Fort Myers Florida Weekly

Florida’s soul music heritage comes alive, as do its makers

FLORIDA WRITERS



 

For a scholarly enterprise, this book is notable for its high energy and conversational tone. One can feel author John Capouya’s obvious excitement over the opportunity to celebrate the dazzling contributions of those in the art and business of soul music.

A sizeable group of talented and inventive characters make longer or shorter appearances in this lively slice of Florida’s cultural history.

Interestingly, though soul is thought of as a sturdy branch in the tree of Afro- American music, Mr. Capouya makes it clear that white performers and other white music industry professionals played major roles in the regional and national success of this musical genre. His chaptering system links the recording artists and other music professionals with key cities, large and small, in the history of the genre’s development and significant presence. His titles add up to a map of the world we are exploring, but without an actual map. Clearly, the state has been saturated with native born or adopted Floridians who built a musical tradition. Of course, soul music did not grow out of nothing. The author explores its roots in gospel music, its intimate connections with R&B and its sometimes-unwelcome offspring, disco.

CAPOUYA

CAPOUYA

Not only does Mr. Capouya provide vivid career biographies of the major players who achieved significant record sales, in many chapters he allows them to speak for themselves by providing the results of extended interviews. Some achieved stellar (bankable) accomplishments in many fields: as lead instrumentalists and singers, as back-up musicians, as songwriters, as nightclub owners, as record producers, as managers and as tour arrangers.

 “Florida Soul: From Ray Charles to KC and the Sunshine Band” by John Capouya. University Press of Florida. 374 pages. Hardcover, $24.95.

“Florida Soul: From Ray Charles to KC and the Sunshine Band” by John Capouya. University Press of Florida. 374 pages. Hardcover, $24.95.

Sooner or later during soul’s heydays in the 1960s and ’70s, everybody seems to have worked with or at least appreciated (by imitation) everyone else. It was a vibrant community of music-makers in which a person was a headliner one day and part of a backup group the next. Although competitive, these men and women fostered a sense of mutual support. Only a few were committed loners.

“Florida Soul” takes us back to the ’50s and forward into and through the ’80s. Its background story over that stretch of time is a fascinating and often hopeful tale of race relations among people who shared a passion. Though white performers of black music were sometimes treated disparagingly, most often the music they could make won out over racial or ethnic ownership of a style or vision.

This inclusiveness is best symbolized by the down home and mainstream success of KC and the Sunshine Band, a group at once multiracial and multiethnic that was influenced by and in turn influenced other groups. These musicians were part of the parade passing in and out of the dominant recording operation: Henry Stone’s T.K. Productions in Miami, which produced soul and other genre recordings on various labels that Mr. Stone owned, including Deluxe, Dade, Glades, Cat, Drive, Marlin and more.

Mr. Capouya’s history of the genre and its exemplary figures includes such unexpected matters as discussions of chord progressions. Believe it or not, this technical talk is made accessible and engaging to the musically illiterate. Indeed, a good number of the soul musicians could not read sheet music, but they could memorize and copy what they saw and heard. For many, this seeming limitation released their inventiveness and individuality.

At the end of his journey through soul history, the author makes it clear that this musical style is still with us. Younger artists are taking the place of those whose contributions are explored in his book. The music lives and regenerates itself, sometimes with unexpected additions or changes.

As Mr. Capouya brings the epoch, the genre and its creative music-makers to life, he shapes eloquent personality portraits that bring us inside the lives and minds of dozens of individuals we would not otherwise get to know. He accomplishes this admiringly, respectfully and with a sense of wonder.

About the author

John Capouya is associate professor of journalism and writing at the University of Tampa. His previous book, the biography “Gorgeous George: The Outrageous Bad-Boy Wrestler Who Created American Pop Culture,” is being adapted into a feature film.

— Phil Jason, Ph. D., United States Naval Academy professor emeritus of English, has written 20 books, including several studies of war literature and a creative writing text.

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