There is something so comfortable and so comforting about beautifully played blues.  Blues, played the way The SoulMates played on Monday night, is stilling. There were moments when I was made to stop in my tracks; stop thinking, even stop consciously listening, just feel it...

Jazz piano great Ramsey Embick was in the house, sitting at the front table until drummer Reinhardt Melz called him up to play the Guiro (also known as "the scratcher") with The SoulMates. It was an ever-so-subtle addition to the sound but it added just that little extra touch. Nice.

Jay "Bird" Koder started the evening in high gear with reaching guitar work. Jarrod Lawson (vocals and keybords) contributed sweet keyboard sounds during the three opening numbers--all instrumentals. But Reinhardt... Reinhardt had just come off of four straight days of playing--playing twice on Sunday alone-- and he still had thunder in those sticks.

The second instrumental, which sounded like a soundtrack for exploring Ali Baba's cave, was the first of those stilling moments. Jarrod's left handed kicking bass on the keyboards was almost hypnotic and Reinhardt's drums sounded like Beethoven's knock of fate. Jay Bird made that guitar sound like the high drone of a million bees.

[Have you heard how Jay Koder got the nickname "Bird?" It came from the way his fingers flew across the guitar's fretboard like a bird. Originally, they called him "Bird-fingers" but was shortened to just "Bird." He was the ripe old age of...wait for it...13 years old.]

In that moment, bass, Beethoven and bees made for a sound and feeling of stunned disbelief. Stop thinking. Just feel it.

Then the band cartwheeled ino Moonflower before the audience could regain their senses. The piece is a perfect gallery for Jay Bird's touch. His guitar solo just lit the place up and Reinhardt turned in one of the most impressive displays of polyrhythmic pyrotechnics ever. Even Reinhardt himself was moved by what was transpiring and, though he is always silent while he plays and simply chews his bottom lip, during the Moonflower drum solo he let loose with an audible "Ahhhhhhh..." This was enough to bring a shout from the audience but the playing called forth an absolute gush of verbal appreciation.

Jarrod's vocals were finally turned loose beginning with Cruisin' followed by Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover.  But he hit stride with the Koder composition called I Could Be the Man for You. It was the second moment of being lifted out of oneself. Jarrod was a perfect ease in his vocals with "Bird's" guitar during the bridge and we were at ease with them.

It is a feeling of transcendance. It is being moved above and beyond personal exhaustion or anxiety or sadness to a place of peace and even rest. It is almost like receiving an imposed yet effortless meditation. There is a repose in the midst of this high energy musicianship. But soon, the energy begins to draw you along, out of the repose...

Following some of the bluesiest, yet most subtle, guitar solo playing ever, that peace remains but opens into fun. That is the only word for it: just "fun." Sandra Dee of Mothership added to that when she joined Jarrod for vocals on What We Do for Love and Can't Hide Love.

All Day Sucker ended the first set with the audience cheering in the middle of solos. Now, in the world of live music, the audience politely waits until the end of a solo before responding with applause as the song continues. But not during this song! It was as though the stillness and the beauty of what had gone before had enfused the audience with the energy for play. The audience responded to The SoulMates play with playfulness of their own.

So, instead of waiting for the end of Jay Bird's solo, the crowd just couldn't wait to respond. Then Reinhardt pushed it again, with similar response, only for Bird to return with a second solo. The set ended with shouts and cheers. Nobody went home.

In the second set, Tyrone Hendricks sat in on drums and lovely Liv Warfield added her wonderful, soulful voice to Jarrod's beginning with One Mo' Gin. Jarrod had said before the introduction to the song, "Ya'll this is my favorite Portland singer!"

Bird's solo brought a big smile of appreciation from Tyrone and Liv was all smiles to sing with Jarrod. Even though she laughingly said, "Shut UP!" as Jarrod sang. She shrugged and just said, "Don't make no sense..."

