The One & Nines are Jersey City’s best Soul band. Okay, maybe that’s not a very crowded category, and that category doesn’t get much more populated if you remove the J.C. qualifier. Best Indie Soul Band currently unsigned by a major labor? Whatever the case, I would argue both are true. On their self-titled, first C.D.—a collection of seven songs that is being called an EP—they revive the classic soul music soul. I caught them at the last Groove on Grove of 09, a searing and raucous set of Soul, R&B and Rock & Roll. They are fun and they have excellent musical chops. They are not just a bunch of precocious young adults playing requests at a Bah Mitzvah—they play with feeling and exhibit a real, awe-inspiring sincerity about this music. According to Band Leader Jeff Marino, WGBO’s Soul Revue played one of their cuts a few weeks back. I can think of no better certificate of authentication, not to mention benediction for acceptance as the real deal.
The One and Nines on the EP are, in addition to Marino who plays guitar – Vera Sousa – Singer, Alex Tyshkov – Bass, Will Hansen - Piano, Organ, Fender Rhodes, Ken Walz –Drums, Barami Waspe –Tenor Sax, Matt Maley – Baritone Sax., RJ Avallone – Trumpet, Craig Redmond – Percussion, Jodi Mozeika – Cello on 'Just Your Fool'.
Marino says he’s "...been listening to Rhythm Revue for as long as I can remember and learned a great deal of what I know from that. I've been playing since I was 11 or 12 and wanting to play and studying this music in my own way for as long as I can remember, Vera has been singing as long as she can remember.......Vera and the bass player Alex have had a group together called Kiwi The Child for 8 or 9 years, they do sort of an eclectic roots reggae kind of thing. The One & Nines came together a little over two years ago when a few us learned some rhythm & blues songs for a 'soul' party and it was good so it stuck."
It’s still sticking, resulting in genuine sounding—according to me & WGBO!—soul music. It’s a marvel, they tap into a sound with honest appreciation and a refreshing musical confidence. On the first listen I would swear it was a reissue, not new material made by Gen Yers.
For Marino, the commitment went beyond just learning R&B chords, but recreating as close as possible the old school recording process used at Stax and Muscle Shoals—Analog: "The analog recording process should be important to any music. It is much more physical and you are much more connected to what you are doing, rewinding and playing the tape etc. It forces you to make decisions on the spot, there is a certain sense of improvisation that is forced by recording live and to tape. That's what a 'record' is, you are recording a moment."
Marino wrote all the songs, but a credit on the cover interested me—horn arrangements by the One & Nines. "In many ways yes the arrangements are an extension of the song writer but I stated 'arranged by the One and Nines' because the songs would not be what they are on this record if it weren't for the band. The way these were done is I basically came to the band with the songs at 8 percent, how they ended up on the record came from the process of us playing over and over for a couple months and trying different things here and there. That 15 percent makes all the difference."
What makes all the difference though between playing soul music and playing a cover of a soul song is group discovery. Musicians coming together, forming a cohesive unit where the sum is greater than the parts. Arrangements for Rock & Roll songs are simple, but simple is a misleading term and really is meant to explain that a smaller combination of instruments are used—not a 100 piece orchestra.
A songwriter brings in a song, sometimes a demo recording and the musicians find the song—sometimes, like the Grateful Dead—they’ll trot out songs to find them before laying down a studio track (sometimes the Dead would then forego the studio and just release the live version). I use the term find the song from the acrimonious though fascinating autobiography by Levon Helm, "This Wheel’s On Fire." The famous Feud between Robertson and Helm has to do with song writing royalties, most of which go to Robertson and Helm’s basic claim is that arrangements of those great Band songs was what made the songs—and he and his Canadian brethren worked through the arrangements and found the song. Copyright and other Legal issues aside, I’ve always loved the term found the song and I sometimes want to argue that the caliber of expressing the relationship between the finding and the arranging is what makes some of the songs of some bands GREAT.
Robertson has never denied that the arrangements of his songs were a group effort. You rarely see an arrangement credit for classic albums of the 50s or 60s (or now either), and I suspect that Booker T. & the MGs found those great arrangements by playing—unlike Motown, the Stax studio musicians toured extensively with the Otis, Rufus, Carla et al—and through studio rehearsals.
The point of my speculation is not the nature of arranging R&B, but the group effort involved. That 15 percent Marino refers to, Ladies & Gentlemen of the Jury, is another piece of evidence supporting my contention that a bona fide, genuine, fantastic R&B band has popped up in Hudson County, New Jersey. Right here, right now in the 21st Century.
