As I have touched upon in many of my articles, a successful band needs more than just great musicians. The organization created around the musicians is many times more important than the music itself. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard people say: "there are many great bands that will never make it, and there are many horrible bands that will." Then, of course, there are the cases where the band's success is inevitable because the music simply sells itself. Soulive is one of those bands.

For any of you who don't already know, Soulive is made up of Alan Evans on drums, Neal Evans on Hammond B-3 organ, and Eric Krasno playing the guitar. Neal's dexterity on the organ is astounding as he plays bass lines with one hand and wails with the other. Alan hits the drums hard and lays down thick grooves. On top of the Evans brother's playing, Krasno slips in his graceful guitar work. The resulting sound is a jazz-oriented groove band that melds the sounds of the 70's with a more current flair. Included in the band's influences are: Stevie Wonder, Jimmy Smith, Grant Green, John Scofield, and more current artists like D'Angelo.

Soulive has been around for just under two years and the hype surrounding this band is enormous. The band can be likened to a huge mass of potential energy just waiting to be released. The business-related events of the past few months all point to the same conclusion: Soulive is about to explode. Since the summer, Soulive has found a new agent in Ron Kaplan of Monterey International and a new record label in Blue Note Records. People should not underestimate what these developments will mean for a young band like Soulive. These two organizations (Monterey and Blue Note) are not mere players in the jamband scene, they are national power-houses. With that kind of support just starting to kick in, the future is very bright for Soulive.

From the beginning, everyone involved believed that something special was going to happen with this band. But, I do not think that anyone expected it to occur this quickly. The reputation of each of the band's three members certainly was a huge reason for Soulive's meteoric rise. The Evans brothers have always been heralded on the music scene for their playing in Moon Boot Lover. Alan also built up his name performing with Karl Denson's Tiny Universe and the Greyboy Allstars. Krasno, for his part, founded Lettuce, a Boston-based funk band that played shows around the Northeast. With these projects under their belt, the three musicians had an established fan-base and were well respected in the music community. Thus, the foundations for Soulive were laid long before the band even existed.

Many things about Soulive are already becoming somewhat mythical, including the band's initial recording session. Alan and Neal were at their home in upstate New York and they were itching to do some recording. They called Jeff Krasno (Eric's older brother) in New York City because they knew that Eric was staying with him for a couple of days. According to Jeff, this is "one of those classic music stories." Alan asked Eric to come up and record, and Eric couldn't make up his mind. He went back and forth between going and not going, and the decision was finally clinched when Alan said that he could give Eric a ride back to Boston. Upon arriving in Woodstock, Eric and the Evans brothers rehearsed the tunes and set up a makeshift recording studio in the living room. That session was the first time that the three of them played together and produced the EP Get Down! Before Soulive had ever played a gig, they already had a product to sell.

The band also had a manager in place at their inception. Kimberly Evans, Alan's wife, was ready to manage Soulive even before Eric rounded-out the trio. "I've been involved with Soulive since its origin, before the group and their music would become known as Soulive," Kim told me. "I am fully aware of the immense talent and pure magic of brothers, Alan and Neal, when they play together," she added. "Eric was just the icing on the cake and has proven to be the missing link Soulive needed to really become something special."

Soulive began to take their act on the road, playing a handful of small shows in Woodstock, NY; Brattleboro, VT; and Boston, MA. In March of 1999, the band enlisted Todd Walker, who was working for Gamelan at the time, to be their agent. Walker was chosen as the band's original agent because he had done work with Lettuce in the past and had developed a strong relationship with Eric. As the band began light touring, they started talking with Jeff Krasno about recording another CD. Jeff had a recording studio in New York City and was the one who mastered Get Down! Jeff, and his partner Sean Hoess, had been thinking about starting a record label out of the studio for many years and were just waiting for the time to be right. With Soulive's obvious potential, and numerous other logistical factors falling into place, Velour Recordings was founded and after brief negotiations Soulive was the label's first signing.

In late May of 1999, the band played their first New York City show at Baby Jupiter, a small showcase room in the Lower East Side. Soulive started to play at Baby Jupiter every other Friday night and the buzz started spreading like wildfire. As Walker told me, "the word of mouth just got louder and louder. I don't know anyone who has left a Soulive show and hasn't felt that it was absolutely ridiculous." The band played back-to-back shows at Baby Jupiter in August of 1999 which were completely packed until 4 AM. Remarkably, Soulive's next New York City show after that was a sold-out CD release show at the Wetlands in December of 1999. The band had never played at Wetlands before and had filled the club on their first try. At this show, Velour Recordings put out their first CD, Soulive's Turn It Out.

So much happened between those first Baby Jupiter shows in May of 1999 and the Wetlands show in December of 1999, it really is hard to keep track. Soulive developed a strong relationship with John Scofield and played a couple of shows with the jazz legend. Scofield's support of Soulive has been invaluable to the band. Soulive played at the Berkshire Mountain Music Festival in the summer of '99 with Scofield and another legend, Oteil Burbridge. They opened for Robben Ford on a national tour in November of 1999. The band toured the Southeast with Derek Trucks. And, somewhere, somehow, in the middle of all of this, a package was sent to Blue Note Records.

