Joe Marcinek has been consistently putting out excellent, interesting albums for several years now with a rotating group of musicians that keeps the music ever fresh and evolving. His latest release, 1 River Street, was recorded in Massachusetts at Iron Wax Studios with Alan Evans producing and on drums, Nate Edgar on bass, Kris Yunker on keys, Brian Thomas on trombone and Alex Lee-Clark on trumpet and Jared Sims on sax and flute. It’s a tight collection of eight sharply-honed tunes, each with a different flair to appeal to all lovers of groove-oriented music. I feel like the the flexibility of the musicians assembled for 1 River Street enabled them to emote differently on each tune. By the way, the album title was the address to Alan Evan’s Iron Wax studio, which ended up closing right after the session. Here’s my track by track coverage of this fine album.
Soul’D starts with a quick horn fanfare before Joe pops in with the funky guitar head. Kris Yunker takes a swirling organ turn midway with Alan Evans and the horns pumping in some emphatic pops, sounding a bit like FunkCity.net fave, Lettuce. Joe takes another bluesy funk solo up to the end.
Carma immediately hits with a reggae base. Joe plays the main melody voice on guitar with excellent horn section support. Nate Edgar overdubs funky guitar and he echoes the bass line. Alan Evans, one of Soulive’s founding members is perfect on the kit. It’s a fun, short trip to the Caribbean with Carma.
85’d has an old school feel to it and the bells at the opening remind me of ‘School Boy Crush,’ the Average White Band tune from the ’70s. The swirling organ could come right out of that era as well. Midway through the tune it takes a more acid rock turn with Joe blasting a fuzzed solo before dropping back to the main theme. Yunker takes a turn on a B3 solo up to the close of the tune.
Be Lone is a thoughtful ballad melody with Joe, Yunker, Alan and Nate Edgar (The Nth Power) on bass carrying the main theme. Joe shreds a darker, reverb solo throughout the middle of the tune that builds to its apex at the very end.
Hawaiian Dinosaur is another highlight for Joe. He and the band have real chemistry. The horns are back in force for this one, not overpowering but with excellent accents. Alex Lee-Clark has an extended trumpet solo and knocks it out of the park. Yunker follows with an keys solo that sparkles. The tune closes out with the horn chorus and a fade, nicely done.
Ola Ola is another tune with an island feel, perhaps a tad like The Skatalites. Brian Thomas has a nice, albeit brief, trombone solo. There’s also some excellent bari sax work from Jared Sims. This one cruises fast and furious and is super catchy.
Look At You, from its title and tone, feels like a love story. Soft and silky, the song has Joe gliding through an emotive melody seguing to Yunker with an equally sultry organ section. For any familiar with older jazz guitar, you might think of Earl Klugh listening to this one.
In Memory Of Iron Wax is dedication to the studio, as it was was the last song recorded there. Joe playing overdubs the second dueling guitar. Yunker has as a starring role here with some gliding, scintillating, swirling B3. He yields back to Joe for the lead and maybe it’s just me but I hear a little echo of Tower of Power’s ‘What Is Hip?” in the guitar solo with the bass response. Joe clued me in that it was loosely inspired by ToP and the Allman brothers tune “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed.” It’s a fun tune with a chorus of cheers at the end to celebrate the finale.