It’s only when Charles Wright and his Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band did ‘Express Yourself’ that I had the epiphany, of course I know this! I am not talking about the Madonna song, but about an older one that has been used in many soundtracks and commercials (a few years ago in a coffee mate one) and also sampled to death… it was even used by the Los Angeles Lakers, the Democratic National Convention, and the 2004 Olympic Games Celebration!! Plus, this other song ‘Do Your Thing’ was in ‘Boogie Nights’,… so of course I knew this Charles Wright guy!
Charles Wright wrote this song ‘Express Yourself’ in 1970, and he sang it one more time to cloture his set of funk-soul-R&B songs at Amoeba on Sunday night. He and his band took the stage a little after 5 pm and honestly they looked quite superb in their grey and pink pastel suits, they were right away giving the tone, they were old school, and people who belong to this school used to dress up to perform, if you see what I mean.
He was there to promote his new and (28th) album entitled ‘Let’s Make Love Tonight’, so you can tell that the man is still very playful and full of life (and love) at 73! He was actually all-smile all the time, jubilating, undulating, moving his arms in all directions, even jumping on stage and from the stage! The music was upbeat just like the body language, and if everything seemed to tell everybody to enjoy life, or at least its best moments, one song was bringing funk while the next one was more R&B or some jazz arrangements, but funk seemed to be the common element here. And when you think that most of these songs were close to 50 year old it makes you think these guys were trend-setting, as a matter of fact, they were the first R&B band signed by Warner Brothers.
Although he has never been even close to be as famous as any of them, live, Wright was bringing a tiny bit of Otis Redding, James Brown or even Ray Charles, especially when he played the keyboard for a song. The rhythm, more than the music itself, was prevailing all the time, and although Wright’s vocals, sounded a bit weak and strained, the delivery was expressive and very much alive.
And this song ‘Express yourself’ was so good that, even after been used and abused so much, the beat still sounded quite infectious to me, a very rare thing considering how many times I may have heard the song. The song was even sampled by gangster rap band N.W.A., whose member, rapper Eazy-E is said to be Charles’ son or nephew according to many websites, whereas others say they are not related,… weird! But at Amoeba, the music was a classic blend of soul and funk and the only ‘weird’ thing was to see these five guys impeccably dressed in the middle of a heat wave.
