The music of the SoulMates at the Candlelight never gets boring. There are never simple repetitions of previous performances. Like it says in that line from Lamentations, "they are new every morning." Of course, that line is referring to the "steadfast love of the Lord" and I am talking about the steadfast love of the SoulMates; not love for them but love from them. It is contagious and it is permeating. It spreads wide and it goes deep. And it absorbs...

The spirit, the heart...well, the soul... of the SoulMates has created a community centered around a profound respect and affection between the band themselves and their audience at the Candlelight. That sense of community is spontaneous and widespread. The very fact that one is in attendance creates an opening for friendship and mutual respect. 

There are people who are visible and memorable and immediately open. Peter and Traci are visible on the dance-floor and their smiles and bubbly good cheer make for quick rapport. Michael and Theresa are cool and welcoming to everyone present. You see them and you are drawn to them both immediately. Michael and Kris are like nobility with their poise and graciousness. You almost want to kiss his ring and she still looks like the Woodstock girl she was in 1969.

But then there are some who are quiet and calm despite the inherent connection of simply being in the audience together. When you finally connect, even in a small way, it is rewarding and heart-warming. It is like the still, small voice.

I mention this because just such a thing occurred on this Monday's gathering of soulmates and SoulMates.

The evening had started with the traditional warm-up of three instrumentals. There was some really sweet bluesy riffs going on in the second song, a SoulMates original composition with no name yet, so I will call it Blues for Bobby. Our favorite bar-hop was out sick even though "Bird" suggested that he was recovering from a sex-change operation. Reinhardt chimed in with "He'll make a pretty girl!" If you don't know Bobby (now Bobbie) at the bar, he's the guy in the photo to the left with Rhonda. He has a sense of humor like a sledgehammer and a voice like Rod Stewart gargling with gravel. And a heart of gold...

Now it was during the third and last of the instrumentals that someone said to bassist Jim Satterfield that it might be cool to have a bass player with the SoulMates. Satterfield's response was clear. "When you've got a drummer like Reinhardt and Jarrod with the kicking bass and a guitarist like Jay "Bird"... a bass just gets in the way." Now when a bassist says that...

That point was well-taken and proven correct with the SoulMates' roll over Sly and the Family Stone's If You Want Me to Stay. Between Jarrod's kicking bass and "Bird's" bass playing on his lead, the room just thumps under your feet.

This was a rare night wherein nobody joined the SoulMates to perform. While there were musicians and singers in the house, no one sat in... and that was just fine. It started as a trio and finished as a trio. It was a night to remember the strength of that trio. And remember we did...

It was pure SoulMates with nothing to add or subtract from their music. It was their very own  "soulification" of Gershwin, Paul Simon, and Steve Miller with nothing to distract. All that plus the original tunes like Man 4 U and Juniper Dreams done by the trio makes Mondays lovely no matter what the Boomtown Rats might say.

It's the kind of atmosphere that brings the regulars just a bit closer as everyone moves in tighter and the soulmate feeling thickens the air. I'm talking about mutual respect and openness.

Tim is a guy who minds his own business. He is a gentleman and he just wants to play pool and listen to the great music, mostly simultaneously, but sometimes pool is suspended for him to hear his favorite songs. When the SoulMates play All Day Sucker he appears from almost nowhere and pulls a chair up close to the front, drink in hand, and nods to whomever is sitting at the table nearby. It provided a warm sense for my wife and me looking up and seeing Tim look across at us and smile Tim's own smile. A slight raise of his glass to us and it brings to mind lyrics from the Bill Withers song: "Just one one look at you/  And I know it's gonna be/ A Lovely Day."

I know that I write a lot about this but it only goes to show just how inspiring and unifying music can be. It can create relationship where none existed before. It opens one to the possibilities of community and mutual respect and concern.  Yes, perhaps I have become sentimental about it all. But isn't it an extraordinary thing to be pulled from one's own space and enveloped in the friendship of strangers? Isn't it beyond understanding to find oneself in a community of people who have very little in common except for the love of music and to begin to think of this community as friends, sometimes more like family?

When we don't see John Paul for several weeks we worry about him. When Rhonda is absent, everyone asks about her. We miss people who we only see on Monday nights and, when they are not with us, Monday nights are not quite the same.

I am fascinated and amazed by the connection that people can share. I amazed but not surprised that it the collective soul of a trio of musicans that has done such a thing. Especially when it is "Bird", Jarrod and Reinhardt, the soul is deeper than just the musical genre, it is the life that is breathed out and shared.

