James Brown – Soul On Top

This reissue of Soul On Top finds James Brown singing mostly pop standards in front of a big-band orchestra. It’s a pairing that perhaps sounds, on first blush, like just about the stupidest idea ever: Why in the world would Brown, Soul Brother #1 and the funkiest man alive, want to cram his bad self into such a seemingly square hole?

Then you hear the thing and realize it works and then some. How in the world? Well, first off, Brown always insisted upon crack rhythm sections, so for Soul On Top, he chose drummer and bandleader Louie Bellison as his collaborator. Bellison was an insanely swinging drummer, and here he turns in performances that render the absence of Brown’s other famed timekeepers — Bernard Purdie, Clyde Stubblefield, “Jabo” Starks — a nonissue. Seriously.

Unleashing Brown on standards such as “What Kind Of Fool Am I” and “It’s Magic” works, too, because the man is an outtasight ballad singer. This fact is often overlooked today, what with a full decade of funk hits such as “I Feel Good” and “Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine (Part 1)” and “I Got Ants In My Pants — Part 1 (And I Want To Dance)” to cloud the memory. But Brown’s earlier hits were almost always ballads of an indelibly intense variety, from “Please, Please, Please” in 1956 to his strings-graced cover of the pop staple “Prisoner Of Love” in 1963.

In short, Brown + Bellison = the funkiest big band in the history of the world. The band swings and rocks with deep grooves and brassy blasts while Brown imposes his will on a version of “Your Cheatin’ Heart” that makes Ray Charles’ orchestral versions of Hank Williams songs sound like easy listening. Plus, Brown revamps his “It’s A Man’s, Man’s, Man’s World”, “Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag” and “There Was Time”, while also making “September Song” and “Ever Day I Have The Blues” his own, complete with swooning crooning and with sometimes bloodcurdling screams.

Granted, Soul On Top is an oddity even within a catalogue as singular as Brown’s and, not surprisingly, little here can touch the legend’s best work. Yet, and again this is no surprise, it still manages to destroy almost everyone else’s.