During its invigorating concert at the Jazz à Sète festival on July 21, 2022, the American group Vintage Trouble demonstrated that soul music could marry the explosive accents of rock, the electric intonations of country music and the pious incantations of gospel. Led by the leaping singer Ty Taylor, this very energetic quintet shakes up the codes and reshapes The epic of black music. In vivo report made this summer in the south of France.
Created in 2010 in California, Vintage Trouble made headlines by delivering explosive performances in a musical mood borrowed from the 50s and 60s. The judicious idea of this impetuous formation is to make modern a sound escaped from the bowels of history. Ty Taylor also readily admits to being inspired by the late singer Amy Winehouse whose vocal prowess and soulful tone summoned the spirit of the great figures of yesteryear. Since their first album, Bomber Shelter Sessions, the members of Vintage Trouble multiply the volcanic performances and seduce as much the amateurs of furious electric guitars as the fans of authentic Rhythm & Blues. This originality is very much due to the incredible and insatiable zebulon of the group, Ty Taylor, whose musical tastes are as much in the original soul music as in the gospel, jazz, funk and pop-music of his childhood: ” Where I grew up, major church figures looked more to Mahalia Jackson than Aretha Franklin. I would even say that, in the church I attended, there was no shouting, there was no trance, there was no ceremony. We were more fanciful than that. As a kid, I listened to Tina Turner, but also Otis Redding, Etta James, Jackie Wilson, Nat King Cole, Nina Simone, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Sam Cooke, James Brown, Michael Jackson, and later, Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu , Maxwell, D’Angelo, or even George Michael whose voice has remained timeless. He had an imposing personality. He transcended generations. And I realize that I didn’t name any bands. So I’ll mention the Who, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Sly and the Family Stone, of course ! Let’s not forget the Staples Singers too… (Ty Taylor on Joe Farmer’s microphone).
Vintage Trouble announces new album at the end of 2022, but the latest production Juke Joint Gems attracts all the attention. The group revitalizes with strength and conviction a distant era when rock’n’roll was not yet the preserve of the King, Elvis Presley. It is to the origins of this musical revolution that Vintage Trouble seems to want to take us. The African-American idiom has long nourished popular culture across the Atlantic. Ty Taylor and his acolytes claim this artistic, social and political reality, too long underestimated by institutional conservatism. “Interpret War by Edwin Starr seemed legitimate and relevant to us. I realized that this song was created 50 years ago. So I told the other musicians that it was absolutely necessary to record it. It’s one of my favorite songs and Richard, our drummer, has always been impressed by the groove of this track. When this song was created, the Americans were at war in Vietnam and, since then, other wars have sadly punctuated our daily lives. Curiously, this very dark title has a very dancing tone. I tell myself that politicians whose speech is often morose should take inspiration from the musical mood of this song and appeal to their hearts more. Perhaps this would help to find faster solutions to the problems of the planet. Therefore, resurrecting a song like War is not trivial, 50 years after its creation. (Ty Taylor, July 2022).
Is Vintage Trouble a retro or very current band? The choices of these fiery instrumentalists take us on a journey through time, but their discourse is undoubtedly rooted in the 21st century. Ty Taylor doesn’t even want to talk about it: ” We will experience wars, celebrations, weddings, births, the music we produce must reflect all these moments of life. We shouldn’t impose music based on what we think is right. We must be attentive to the universe in which we evolve. We must ask ourselves about our role as artists. (Ty Taylor on RFI).
Ty Taylor and his comrades have built a bridge between different generations and intend to drive the point home in the years to come. We bet that the timelessness of their repertoire will bring together progressives and traditionalists…