They were not there for catchy, formulaic R&B. They announced both their musical background and intentions with their album titles: The Revival, Sons of Soul, House of Music. The trio started taking the reins on writing and production on their sophomore effort, and the Tonys as we now know them showed up. Their first album was a modest success, achieving gold status from the RIAA, but wasn’t a standout. Having been properly trained, educated and tested in blues, soul, gospel, and funk, the three formed Tony! Toni! Toné!. But he, brother Dwayne and cousin Timothy Christian received their formal Tony! Toni! Toné! training on the road: Raphael and Christian toured as part of Sheila E’s band on Prince’s Parade Tour and Dwayne with gospel great Tramaine Hawkins. Exposure to Motown and Stax by his blues singer father led him to the bass and served as inspiration for his future style. Like almost every black musician and/or producer of note in his peer group, Saadiq developed and honed his musical chops in the church. This set both groups apart, establishing them early on as serious soul acts, and making them forerunners of the neo soul sound to come in the late ‘90s. They – and a few years later Mint Condition – were standouts as live musicians in an R&B landscape turning to sample-based production. TONY! TONI! TONÉ!ĭuring the birth and rise of New Jack Swing and then the subsequent evolution to Hip-Hop Soul, Tony! Toni! Toné! was one of the last of a dying R&B breed: the band. Let’s explore the iterations through which “Ray Ray” has blessed us over the years. Perhaps he transcends a simple R&B conversation as a self-identified Son of Soul (the difference between R&B and Soul is a topic for another day), but however you want to categorize him, he is not widely-enough acknowledged for how he’s kept us jamming, constantly, for three decades. But that’d be a misnomer, as he’s still had his hand in some of the most influential music for the current generation.
Saadiq has become like a stealth superhero of soul for the last several years of his career, moving to the background as more writer/composer/musician, so the impulse for many might be to label him as an “old school” artist. Ironically, one name that seldom appeared in the convo belongs to one of the most consistent and prolific presences in soul and R&B music for the last 30 years: Raphael Saadiq. It was one of those magical moments in life for me because, in New Orleans, The Meters are like The Beatles.While a consensus was never reached, the heated discussion illustrated how much the definitions and ideas of R&B and R&B stars varies between age groups. "Because The Meters helped to create a sound that gave me a foundation for doing what I do. You have gotten us to do something that people have been trying to get us to do for 35 years,' and I was speechless," Andrews now recalls. Andrews telephoned each Meter and asked if they'd like to record it with him, and each replied that if the others would do it, he was in too. Say That also features the historic reunion of The Meters on "Be My Lady," from The Meters' eighth and final album ( New Directions, 1977, Warner Bros.). Its lush rhythm track deftly grooves like D'Angelo and Marvin Gaye jamming up and down Bourbon Street: Every instrument tucks into each other just right, overspread like thick sweet jam by Andrews' trombone solo and then set on fire by his blistering, funk-rock trumpet solo until he burns it out. The bright instrumental "Vieux Carre" bows then dances toward the Caribbean while the horn section dishes out sumptuous Crescent City soul stew.Īndrews and Saadiq build "Shortyville," a model replica of Andrews' musical birthplace, from the ground up. "Get the Picture" dives headlong (not just knee deep) into slippery New Orleans funk rhythms, then turns to stomp and rock beneath Andrews' looped "I play the funk" vocal. But his trombone solos consistently punch, ride and swing the beat hard and funky, and its best tunes seriously cook. And he's a fan of New Orleans brass band music, which I didn't know beforehand."Īt 35 minutes (albeit across ten tracks), Say That to Say This is hardly Andrews' magnum opus. All the guys in my band are big, big fans of his, so this is a real dream come true for us.
For his third Verve album, Troy Andrews, a/k/a Trombone Shorty, and his band Orleans Avenue go back to schoolmore precisely, back to the slippery yet organic "old school" sound of R&B, soul and funk, thanks to contributions from composer, instrumentalist and co-producer Raphael Saadiq, formerly of the soul vocal group Tony!Toni!Toné! How does Shorty describe his new album? "Really funky, like James Brown mixed with The Meters and Neville Brothers, with what I do on top and we have a bit of R&B from Raphael's side.