Memphis musician Scott Bomar must have lived in a John Landis movie, just check out this: in 1998, he was asked to form a backing band for Stax Records artist, songwriter Sir Mack Rice, a guy whose compositions have been performed by the who’s who of the Rhythm’ n Blues and Soul music world: The Staple Singers, Ike and Tina Turner, Albert King, Johnnie Taylor, Shirley Brown, Rufus Thomas, Etta James, Billy Eckstine, Eddie Floyd, Buddy Guy, The Rascals, Wilson Pickett, Albert Collins, Busta Rhymes, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Otis Clay and… The Blues Brothers (2000).
Yeah, I was expecting to see John Belushi jump from behind the curtain of the Amoeba stage at any moment during the performance of the Bo-Keys. The Memphis band was actually very crowded on the small stage, they were eight and later joined by a vocalist, with a full and terrific horn section kicking several times during each song.
The band consisted of many veteran session players from the soul golden age, and a few younger players, which were all presented during a song, one by one, R&B style without stopping the music. And they all had many connections with some legendary pieces of the R&B history, like for example trumpeter Ben Cauley, who was the only survivor of the fatal plane crash which killed Otis Redding.
Blues guitarist Charles ‘Skip’ Pitts was sitting during the whole set on his high tool, obviously evoking B.B. King, speaking occasionally with his laryngitis-damaged-like voice over the music, and totally enjoying his time. He particularly shined during the final with his wah-wah guitar, a departure from the rest of the show, as they played the famous Isaac Hayes’s ‘Shaft’. You may think, it was way too easy and a little exploitative? Not even close! Pitts was actually the one who created this famous intro, hired by Hayes to perform on the theatrical release, and member of his band in the 70s.
The Kings of Memphis’ new album, ’Got To Get Back’, was released this year and they were just fresh from their performance with Cindy Lauper at the Nokia club on Friday night and from their show at the Echo the following day.
Their old-school R&B-Soul revival was only complete when singer Percy Wiggins (who apparently knew Jimi Hendrix and worked with Otis Redding and others) came on stage. Then their smooth-cool R&B injected of trumpets and saxophone moved into real Sam and Dave, Otis Redding territory. It was classic and classy, the real thing.