| Product Summary | | Label: Blue Note | | UPC: 00724353586928 | | Release Date: 3/12/2002 | | Buy.com Sku: 60519541 | | Item#: MPX42P | Format:  CD |
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| Song Listing |  |
Disc 1
| | Song Title | Sample | | 1. Tuesday Night's Squad ~ Soulive |  | | 2. Flurries ~ Soulive | | | 3. Liquid ~ Soulive | | | 4. Joyful Girl - (featuring Dave Matthews) ~ Soulive | | | 5. Kalen ~ Soulive | | | 6. Clap! - (featuring Black Thought) ~ Soulive | | | 7. Interlude ~ Soulive | | | 8. Ne-Ne ~ Soulive | | | 9. I Don't Know - (featuring Amel Larrieux) ~ Soulive | | | 10. Whatever It Is ~ Soulive | | | 11. Alkime ~ Soulive | | | 12. E.D. Hambone ~ Soulive | | | 13. Bridge To 'Bama - (Hi Tek remix, bonus track, featuring Talib Kweli) ~ Soulive | |
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| | Album Notes and Credits |
Notes & Personnel Info |  | Soulive: Eric Krasno (guitar); Sam Kininger (saxophone); Neal Evans (acoustic & Wurlitzer electric pianos, Hammond B-3 organ); Alan Evans (drums). | | Additional personnel: Amel Larrieux, Dave Matthews, Black Thought, Talib Kweli (vocals). | | Recorded at Applehead Studios, Woodstock, New York in October and December 2001, Cutting Room, New York, New York in May 2001 and Aerowave Studios, Los Angeles, California. | | Personnel: Amel Larrieux, Talib Kweli, Tariq Trotter (vocals); Eric Krasno (guitar); Sam Kininger (alto saxophone); Neal Evans (piano, electric piano, organ, keyboards); Alan Evans (drums). | | Audio Mixers: Eli Wolf; Eric Krasno; Mark Mitchell ; Dave Dar. | | Recording information: Aerowave Studios, Los Angeles, CA (10/2001); Applehead Studios, Woodstock, NY (10/2001); The Cutting Room, New York, NY (10/2001). | | Soulive's second outing for Blue Note further extends the group's focused revision of classic soul-jazz. With swirling Hammond B-3 and mellow-toned guitar work slinking around crisp, air-tight rhythmic grooves, NEXT is both loungey and danceable. From the riff-based athleticism of opener "Tuesday Night's Squad" to the slow burn of "Joyful Girl" to the guest raps from MCs Black Thought and Talib Kweli, NEXT references funky 1960s combo jazz, while revealing a penchant for hip-hop aesthetics and contemporary groove. | | On a mission to update the jazz organ tradition, Soulive maintains a tight groove throughout Next. Their approach involves narrowing the creative options, then turning up the heat within the confined space they allow themselves. Where drummers in old-school jazz organ groups played freely around the backbeat, Soulive's Alan Evans never misses the two and four. His brother Neal Evans imposes similar restrictions on himself by staying with essentially the same timbre on organ -- a thin, steamy sound, with a crisp percussive bite -- while Eric Krasno cultivates a shallow blues/jazz tone on guitar. A bone-dry production highlights this constriction, where every note and snare hit crackles in high definition. The songwriting is limited as well to riff-driven tunes with minimal melodic content. That leaves performance as the wild card, and here Soulive doesn't fail. From the relaxed pace of "Nay Nay" to the sprint clip of the Headhunters-flavored "Whatever It Is," the band demonstrates an almost frightening command of nuance in its rhythmic interplay and antiseptic articulation. On instrumental tracks, as well as when backing raps on "Clap!" and "Bridge To Bama" or moaning bedroom vocals on " Don't Know," Soulive makes a strong case on Next for consideration as the hottest rhythm unit of the moment. ~ Robert L. Doerschuk |
| | Compilation Appearances |
| | Technical Info | | Release Date : 03/12/2002 | | Original Release Date : 2002 | | Catalog ID : 35869 | | Label : Blue Note Records (USA) | | Number of Discs : 1 | | Studio/Live : Studio | | Mono/Stereo : Stereo | | SPAR Code : n/a | | UPC : 00724353586928 |
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| | Professional Reviews | | Entertainment Weekly (3/15/02, p.77)
- "...Specialize in simmering instrumental funk...successfully [integrate] some Keys-ian R&B and a couple of hip-hop tracks..." - Rating: BCMJ (4/1/2002, p.4)
- "...[Soulive are] opening their sound up to more than just the vintage vibe of classic groove units. Not that they've abandoned their tasty, signature mix of cool soul and jazz..." Down Beat (3/02, p.58)
- 3 stars out of 5 - "...Catchy mood music that gets your feet tapping and your body moving..." JazzTimes (5/02, p.160)
- "...These groovemeisters dip into the hip-hop pool while still pledging allegiance to soul-jazz..." |
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