The power of soul music was unleashed at Skinny Mo’s Jazz Club on June 2. The live music by The Con-Souls, organised by Smoke INC, at the Manohar Pukur Road address was kept in top gear with powerful vocals and rhythmic riffs and hooks. The group has Arinjoy Sarkar on vocals and the guitar, Rupsha Sen on vocals, Aakash Ganguly on bass, Sounak Roy on the drums and Sagnik Samaddar on keys. They celebrated the music of Marvin Gaye, Al Green, The Staples, James Brown, The Isley Brothers, Rufus Thompson, Etta James, Aretha Franklin and others.
The roots of soul music go back to Afro-American musicians, blending the gospel with genres like R&B. Today, the genre lives on through the works of contemporary artistes like Bruno Mars and Leon Bridges.
Coming to the band, Arinjoy Sarkar is a gifted blues musician. Rupsha’s powerful voice did justice to the cover version of songs like I Feel Good (James Brown), Tell Mama (Savoy Brown), Roll With My Baby (Ray Charles) and I Never Loved A Man (Aretha Franklin).
t2 loved every moment of the gig and here are some snapshots.
“The inspiration for the setlist was soul, an expression of blues. My favourite track from our setlist was We’ve Got To Get Ourselves Together, a song by this amazing group called The Staple Singers (suggested by Arinjoy). It’s such a beautiful song as it has a message as well. It is a song about peace, conveying a political message, which is timeless, given the relevance of it in our times as well. Such a political situation keeps repeating itself, so the song makes sense in the 21st century as much as it did in the 20th century. The song is about coming together as human beings, getting our art together and conveying a message firmly,” said Rupsha.