The package was addressed to Bruce Lundvall, the president of Blue Note, and found it's way to the desk of Eli Wolf, the manager of A&R. In the envelope was a very early photo of the band and two songs from a live show. The only contact information was Kimberly Evan's phone number and Todd Walker's phone number. Wolf listened to the music and was blown away. "I had a very emotional response right off the bat…basically, I lost it" Wolf said. In a bizarre twist that just adds to the Soulive mystique, Wolf can't even remember who exactly the package came from. Regardless, Wolf made it his business to be at the Wetlands CD release show that was coming up.

It was at the packed Wetlands show that Wolf got exposed to the rest of the band's material. Before the show, Wolf had still only heard the two songs sent to him. According to Wolf, "the show was incredible" and he became seriously interested in the band. Word travels quickly in the jazz record community and before long Verve was also courting Soulive. The band's original agreement with Velour Recordings seemed like a potential stumbling block, but there really was no way that Velour could offer the same thing as either Blue Note or Verve. Jeff Krasno related a story to me about this point. He remembered sitting in Velour's offices with the members of Soulive on the first day they were recording Turn It Out. Jeff told Alan, Neal, and Eric: "If everything goes according to plan, maybe some day Blue Note will be interested in the band. The last thing I would want to do is hold back Soulive." Everyone started laughing at the notion of the legendary jazz label being interested in the project. Little did they know that they'd be signed to Blue Note Records less than two years later.

If you are keeping track, you've probably realized that the Soulive organization is a tight-knit family. Two of the band's members, Alan and Neal, are brothers. Alan's wife, Kim, is the band's manager. Eric's brother, Jeff, signed Soulive to their first record deal. But, there still was one more relative waiting in the wings. Ron Kaplan, a booking agent at Monterey International, is Eric and Jeff's uncle. Kaplan has been dispensing advice to Eric going back to the early Lettuce days. Kaplan, who was responsible for putting Soulive on the Robben Ford tour, always had his eye on his nephew's new group, but wanted to wait for the band to be ready before getting fully involved.

The band already had a booking agent in Todd Walker, but it was basically the same situation that Jeff Krasno encountered with Blue Note. Walker headed up an agency at Gamelan and booked approximately five other developing bands. Kaplan works at Monterey, a huge company that counts Phish, Dave Matthews, Aerosmith, Los Lobos, Susan Tedeschi, and many other huge acts as their clients. As Kaplan explained: "Soulive needed someone with more experience on the national front." The band left Walker in an amicable split. "I would obviously like to still be with them," Todd said, "but I told the guys from the beginning that I'd never get in the way of them making it."

For Velour and Walker, working with Soulive proved to be a huge stepping-stone for both of them. Jeff Krasno and Sean Hoess built their record label around Soulive and developed countless press and radio contacts (not to mention credibility) because of Soulive's success. On the horizon, expect to see some great releases from Velour Recordings. With projects like Kudu, Topaz, Baba, and Shuman, Velour is building a strong roster of diversified music. A parallel can be seen in Walker's present situation. After leaving Gamelan and disbanding his roster, Todd quickly got a job as an agent at International Music Network. "If it wasn't for having Soulive as a focal band on my roster at Gamelan," Walker said, "I probably wouldn't have my current job." These days, Walker is booking shows for Buena Vista Social Club, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Youssou N'Dour, Baaba Maal, and others. Both Jeff and Todd were fully aware of the clout of Monterey and Blue Note and there really was no choice but to step aside and let things take there course.

It is this kind of selfless dedication that Walker and Velour have always shown to Soulive. From the beginning, both the band's original agent and record label were not necessarily being compensated in proportion to the effort they were putting in. It is a matter of basic math: a young, developing band simply does not make that much money, but still needs hours and hours of work to be done. So, for a young band to get off the ground, you need to find people who truly believe in the project and are willing to make some sacrifices. Soulive found these early champions of their music in Walker and Velour Recordings. Without this early foundational work, Soulive would almost definitely not have had such a quick rise to the level they are at now. Eric Krasno echoed these thoughts, saying: "I'm thankful for all the people who invested in us early on…we couldn't have done this without them." The story has a happy ending because it appears that the future of Velour Recordings and Todd Walker are just as promising as what lies ahead for Soulive.

As a band gets more powerful people involved on the business side of things, it means that the musicians will have even more time to concentrate on making music. This is especially exciting in the case of Soulive because their sound melds flavors of jazz, soul, R&B, funk, hip-hop, and jamming. With such diverse influences, the evolution of the band's music is quite unpredictable. As Soulive continues to play together and record together (they have a four record deal with Blue Note), we can probably expect to hear a broad range in the music they release. If the band's first two years are any indication, the listening public is going to eat up whatever Soulive dishes out.