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Soulful band colours jazz with folk, rock and r n b
The Colour of Soul delivers blistering live performances
by Geoff Chapman (The Toronto Star)
– January 25, 2001
The Colour of Soul band has been around eight years, the current line-up - a fixture for almost half that time – getting recognition nowadays for its blistering live performances.
Says linchpin Lester McLean, who plays three different saxes but lately has concentrated on alto: “We started as jazz quintet but everyone brings something different to the band with tunes and their ways of improvisation. What we play is a jazz-influenced blend of funk, rock, and r ‘n’ b – music for the soul and the feet.”
The band lineup includes McLean’s brother Mark, a well regarded young drummer who divides his time between New York and Toronto, guitarist Mark Patterson, who you can experience on Mike Bullard’s TV show, Andrew Craig on keyboards and electric bass player JK.
They’re heard a lot around T.O. – this Saturday night they’ll animate The Rex – and recently played with notorious fiddler Ashley MacIssac in Ottawa, London and at the Horseshoe. It was “very interesting musically,” offers McLean diplomatically, given the fiddler’s much publicized problems.
“Our music’s always fresh. We’re good and there’s no one quite like us,” says Lester McLean.
“Everybody writes for this band so it’s a collaborative effort. We reflect the music we like. For me that’s Chick Corea, Maceo Parker, Van Halen. Mark is out of the jazz school. Andrew comes from a classical and jazz background, Mark Patterson is a rocker who’s really into Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan and JK comes from the drum ‘n’ bass side.”
The band has put out two indie CDs that will give listeners a clear message about their approach. Live @ 525, a heavily funky affair recorded at a local club, is all enthusiasm and energy with fierce sax that belongs in a Jazz At The Philharmonic archive. With just five tunes occupying 70 minutes, all the prescribed band fundamentals are here, along with reggae, soul and lots of fun.
Sexatronic has 12 heated tunes by bandsmen plus banter, work-in-progress grooves and interview stuff broadcast on CIUT. The title tune, “Mank’s Groove” and “And He Said” have real zip and the band signature tune – “COS Theme” – is wailed with added rap.
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