It is what makes Tim look across the room, smile and raise a glass in salute.

All right, if you don't know who Rick Wakeman is then a little explanation is in order. Rick Wakeman began his career while still continuing his music education at the Royal College of Music. He began by doing session work for Cat Stevens and David Bowie. He left the Royal College to follow rock music which was strictly forbidden at the school. After a stint with an English folk band called The Strawbs, Wakeman joined Yes, pioneers in the emerging "progressive rock" scene. He became known for his flashy capes and stacked keyboards. While other keyboardists had used electronic sounds before, Wakeman added a wizardry to the keyboard flash that had not been seen before...or since. So Wakeman was known for stunning showmanship and  amazing virtuosity; flashy fingers were his hallmark. I have always been a huge Wakeman fan and the more flash, the better I like it.

Okay, so now you will get the reference.

Unusual for a Monday night, the SoulMates opened with a vocal number! A nice intro to what was going to turn into some funky stuff. This was followed by an instrumental that gave occassion for drummer Reinhardt Melz to erupt into a wild streetfight solo that he cooled off as quickly as he lit it up. After a few minutes, of course.

We had some blues dropped on us next or, as "Bird" says, "Here's some blues for ya'll." Then a tasty treat of "conjuring up the ghost of Professor Longhair" with Down by the Riverside. This is where it all turned so funky. I mean, the stank is still hangin' after 3-4 days!

And after some more funky soul, the SoulMates unleashed Cruisin' which is a nice, easy, soulful stroll, right? You remember Tina Turner's spoken introduction to Proud Mary? "Right now, I think you'd like to hear something from us nice...and easy... and we'd like to do that for ya. But, you see, we never, ever do nothing...nice...and easy... We always do it nice...and rough... We're gonna take the beginning of this song...and we're gonna do it...easy... But then we're gonna do the finish...rough."

Just in case you don't know what I'm talking about here is a Youtube link to watch the Ike & Tina Turner performance.

All of that is my introduction to what happened on this nice..and easy... song. I wish we had a Youtube video for you to see what "Bird", Jarrod and Reinhardt did that started  nice...and easy... but then it turned nice... and rough. It was a cross between the landing of P-Funk's Mothership and the second coming of James Brown. But I'm going to let you hang on that for a while...

During the Jay "Bird" Koder composition Man for You, Jonah and Monica were on the phone with Alonda from Kansas City who had been there a couple of weeks before and had immensely enjoyed the SoulMates. She wanted to still hear them, so she called when she knew that Jonah and Monica would be at the Candlelight and she specifically requested that song. How cool is that! Sending out a requested song to Kansas City from Portland.

For the record, I have been mistakenly referring to this song as I Could Be the Man for You. The "Bird" looked me right in the eye and said, "The song is called Man for You! Not I Could Be the Man for You."

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa!

The comings and goings of the night were a buffet of talent and cool. Reo sang us into a soul swing and was accompanied by Ricky Vernato of Andy Stokes' band. That band performs at the Candlelight on Sunday nights. But what a sweet combination to see Reo, Ricky and the SoulMates sharing music with us.

Reo strolls into the audience, singing to the ladies and making their eyes roll back into their heads. One smooth man. He narrates between the lyrics about making up a pot of grits and giving one woman a foot-rub. Barry White never had such words!Ricky Vernato stayed on to perform Betcha-by-golly-wow, a great hit by The Stylistics. So nice.

Arietta had been sitting in the back for most of the night, just groovin' to what was being laid on the table with Can't Hide Love. But then she gets the altar call from Jarrod and she joins the SoulMates for If You want Me to Stay. The Sly Stone funk was looking more like George Clinton through it all.

But as far as cool goes, the coolest moment of the night was when Andrew Clay joined the SoulMates for that sweet song Masquerade. Now this was written and performed by Leon Russell back in the day. It has been covered by greats like Al Jarreau, George Benson, and even the Carpenters.

But I have to tell you, I have never enjoyed any version of this song more than what I heard from Andrew Clay on Monday night at the Candlelight. This coming from a big Al Jarreau fan!

He was singing of the longing grief in this song:
Thoughts of leaving disappear/Every time I see your eyes
No matter how hard I try
To understand the reasons/Why we carry on this way
We're lost in a masquerade

He pulls us into the longing and loneliness of the song and then, while the music still plays...

He puts down the microphone and just walks away! He leaves us. It was cool but it was gut-wrenching. My wife said to me, "Wow! That was so cool!" Yeah, but I wanted to yell, "Hey! Get you #&%* back over here! Don't you leave us!" But that is precisely what drove that song home to me. It wasn't music alone. Man, it was theatre!

