's the famous horn section. No horn band of the era (and their were many, TOO many, in fact, if you ask me) got such a sound and had such, uh, power. I only saw them once, in 1975, and they played a 2 1/2 hour show NONSTOP. The freaky thing was Mick Gillette. This motherfucker was popping out double whatevers ALL night, all the while having a valve trombone handy to hit the occasional pedal tone punches in conjunction with Doc Kupka's honkin' bari. He was STRONGER at the end of the show than he was at the beginning. THAT is just sick. And if you only know Lenny Pickett as the kinda goofy, kinda pitiful tenor player/band leader on SNL the last few years, know that once upon a time, this cat was a MONSTER funk player who could lock into a groove as well as anybody and ride it to death (in the positive way, of course...). Check out his marathon solo on LIVE AND IN LIVING COLOR's "Knock Yourself Out", and prepare to be Hip-no-tized.

The band's "golden era" was when Lenny Williams was their lead vocalist, and what a performer he was. Old-school SOUL in the middle of some of the most advanced funk ever made. It was a perfect fit, and the band lost something when he left. Although, Hubert Tubbs does a DAMN fine job on LIVE AND IN LIVING COLOR, and Williams' predecessor, Rick Stephens, was probably well on his way to greatness before going to prison on a murder rap.

The band continues on today, basically unchanged in style. Although by now it kind of sounds formulaic. it's a DAMN good formula, and one they pretty much invented for themselves. After a long dry spell of REALLY uninspired albums, some of their more recent releases have had some really good stuff, but nothing, and I DO mean nothing, compares to the run of BUMP CITY, TOWER OF POWER, BACK TO OAKLAND, URBAN RENEWAL, and LIVE AND IN LIVING COLOR. These albums are "must haves" for lovers of sophisticated greasy urban funk. They set a standard that has been often strived for, but only rarely equaled, and NEVER surpassed, at least in my opinion.

Any other fans out there?

Bump...

[JSngry]

...City!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNEsRwNc2zI

[Free For All]

Funny to see this thread- coincidentally I just listened to all of LAILC yesterday for the first time in a long time and was amazed at how great it STILL sounds. Burning band!