Liv and Tyrone stayed for the whole second set and the fun was felt by everyone. Sweet Rhonda behind the bar said, "Wow! What a fun night!"

During a Bobby Womack song, Liv was supposed to sing back up to Jarrod but stood silent, just watching Jarrod. At the song's conclusion, Jarrod scolded, "You didn't sing!" Liv replied, "You didn't NEED it!"

During the penultimate number, Liv stood with her arm draped around Bird's shoulder. She looked at Jarrod and said, "I just want to watch you sing."

The night concluded with Liv and Jarrod singing That's the Time. Sandra Dee was sitting in the audience, waving her arms in solidarity. That adorable singer Michaelangela, whom everyone loves, had been watching and enjoying the whole night. This was the fun; to see some of Portland's best singers happy to participate in what was happening by just enjoying what was happening. Reinhardt had surrendered his drums to Tyrone and enjoyed watching from the audience. Guitarist Toshi Onizuka was having fun watching Liv and Tyrone with The SoulMates. Jazz pianoman Ramsey Embick was happy to join in by scratching that Guiro.

When the music was over, nobody moved. People stayed together as if, by remaining there, the feeling they enjoyed would continue. Two guys waited patiently as people gathered all around so they could buy The SoulMates' DVD. They wanted to carry the feeling home by any means possible.  They waited a very long time to be able to carry away a recording of what they had seen and heard from The SoulMates. They represented what everyone felt. It was worth waiting for it. To get away quickly would mean leaving that emotion behind. It was better to sit quietly and continue to soak in what was still in the room.

I'm sure they did take that feeling home. They got their DVD and it was autographed by all three SoulMates. Those guys left for home with big smiles.

We watched people slowly make their way to the door, carrying that peace and that joy with them. Goodbyes were slower this Monday night.





 

Robert Frost's poem The Road Not Taken is about what it means to make uncommon or even inconvenient choices. His concluding stanza was "I shall be telling this with a sigh/Somewhere ages and ages hence/Two roads diverged in a wood, and I/I took the road less traveled by,/And that has made all the difference." Taking that less traveled road was celebrated on this Monday night with The SoulMates at the Candlelight. Was it instinctive? Was it planned? Or was it just the day and what we celebrated on that day?

On this day, we were celebrating the great man, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King led us on an uncommon and turbulent path and it has undoubtedly and joyously "made all the difference." Different paths abounded at the Candlelight while The SoulMates played. In fact, it was a study in differences.  From standards to the band's own compositions, the playing and singing was on a different path. And everyone noticed it.

The first set opened with Bacchus and Fly Away and something was, again, different from the very start. For one thing, Reinhardt was just on fire! He was certainly doing an impressive impersonation of the Hindu deity Vishnu. You know, the one with the eight arms. During one solo, my wife and I could just stare with smiles on our faces as we watched speechlessly. During Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover, Reinhardt had changed up the rhythm and Jarrod with a grin yelled back over his shoulder to Reinhardt, "Play it right, man!"

Jarrod himself was in a different voice. There was a different intonation as he sang. Something deep was issuing from the depths of his soul. During one number, Jarrod hit this powerful note ... and ... just ... sustained ... it ... until I thought we would have to call for an oxygen tent! There was the same power as always. There was the same joy as always. But there was a difference on this night. The spirit of Dr. King simply had to have been in attendance, not the least being his presence in the hearts of this beloved communion.

No one showed the difference this night as much as Jay "Bird" Koder, however. It was in every song, every solo, every look into the eyes of the audience. During his guitar solo in Stay, Michael Magaurn leaned across the table and commented to me, "The way he played that lead... it is the best I have ever heard this song!" There was an augmented solo during Think I'm on the Right Track which was astounding. Even guitarist in attendance Matt Kilwein said aloud, "He played it all on that one!"

Maybe the difference of the night was because of the personal impact that was made on Bird's life by the work of Dr. King. "I was changed by The King's work," Bird began. "I was able to to study the blues with the blues masters because there was some love there!"