"I Walked Alone" opens the C.D., a snaky, vertebrae grabbing groove of a hook—Soul Pop—sounds straight out of Stax, with a organ and guitar mash up crescendo, a flourish of horns and than one of the best endings I’ve ever heard. True to their dedication to the retro, this cut has a hand clap track embedded in the rhythm section and it works damn well, but this astute sonic choice gets subverted at the end. On the final note—the final hand clap if you will—the claps suddenly shatter into applause, a moment I find delightful and funny, gleefully anticipating it every listen. I get the feeling that they however seriously they take the music, they aren’t too serious that they overlook the fact that what makes Soul Music worth reviving is the FUN!
"Wait" is a ballad, with a James Brown horn blast opening. with Vera’s vocals pleading, "wait for me." Her voice reminds me of Grace Slick, she has tremendous range, robust and full then sweet and high. Her voice has an endearing clarity. She’s warm, emotional here but the voice has a confidence and self assurance that might have eluded some of the classic Divas of the genre, who sometimes, especially to contemporary ears, might sound something of a victim (or ultra-obvious non-vicitm, i.e., R-E-S-P-E-C-T). Vera has a voice for our age—empowered, honest, confident and smart—"Wait for Me, Don’t you go running out my door. I can’t keep chasin you no more." The song depicts how a simple moment can reveal the end of a love—one member of the couple is leaving the dwelling before the other, and with a total lack of self pity, Vera sings, "you’ve been telling me lies." It’s a slice of life tale, and when she sings, "Wait," something is dawning on her—is she asking to wait for her, or requesting he wait so she can say goodbye? "I can’t keep on chasing you, no more," Vera wails emotionally to baleful horns as the song fades out.
"Something On Your Mind" slyly opens with the vocal and simple guitar plucking, a tease into a ballad that explores the age-old dilemma about love—intimacy is not telepathy. "If my attitude has changed, I don’t feel anything new/you say I look like I’m always bored, but are you just speaking for yourself." The singer keeps adding, "I think something is on your mind, but not on mine." The One & Nines have plain spokeness aspect to the lyrics—they sound like conversations every body has. This song also features a classic soul horn riff, and has that ying/yang, teasing a soft prelude that evolves into a full-band burst of drama.
"Anything You Got" is the edgier song, the narrator is more desperate —"Sometimes I’m up all night thinking of what to do, then I dream of something else but nothing new." The group builds a blues-jam feel into the song—while the main hook is a searing guitar lick, the first break there’s just a funky bass with tom-tom drums. The next break the horn section wails full throttle. "I’ll stop what I’m doing just to be with you," she sings—Vera really gives a great vocal here, at times nearly channeling Janis Joplin. It’s an angrier song than the others. The lyrics are about those times in a relationship—well, some relationships—where you play the victim because love doesn’t leave you any other choice—that is, if you still want love. You’re in a position that you both do and don’t want to be in—willing to take whatever your loved one dishes out. A fitting lyrical setting for a blues jam—not that they jam out, the songs are terse and less than three minutes—but this one has that feel that it could be a jam and the musicians reveal the talent to sustain a longer burst of improvisation. The song ends with the final break of a wrenching, noir-ish saxophone. That sax has been listening to the guitar lick and the singer, responding in kind.
In addition to two versions of Just Your Fool—the only duet between Marino & Verga—Tears Fall ends this sampling of songs, a full-tilt, Stax boogie.
I suggest going to their Facebook and MySpace pages to find out where to buy the EP. Better yet, find out where they’re playing next and catch the gig. I love classic soul and Rhythm & Blues, but these cats are more than a tribute band—hell, if that’s what they were only about they wouldn’t bother with writing new material. Soul and R&B are integral to rock and roll—Elvis covered Ray Charles, Jerry Garcia covered Smokey Robinson, Springsteen covered Sam & Dave. Shoot, you don’t need me to tell you that—that’s why the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame exists.
But thankfully, the One & Nines have liberated Soul and Rhythm & Blues from the museums and reissues and oldies stations. They have made it new, again—without sacrificing authenticity. I love Soul because it’s about love—lust, heartbreak, doubt, trust & mistrust—but Love nonetheless. "It always seemed so incredible to me that there was a time in this world when stuff like this was on the Top 40," says Marino. "The main inspiration is just American music really. We are attempting to draw from the great songs whatever it was that made them great and keep it moving along. I am not interested in any kind of revival fad that's going around. I just want it to be good music, simple as that."
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