Soulive And Lettuce Have A Ball At The Vic

By Chris Bentley in Arts & Entertainment on Oct 4, 2011 7:00PM

There was no crown or scepter at Saturday’s Royal Family Ball, but the crowd at The Vic did not need a king’s decree to enjoy the party. Funk reigned supreme over the sets of double-bill headliners Soulive and Lettuce.

The acts share two band members and a penchant for bringing jazz to a general audience without watering it down. Strictly speaking, you would be hard-pressed to call either group traditional. But if Soulive’s Eric Krasno, Neal Evans and Alan Evans are the heads of this Royal Family (and the record label of the same name), then their dominion is over an electric blend of jazz, blues, funk and soul that makes the old sound new again.

The Hammond B3 organ trio kicked off the ball with two tunes that have been with them since literally day one — “Uncle Junior” and “Turn it Out”, along with the rest of their 1999 EP, "Get Down!" The songs grew out of the band’s first jam session at Alan and Neal Evans’ home studio in Woodstock, NY. The heavy funk groove “Hat Trick” came third, perhaps in a bit of setlist humor before Soulive embarked on a suite of Beatles covers.

Doing an album of Beatles tunes is sort of a jazz rite of passage. George Benson, Wes Montgomery and Ella Fitzgerald, to name a few, have taken on everything from “A Day in the Life” to “Yesterday.” The challenge seems to be: What can one possibly bring to the Fab Four’s revered canon that defies this premise’s tendency towards the put-on, saccharine and cheesy?

The title of 2010’s "Rubber Soulive" smirks at this trope, but the group took on the Beatles without an ounce of sarcasm Saturday. “Eleanor Rigby” got the Soulive treatment — a heavy funk groove and an atmospheric guitar solo — but retained its gloom. It takes a masterful hand to massage decades-old hits into fresh fare, and that’s why jazz musicians typically take on the Beatles once they’ve earned their place in music history.

After 12 years of successful touring, Royal Family heads Krasno and the brothers Evans have earned it. Not a band to forget its roots, Soulive closed with a jammed out, soulful cover of Sly and the Family Stone’s classic “If You Want Me to Stay.” It was a solid, if by now standard Soulive set.

Old-school funk would hold court for the ball’s next guests of honor: self-proclaimed “ragers” and funk connoisseurs Lettuce. A dressed-down Krasno and Neal Evans returned alongside the eight-person collective, which has evolved from teenage jam sessions at the Berklee College of Music into an international touring act.

Lettuce covered a lot of ground, from modern fusion in the vein of Herbie Hancock to boot-stomping P-funk. The house party vibe on stage was better suited to the jam-band crossover crowd (Is it still a royal ball if someone brings a beer helmet?) than Soulive’s slick black ties and suit jackets. Horn section members Sam Kininger, Ryan Zoidus and Rashawn Ross were firing on all cylinders. They were in lockstep with the ensemble through the last note of the encore: James Brown’s “Soul Power,” sung by Soulive drummer Alan Evans. Soul was the common thread through Lettuce originals like the lilting, jazzy “Break Out,” and the funky showstopper, “The Last Suppit.”

But a foray into darker territory was the set's highlight. Neal Evans (keys) used every part of the animal in the hip-hop tinged “Mr. Yancey” — a tribute to late rapper J Dilla. The strange brew of moody organ vamps, heavily distorted clavinet and a serious drum and bass groove was Lettuce at its best: thunderous and full of soul.