Got Soul? How 'bout a Pocketful?

By: James Thomas, February 9, 2012

It’s almost impossible to define being part of a band to an outsider.

You open yourself to a special shade of human vulnerability, producing music rooted in collective improvisation. Tunes open up and take flights of fancy.

When it works, it’s pretty much the funnest thing you can do with your clothes on. It doesn’t always work.

That’s life on the bandstand. It’s late. People drink too much… sometimes you drink too much. The plain truth is that you’re not always getting to the gig after your best day ever.

One way or another, the band goes on at 10.

Night in and night out, the common denominator is the music and the people you make it with. In the course of music making, you gradually achieve emphatic, creative relationships with your band mates, even if you don’t know them that well off the bandstand. You know them by their music.

Third horn in the wheelhouse

I’ve been in Pocketful of Soul for five years now. Both the music and the men have settled into such a regular part of my routine that it’s only during our brief hiatus these past six weeks that I’ve realized how glaring their absence has been.

I took an unlikely road into the band through the pit orchestra of a corny musical, of all places. It was intermission on the last Saturday of the run when the trumpet player told me that he was headed out to an R&B gig afterwards.

“The band is looking to add a third horn,” he said. “Why don’t you come down and fake your way through the set and we’ll see if maybe it’s a good fit."

As it turns out, it was a good fit. The set that night—and many nights thereafter—was right in my wheelhouse: Stevie Wonder, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Tower of Power, Earth Wind and Fire, Chicago, Steely Dan, The Doobie Brothers… the good stuff.

Inside the music

At the heart of a driving rhythm section is jazz drummer Jeff Dodge, both nimble and strong. Lloyd Jordan is an accomplished bassist who also contributes succulent high harmonies.

If you haven’t heard Joe Caledonia play lead guitar than you’ve been missing out: the man is a beast. The “soul” in Pocketful of Soul is Gary Voller leading from the organ, which he can make both sing and scream.

Honoring the old ways, we name the horn section separately. On trumpet is Tyler Newcomb, a household name in horn section circles from his days with one the Cape’s all-time legendary acts, The Gringos. David Birkin, an insanely hip tenor sax man who has played horn-fueled rock with just about everyone, brings his talents down from Boston. Add me on trombone and together we are The Hit & Quit It Horns.

Got soul?

One of the fun things about PFS is watching ageism melt off the young faces in the crowd. I’m not exactly in the same generation as the rest of the boys, but we’re all past our tank top and tribal tattoo phase. Sometimes, if they arrive while the band is still setting up, the hotties unmask a frown as they work their way past the bouncer.   

Wait for it, honey, just wait for it. When the band kicks in, you’ll be shakin’ your ass just like everybody else. You can’t deny the mighty, righteous power of a screaming American horn band. 

‘Cause when it’s the real deal—real Soul, real Motown, real Blues—no one with a soul of their own can resist sliding down into the pocket.