In the 90s, brothers Alan and Neal Evans had been the rhythm section for the Northeastern
jam band Moon Boot Lover with front man Peter Prince. After a brief foray into rap with
Edreys aka
Billy Drease Williams under the name The Elements, the brothers looked to form a traditional jazz organ trio. On March 2, 1999, Alan and Neal invited guitarist Eric Krasno (a friend they knew from high school days) to record some tracks with them in their home studio in
Woodstock, New York. That
jam session became their first album,
Get Down! and the band shortly thereafter hit the road to begin touring. It was during that first summer together that the band recorded their first LP,
Turn It Out, for
Velour Recordings.
Turn It Out featured various guest musicians, including
John Scofield,
Oteil Burbridge, and Sam Kininger. The independently produced album went on to sell 65,000 copies, enabling Soulive to gain recognition in the jazz/funk scene. In the next three years, Soulive embarked on five national tours. The band opened for
The Rolling Stones,
Dave Matthews Band,
The Roots,
Common,
John Mayer, and others. The band also continued to play at various festivals, including the
Monterey Jazz Festival and
Bonnaroo. Overseas, Soulive played shows in Japan and all over Europe. In the fall of 2000, Soulive signed a record deal with
Blue Note Records. The following spring, Soulive released its first Blue Note album, ''
Doin' Something'', which featured horn arrangements by
Fred Wesley, the trombonist from
James Brown's band. On September 13, 2005, Soulive released its first album with Concord Records,
Break Out. On this release the band eschewed extended jams for beat-driven instrumentals and collaborations with
Chaka Khan (featured on "Back Again"),
Ivan Neville (featured on "Got Soul" and "Take It Easy"), However, after the tour, the band decided to become a trio yet again. In a post to the Soulive messageboard, Alan Evans explained: "we just want to have fun. no more chasing the pop thing or whatever that is. We just want to go out and rage, no setlists, no huge venues, no tour buses. Just have fun. This is not to say we didn't have fun with tours, we did but we realized that in looking at our past... We have had the most success and most fun when it was just the trio." In 2008, Soulive performed at the Newport Jazz Festival. Soulive released a new album,
Up Here, on April 14, 2009. The album marked somewhat of a return to form for the group, as many of the songs are solely instrumentals. For this album, they were joined once again by Ryan Zoidis on tenor sax, Sam Kininger on alto sax - who are now under the alias/moniker "The Shady Horns" - as well as appearances by Rashawn Ross on trumpet. Nigel Hall also guests on the track "Too Much". On July 28, 2009, Soulive played the pre-game festivities for the
2009 MLS All-Star Game at
The Canyons in
Park City, Utah. In 2010 the band released an album of Beatles covers entitled
Rubber Soulive. Neal Evans said in an interview, "We had a ton of different concept albums that we wanted to do over the years, including a ‘British Invasion’ album....When it came time to make a record we decided to follow through with the Beatles concept." In 2019, Krasno moved to the West Coast, in part, to build a home studio and dig deeper into his producer work. Soulive currently are focusing on city-specific runs and residencies. In 2020, he launched the Plus One podcast. ==Bowlive==