Tower of Power at the Fox Theater
1807 Telegraph Ave, Oakland
December 21, 2024
Even if you’re Tower of Power and you’ve been touring the world for most of your 57 years, there’s no place like home for the holidays. For this celebrated funk and soul band, home is Oakland, and at the almost-packed Fox Theatre on December 21st, they played a mix of decades-spanning hits, a few covers, and a basket of Christmas favorites. Most of the hits were composed by the pair of founding members still in the lineup: baritone saxophonist Stephen “Doc” Kupka and tenor saxophonist and sometime vocalist Emilio Castillo, 78- and 74-years-old, respectively.
Tower of Power summons the Fox folk to "Soul With a Capital 'S'"
The single set lead off appropriately with “We Came to Play”, one of seven songs from the early 1970's, when the band had moved from Bill Graham Records to the Warner Bros. label and was starting to place on the Billboard charts. Audible on that number, as well as on “Soul With a Capital ‘S’” and “You Ought to Be Having Fun,” were the group’s trademark horns, which aside from Kupka and Castillo included lead tenor Tom Politzer and trumpets Adolfo Acosta and Dave Richards.
"Santa Claus Is Coming to Town", promises TOP founder Emilio Castillo.
“Silver Bells”, the schmaltzy Christmas favorite from 1951, despite tricked out changes of time signature, seemed a little flat in comparison to the original numbers. Pianist Joe Vannelli was praised by Castillo as the producer of It’s Christmas, the band’s latest album, released this summer and the source of most of the holiday songs on the concert set list. Of these, “The Christmas Song” (cowritten by Mel Tormé in 1945) worked best, performed as an instrumental with longer than usual opportunities for various members of the 11-piece ensemble to highlight their skills in solos.
Thirty-eight-year-old Jordan John this year took on the vital role of TOP’s lead vocalist, and stalked the Fox stage during most of the intermissionless 18-song concert, at times seeming to channel the incendiary tenor voice of Stevie Wonder. Though not always tone-perfect, John generated dazzling energy, with stratospheric sustains on “You’re Still a Young Man” which, unlike most of the ensemble, he actually still is. Putting his sax aside, Castillo took on lead vocals for “You Got to Funkifize”, getting some of the audience up and dancing in the aisles. A contrast to John, Castillo’s tenor voice was gently smoky.
I confess to having always preferred TOP’s upbeat numbers to their ballads, though the torchy “So Very Hard to Go” was actually their biggest US hit back in 1973. The current lineup performed this number with slowly choreographed arm movements, and with affecting enhancement by Roger Smith, who was lauded by Castillo as “our powerhouse organist for 27 years”, soon to be stepping down. “This Time It’s Real” was a more recent addition to the TOP songbook but less satisfying melodically and rhythmically than most of their stuff, sounding less real and more processed.
At the end of the show, TOP has their fans remember "What Is Hip".
“Don’t Change Horses (In the Middle of a Stream)”, by contrast, was a lively standout, with the audience singing along and a dramatically extended finish by John. “Diggin’ On James Brown” was a canny tip of Kupka’s hat to the abiding Godfather of Soul, with Brown-like horn riffs and one of many virtuosic displays by Politzer on his yakety sax, also heard to great effect on “What Is Hip”.
With “Knock Yourself Out”, veteran Castillo credited Oakland as “the best gig on the planet” and added that, “this is a great night for me, ‘cause my granddaughters are here”. The song offered a chance to take notice of what Castillo dubbed the “killer rhythm section”, including hard-working drummer Peter Antunes, versatile guitarist Jerry Cortez, and eclectic bassist Mark Van Wageningen. The Tower still stands tall.