Fortunately, the SoulMates brought back that funk with All Day Sucker. If they hadn't, I might have cried right there! It was that spacefunk that had begun way back earlier in the evening with Down By the Riverside and Fly Like an Eagle. But let me say again, it was thatsong Cruisin', the one that is supposed to be so smooth but the one that lit it up for the whole night.

Reinhardt simply beat the livnig daylights out of his trap set with all kinds of Dumpstaphunk rhythms and flash. Jarrod was wringing every bit of emotion out of the song with unbelievably sustained notes. His keyboard work was so right on it! The "Bird" just tore his Gibson to shreds with what he was doing to it. Talk about flash! There was plenty of it and I was digging it plenty.

So, in the middle of all this wizardry; in the middle of all this flash from all three of our SoulMates, "Bird" looks me right in the eye and says...

"Rick Wakeman, take THIS!"

Now, I'm not overstating this nor am I just a Koder fan-boy. But there is one guy... and one guy only... who could say that to me and me not laugh at him. It was the man holding the Gibson.

30 January 2012: Normally, if someone describes music as "smooth", with the exception of the Santana song, I want to run and hide... or at least plug my ears. Of course, I am completely unfair in this, but it always conjures up Kenny G, Celine Dion or David Lanz.  Monday night at the Candlelight, though, smooth was on the menu and we all ordered seconds... and thirds...

It started with the first song and then there were send-outs to friends like Michael G and Matt Kilwein. During Valdez in the Country, a Donny Hathaway composition, drummer Reinhardt Melz nosed into this really smooth groove and kept it there the whole night. When things turned funky, it was still smooth. When it was soulful, still smooth. When it was a hard Latin bust-up, it was smooth.

Then Jay "Bird" Koder says into the mic "We're gonna take you down to New Orleans" and they slide into the SoulMates' original French Quarter.

Good God, ya'll. I haven't seen them do anything like this. It was like smooth corruption. It was a good boy turning bad. One guy said it was "like dancin' with an old, toothless voodoo woman." It was nasty but you didn't want it to stop. Oh yeah, it was some sweet, sexy soul.

If you're in the French Quarter during Mardi Gras, you're going to find yourself in situations you never imagined. It was Mardi Gras at the Candlelight!

We got taken to church, too. During Fifty Ways Jarrod Lawson and "Bird" got into this call and response scat kind of groove. It was the preacher and the choir. Jarrod's Juniper Tree kept us in the pews, too. So help me, I heard somebody up in the house say "Amen" when it was over.

Through it all, brother Reinhardt keeps that groove intact and it is sweet.

But then comes J-Law's Everything I Need.
In the song, Jarrod intones these lines:
"You know, humankind, we seem to be
Marked by the proclivity
To covet things material
And disregard the spiritual."

The song is about taking comfort and joy from the presence of those we love. Material things are temporary and are easily lost. The things of the spirit are everlasting and cannot be lost. 

It almost needed an altar-call when it was over. And  after the sinfulness of French Quarter, we all needed an altar-call. At least,  I did.

Through it all, Reinhardt keeps this cool groove going that threads its way through every song and gives a kind of coherence that allows "Bird" and Jarrod to jump off when the spirit or whatever moves them.

I suppose I keep returning to this religious imagery because of a lovely couple in attendance that my wife and I got to know a bit and join in conversation with them.

She was in Religious Studies through undergrad and  grad school and we got to share stories about professors that we both admired and enjoyed. So I suppose it inevitable that church-talk should infuse what was happening around us as we all enjoyed what was happening among all the soul mates in attendance. We had liked this couple the minute we saw them weeks ago. Soulmates don't have to be lovers; they can simply be people with whom you share a soul-connection. We have met many such people at The Candlelight.

So, anyway, the first set concluded with a Reinhardt-dominated version of All Day Sucker. It was that hot Latin groove that he was working over. It was inconcebible y peligroso.  A fine way to end the first set.

The second set finished the mood that had been rolled out in the first set. Jarrod's warm vocals on When Will You Call was a comfort to all. It was a night to relax and simply be at peace. It was a night of calm serenity. We needed it to be.

This is the amazing sense that The SoulMates have; to know what is needed before it is needed is an instinct or a gift that cannot be explained. But it happens regularly with "Bird", Jarrod and Reinhardt. Monday night, there was a need for peace and smoothness. At least, I needed the calm.

It was a calm before a heart-breaking storm because, only 28 hours later, we would hear that Don Cornelius was gone from us forever.