British stars and soul music luminaries were a match made in heaven
The Sound of Soul: Stax Records
Royal Albert Hall ★★★★★
Do you like soul music? Sweet soul music? If the answer to that is “yeah, yeah” then the 65th Prom was the place to be. The Royal Albert Hall stage was crammed full of vintage US stars and supremely talented British musicians paying exuberant tribute to one of the classic original soul labels.
Stax Records was a recording company based in Memphis, Tennessee, that effectively defined Southern Soul music in the Sixties, a gritty rival to the northern Detroit powerhouse of Motown and the New York sophistication of Atlantic.
In 1967, the label’s stars wowed London as part of a package tour headlined by the late, great Otis Redding. Fifty years on, Jools Holland and His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra paid tribute to that sensational review, kicking off with a horn blasting romp through Arthur Conley’s Sweet Soul Music. The sensational Beverley Knight, gruff-voiced pop star James Morrison and an imperious Tom Jones swapped lyrics and big smiles.
The British contingent were joined by three surviving Stax vocalists to a rapturous reception. William Bell wore a dazzling white suit and shades, and retained a supple, slinky flow through I Forgot to Be Your Lover and Private Number (duetted with Knight). Eddie Floyd looked sharp in a blue suit and stomped his way through Knock on Wood and Wilson Pickett’s 6345789 (duetted with Morrison). Sam Moore (whose musical partner Dave Prater died in a car crash in 1981, bringing the duo Sam & Dave to a premature end) was fantastic, his voice still high and fluid at 81. Dressed in a silver jacket and grinning from ear to ear, he duetted I Can’t Stand Up for Falling Down with Jones and Hold On, I’m Comin’ with Knight, whose rich tones and fluent riffing added sparkle to every song she guested on.
Moore seemed to be particularly enjoying the occasion, interrupting a rendition of Soul Man to inquire of his baffled band leader whether he could fix him up with “the prince”. It wasn’t clear which particular member of the royal family he had in mind. Perhaps it was Albert? Holland, for once, was at a loss for words.
Only the youngest member of the singing contingent, 33-year-old James Morrison, looked a bit overwhelmed by the occasion, but offered an effective impersonation of Otis Redding on a show-stopping Try a Little Tenderness. There are 20 musicians in Holland’s band, and they were visibly delighted to have two first-class Stax musicians added to their ranks: organist Booker T Jones and guitarist Steve Cropper. The pair mostly added subtle frills, enjoying being part of the ensemble, but a rip-roaring version of their Green Onions was a reminder that we were in the presence of genius.
The highlight was Cropper, Booker T and Jones performing a stripped back, spine-tingling version of Redding’s (Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay, in which Cropper’s guitar seemed to dance and ripple around Jones’s big, heartfelt vocal. Cropper mouthed “Wow!” at the end, and I suspect those watching felt the same.
It might have been nice to see more of this kind of reinvention, rather than just straight tribute, although a hip-hop ska interlude with young rapper Nadia Rose and gravel-voiced MC Sweetie Irie was misjudged, it being impossible to tell what song they were actually covering.
Holland hosted the jamboree with his usual charm. If, inevitably, this review lacked the intensity of the original, it is hard to carp when everybody was having so much fun.