Then they were joined by that lovely man Reo. What a voice. What a sweet heart. He strolled through the audience with the most delicate but authoritative voice simply spreading  peace where he passed. He intoned "I feel good today. My heart is feeling good today. I'm doing good today. I'm doing good when I know you're doing good." I wanted him to go on forever. I just didn't want it to stop. He concluded by saying, "We keep Dr. King's dream alive when we come together in love." But it was his word of "I'm doing good when I know you're doing good" that really sticks with me. It is a self-sacrificing thing to say. It is a loving thing to say. It was something Dr. King would say.

The second set continued the love. There were light moments like when The SoulMates were performing Knocks Me Off My Feet and Rhonda, walking in front of the band to retrieve the empties, kicked her foot out in front of her making a semblance of falling. She got a cheer and an ovation for that.

The charming Michaelangela joined the band for Didn't You Know and That's the Time (I Feel Like Making Love) and she was wonderful! She is one of those delightful performers who recognizes the honor in performing with The SoulMates. She even declared as much to the audience at the conclusion of her second song. She is delightful.

Then The SoulMates were joined by Arietta (Etta) Ward. She is funny. She is prophetic. She is adorable. She joined the band for Steve Miller's classic Fly Like an Eagle. She sings the lyrics:

I want to fly like an eagle/To the sea
Fly like an eagle/Let my spirit carry me
I want to fly like an eagle/Till I'm free
Oh, Lord/Through the Revolution.

Feed the babies/Who don't have enough to eat
Shoe the children/With no shoes on their feet
House the people/Livin' in the street
Oh, oh, there's a solution

When Etta sings it, she sings it like she means it. I have called her "Prophetic" before and I still mean it. She calls out how things are and how they must be.

Dr. King's revolution of respect and harmony continues and always will. On this night, The SoulMates provided the soundtrack of that revolution. Want to enlist?

I had to write this tonight before the feeling slipped away during sleep. I will probably write a second blog about tonight later in the week but this can't wait.
 
So much had happened already on this Monday night at the Candlelight. So many people were in attendance. So much talent that joined with The SoulMates. One who deserves particular mention is Tyrone Hendricks, the drummer in Stevie Wonder's band. Tyrone had sat in for a couple of numbers with The SoulMates and was a pleasure to watch.
 
Reinhardt resumed his place at the drum kit and, following I Could Be the Man for You, the band leaped into Stevie Wonder's All Day Sucker. Here's where things went absolutely off  the charts!

Let me set it up. When we came into the Candlelight and took our table, there was a certain
melancholy in the realization that, after tonight, there would only be six more Monday nights
at the Candlelight before the doors are closed forever. But the mood had been lifted by the  soul of the band and the crafty work being turned in by Jay "Bird" Koder, Jarrod Lawson and
Reinhardt Melz. We had been treated to sweet soul and some moving blues. 
 
All Day Sucker is a favorite of the Candlelight audience anyway but tonight it just roared. And
so did the crowd.
 
The SoulMates' arrangement starts with a thrilling Afro-Cuban beat and Reinhardt is clearly
in command of this style. "Bird" laces his great riffs with splashes of Tequila and Jarrod is  simply forcing the keyboard to submit. It is an exhibition of virtuosity and unity.
 
As happens so often, those on the dance-floor just stop in their tracks and can only watch and
listen to what is happening. Everybody  is watching.
 
Here's the thing: Tyrone Hendricks is Stevie Wonder's drummer and The SoulMates are
performing a Stevie Wonder hit in front of him. And right beside Reinhardt's drum kit there stands Tyrone watching with his eyes growing wider and wider in awe but his grin of  appreciation and respect growing broader and broader at the same time.
 
There sat Jarrod at the keyboard, just owning it. His vocals were electric and singers among the audience were stunned. "Bird" was wielding his axe like Gimli gone berserk. His solos  repeatedly set the place on fire. 

