Soul Serenade

Join host Pete Kirchoff every Friday night at 8:00pm CT/9pm ET for classic R&B recordings from the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s. Every week Pete takes you on a soul music journey from Memphis and Muscle Shoals to New York, Chicago and Philadelphia, with records by the greats, the one-hit wonders and newer recordings by real soul survivors. You’ll also hear special programs devoted to Carolina Beach Music, Northern Soul, classic soul duets, and original, rarely-heard versions of records that are more familiar to listeners through later cover versions.

Pete Kirchoff also brings you two hours of classic jazz recordings every Saturday night at 7pm C.T./8pm E.T. on Jazz Avenue.

A conversation with Pete Kirchoff, host of Soul Serenade
By Clayton Miller 

Clayton: You were exposed to jazz growing up and listened to rock n’ roll and soul music as a young person. How would you characterize the music we know as “soul”?

Pete: Historically, it appears to have developed around 1954 as a blend of r&b and gospel music. Many of earliest records that we would now characterize as soul were gospel melodies with secular lyrics added, something Ray Charles did on many of his early Atlantic recordings, or pop tunes sung by former gospel stars like Sam Cooke. Their influence on everybody from Johnny Taylor to Bobby Womack was huge, and not just on soul singers. It also extended to people like Van Morrison and Rod Stewart.

Clayton:  What do you find most compelling about the music?

Pete: Aside from the rhythmic foundation or “groove” that makes it hard to resist moving, I’ve always enjoyed listening to great singers. Most classic soul recordings center on the vocalist, and his or her ability to put a song across. Obviously, jazz singers have to do that too but they tend to hold things more in check. You don’t hear anybody screaming or “testifyin’” like James Brown or Wilson Pickett on a jazz vocal record. Its funny, I once played an Aretha Franklin cut during a jazz show and immediately got a phone call from a listener who complained that as talented Aretha is, she is simply not a jazz singer. I’ve never seen it quite in such absolute terms. Billie Holiday was a terrific blues singer, as was Dinah Washington. And someone Natalie Cole can sing r&b and jazz with equal skill. But put a great rhythm section like Motown’s Funk Brothers or Booker T. and the MG’s from Stax Records behind a great soul singer? That’s pretty tough to beat.

Clayton: Would you share any of the history of soul music as you know it (especially the beginnings)?

Pete: The best book on the subject I’ve ever read is “Sweet Soul Music” by Peter Guralnick. I bought a copy more than twenty-five years ago and still refer to it often. Guralnick charts the origins of soul music and how it developed along with the civil rights movement during the 1960’s. One of the joys of hosting Soul Serenade is being able to play a classic cut by Sam & Dave and having much more insight now about how the record came about. If you listen closely to “Soul Man”, for example, you can hear Sam Moore at one point yell “Play it, Steve.” He’s referring to Stax guitarist and songwriter Steve Cropper. That’s something that went right over my head when I heard the song on the radio back in 1967.
 

Clayton: You also host and produce the weekly Jazz Avenue. What, if any, relationship exists between the two genres? 

Pete: Aside from singers like Lou Rawls and Ray Charles, who that could sing jazz and soul equally well, many of the musicians who played on classic Atlantic and Motown records were primarily jazz musicians. The Funk Brothers, as just one example, would spend all day at recording sessions laying down the music tracks for acts like the Supremes, Temptations, Marvin Gaye, etc. and then go out at night to play at one of Detroit’s jazz clubs. Obviously, any musician who had mastered jazz would have found r&b charts to be a piece of cake. That’s why Ray Charles hired jazz players like David “Fathead” Newman and Hank Crawford for his bands. There was also genre of jazz known as “Soul Jazz” that became quite popular in the 1950’s and 60’s, with people like Horace Silver, Cannonball Adderly and Bobby Timmons contributing classic gospel or soul-based compositions and recordings.

Clayton: What is it that, in your opinion, keeps this music in our culture?

Pete: Author Peter Guralnick argued that while a market still exists for soul music, any true revival is virtually impossible; that once a form of music loses its cultural force, its relevancy is pretty much over. While that is true to some extent, there are also pockets of enthusiastic fans who believe that soul is still very much alive. Carolina Beach Music, for example, draws its inspiration from vintage r&b and soul. Britain’s Northern Soul music scene, and related reissue labels like Kent, is another place that prizes classic soul, the more obscure the better. Every generation has their own musical soundtrack, whether its big bands, blues, country, or soul. Considering how popular a label like Motown was in its heyday, there will always be fans, now middle-aged, who will hear something by the Temptations or Smokey Robinson and find it to be still relevant to their lives.

Clayton: What keeps you coming back to soul yourself?

Pete: The main part for me is a love of soul music. But I also enjoy digging for stories behind the records that I’ve listened to for some forty-plus years. It’s fascinating to devote a show to someone like Van McCoy; not the one-hit wonder we remember from “The Hustle” fame, but the songwriter and producer also responsible for hits by Barbara Lewis, Jackie Wilson, David Ruffin and Irma Thomas. If I can pass along pieces of historical information that make the records even more enjoyable, I feel good.
 

Clayton: Listeners frequently wonder “Where do you find the recordings, especially the hard-to-find and rarely heard versions of some of the music you play?”

Pete: Fifteen years ago I interviewed Jerry Wexler, who produced so many classic records while he was Vice-President of Atlantic Records. When the interview was over, he started pulling down CDs by Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin and Solomon Burke from a shelf in his office and just gave them to me after I casually mentioned an interest in starting a soul music program. And these were boxed sets. He kept asking, “Do you have this? How about that one?” I was pretty blown away by his generosity. It’s still a thrill to play a cut from a Wilson Pickett CD knowing that it was given to me by the man who produced it. I also periodically order CD compilations on the internet and songs from i-tunes. Both are great resources for vintage soul recordings. And I can’t forget long-time soul buddies like my man in the Motor City, Dan Harris, or Don Maiori on Long Island. They’ve both turned me on to soul records I never would have found otherwise. It’s a never-ending search!