You just didn't know who to watch! It was impossible to take it all in at once but neither could you focus on only one member. You had to simply watch it like a tennis match; see who was smashing it at this second. I think I hurt my neck.
 
This song just took on a life of its own. The audience didn't just applaud the solos, they  cheered them! It was one of those times that you just don't want the music to ever end. Nobody was outshining anyone else and, when the song finished, they were each pointing to each other and calling for applause for the others. "Bird" shouted to those close to Reinhardt, "Stop that man before he kills again!" Reinhardt pointed to Jarrod and Jarrod pointed to "Bird" saying "Jay Bird Koder, ya'll! Give it up!" And Jay "Bird" responding with "Jarrod Lawson! Everything he touches turns to soul!" And the great Tyrone Hendricks was bowing to Reinhardt with members of the audience fanning napkins toward their SoulMates to cool them down. I'm surprised the Fire Department didn't show up.

That was just one song in the first set...

By now I am certain that it has become very clear how much I love watching The SoulMates at the Candlelight Cafe. The Mayans may have predicted a major change in the world for December of 2012, but my world will undergo a cataclysmic shift when the Candlelight closes on February 26, 2012. Different venues have different atmospheres which create different dynamics with any band and its audience.

The SoulMates have  played other rooms in recent months. They have been to Jimmy Mak's twice (with a third appearance due on March 3, 2012) and have been to Vie de Boheme a few times, as well. They are loved wherever they go, despite the differences mentioned above.

Last night, they were at Arrivederci's, a lovely Italian restaurant and wine bar.  It was clear that things were going to be different from the very beginning when Jay "Bird" pulled out his guitar. It was not the ubiquitous Gibson electric but, instead, a beautiful Yamaha acoustic. This was a gift from Yamaha when "Bird" and Reinhardt were playing the Tokyo Cotton Club back in September of last year. Beautiful crafting with beautiful sound and this was the source of the first sounds we heard last night. Then Jarrod joins in with the Fender Rhodes sounds coming from his Yamaha keyboard. [Reinhardt was still on his Gretsch drums... not Yamaha.
Sorry.]
 
The first three numbers were all instrumentals with "Bird" leading the way on that gorgeous guitar. During the "Bird" solo in the second song, Reinhardt broke into a smile as he watched and heard those flying fingers working that guitar. During a later Herbie Hancock tune, Reinhardt and Jarrod exchanged smiles at what was going on which mirrored what everyone in the place was feeling. Dirk Nowitzki, Forward for the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, was in attendance and was grinning ear-to-ear throughout the performance, like everyone else. Jarrod Lawson's mother, his aunt and his wife were in attendance and, of course, loving every minute of it.
 
During the playing of  Bill Withers' Just the Two of Us, "Bird" strolled by one woman during his solo and, so help me, she fell back against her chair and her eyes literally rolled back into her head! People were dancing where there was no dance floor and one table, who had come for the food, stayed glued to their chairs throughout both sets because of the music.
 
Now, Gershwin's Summertime can just about make anybody faint but, when it is Jarrod singing it, there is no resistance. Even the chattiest audience members were silenced at hearing this. And it only got better...
 
Because the very next  number was to bring something so heart-warming, so personal that I almost chose not to write about it. However, it encapsulates in a moment what I have been trying to describe for months. It started with a John Lennon composition, so it begins on solid ground. Jarrod's mother and wife are both in the audience, remember.

Jay "Bird" calls for the song and Jarrod begins to wonder how he is going to sing this song to these two terrific women in his life. The music takes off beautifully and the song is immediately recognized but it is not the way Lennon did it... not at all. As I  have said so often, The SoulMates turn everything into soul.
 
"Woman I can hardly express
My mixed emotions at my thoughtlessness
After all I'm forever in your debt
And woman I will try to express
My inner feelings and thankfulness
For showing me the meaning of success" 

Jarrod later said that he was singing to both these supremely important in his life and maybe he had his mother in mind as he sang the above stanza. But in the second, he was looking at his adorable wife and sang:

"Woman I know you understand
The little child inside of the man
Please remember my life is in your hands
And woman hold me close to your heart
However distant don't keep us apart
After all it is written in the stars"

And Jarrod begins to tear up and his voice breaks as he tries to continue. "Bird" and Reinhardt cover for him until he can resume but, by this time, it is done. He's crying, his wife is crying, my wife is crying, the angels are crying, everybody is crying!
 
When the song wraps, Jarrod's wife jumps up and comes to Jarrod (who sees her and leaves  the keyboard to meet her) and they kiss right there. A collective "Awww..." goes up from the
audience, even from the drunks. And there we were, each and every one totally caught up  in
the emotions. 

I have heard sappy and sentimental songs and I have seen performers manipulate audiences
with them. But that doesn't happen with The SoulMates. They perform for joy and you feel it. They perform with energy and you feel it. When they perform with love and for love, you can't
miss it. You definitely feel that, too.
 
Indeed, the evening was filled with energy and joy. There was dancing. There was laughter. But that moment of two sweet people expressing their love, unashamed, in front
of a crowd is the moment that stays with me. Always.


 

Energy! Kris Magaurn commented on it early in the first set. "They usually open up slow and build, but tonight..." And she was right about that. From the opening bluesy-soul number right to Europa and then to Valdez in the Country, The SoulMates jumped right into the deep end and took all of us with them.

The air was full of fun anyway with the long-awaited return of Michael and Theresa G. and they were greeted with an energetic musical triumph from The SoulMates. In the rendering of Valdez in the Country alone, Reinhardt turned in no less than two separate drum solos complete with his signature shoulder turns and full body leans. In the second of those solos, Reinhardt was as energetic as Pippin Took on crack. Energy.

Now that energy has always been present in every performance of The SoulMates, but often it is a give-and-take of energy between the band and the audience. It wasn't that way tonight. The crackling power in the Candlelight on this Monday night was provided strictly by The SoulMates themselves. Maybe it was holiday exhaustion, maybe it was the prospect of the imminent return to work for most of the audience, but--whatever it was--The SoulMates appeared to sense the thirst of their audience and they responded generously. Jay "Bird" lead the way. In the very next number, "Bird" tore into a "Quasimodo among the bells" type guitar solo. As he strolled through the audience, he grabbed up Michael Magaurn's empty Corona bottle for slide purposes which elicited hoots and cheers from everyone. Energy. And we soaked it up.

Jarrod turned on the soul for One Mo'Gin and kept the audience pinned to their seats. This in itself is amazing since, by this time of night each Monday, the dancefloor would usually be full of people dancing. Not tonight. The hard pulse of the music tonight kept the floor clean and the audience riveted to their seats for the whole night. Energy.

After One Mo'Gin, Jarrod harnessed the electricity of the night to strengthen the smoothness of his soulful delivery of Juniper Tree and Everything I Need (both his own compositions). This was followed with the Jay "Bird" Koder composition I Could Be the Man for You.

That was as long as the energy could be restrained. The last three songs started with Fly Like an Eagle and ultimately concluded with Áll Day Sucker; concluding the very way that they had started the night four hours before. Full of energy.

Good Lord! What could keep Jay "Bird", Jarrod and Reinhardt going so strong for so long? Energy--an energy that comes from the heart because it is inside all three of them as individuals. It is also an energy that comes from the three of them being together, it comes from being SoulMates.

It is a life lesson. Sometimes your surroundings do not provide the strength you need and, when that happens, you find the strength from within and from those who share the same vision... then generate it for others. When we can do that for each other, our souls grow larger.

At the Candlelight on Monday night, the souls of "Bird", Jarrod and Reinhardt must have grown large indeed. What The SoulMates promised us for the New Year was that when we are down and troubled, we've got friends.