The release of his third studio album, PeoplePlease, is one small step for Sam Fribush, but it's a major leap forward for the traditions of organ trio music, funk, and soul jazz.
Combining deep-pocket grooves with gospel-inspired harmonies and featuring guitar heavyweights Charlie Hunter and Xavier Lynn alongside drummer Calvin Napper, People Please is Fribush's third release under his own name, yet in a way, it's his debut. That's because his first two albums, Sam Fribush Organ Trio, Vol. I: Riverboat and Vol. II: The Root, consisted mostly of covers. On People Please, the young keyboardist steps out into the roles of composer and producer in addition to bandleader with 11 original tracks that place him in the lineage of soul jazz pioneers like Jimmy Smith, Groove Holmes, and Shirley Scott while pushing the genre ahead in a funky new direction.
Though it may come as a surprise given his mastery of the style, the world of soul jazz and organ funk is still relatively new to Fribush. After growing up in Greensboro, NC with musician parents, he studied contemporary improvisation at New England Conservatory in Boston and ended up living in New Orleans, where he learned to play gospel music from YouTube videos while gigging in churches. During the pandemic, "the work dried up," so he returned to North Carolina and linked up with renowned guitarist Charlie Hunter, who adds funky wah-wah guitar throughout the album, except on the gospel quartet-inspired "When My Baby Gets Home" featuring Xavier Lynn (Ghost-Note, MonoNeon) and the solo interlude "Supper". It wasn't until connecting with Hunter that Fribush really developed a love of groove-based organ trio music.
"At the time, I didn't really know much about Charlie, but he quickly became my quarantine buddy," Fribush told Live For Live Music. "A friend of mine introduced us, and he kind of took a liking to me and started coming over to my house just to hang out and talk shit and tell stories and play music. And at the time, he was really into playing drums. He was practicing drums. He is a great drummer, and I had a Hammond organ in my studio, and I had been into organ from playing in churches and stuff like that, but Charlie kind of really hipped me to starting to play shuffles, blues shuffles on the organ and jazz organists and funk organists and a whole world of organ, and how that stuff was really the basis for kind of the crossover between jazz to funk."
Eventually, the duo decided to record an album, with jazz drummer Geoff Clapp taking over on the kit as Hunter-who is known for playing bass and guitar voicings simultaneously on his hybrid seven- and eight-string guitars-took up a traditional six-string. Around that time, Fribush also joined Hiss Golden Messenger, playing folk-indie rock songs that were a far cry from his funkier endeavors-yet very much in his wheelhouse, as he explained.
"My parents are both self-taught folk musicians, and I love just playing songs," he said. "I play a lot of piano, and since I've joined Hiss Golden Messenger, I think the band has stepped out a little bit more at our live shows as a jam band. We started covering Grateful Dead tunes. MC Taylor is a huge Deadhead, and he is such a great songwriter, so there's nothing better than playing good songs and singing harmony, and then at the end of the song, let's jam. That's kind of the vibe with that band. It's a great rhythm section with Alex [Bingham] and Nick [Falk]."
While touring and recording with Hiss Golden Messenger, Fribush continued to refine his sound, digging deep to get at the heart of what makes a song groove.
"When I started working with Charlie, he sort of changed the way I thought about what I practice. I always thought I had good time, but Charlie showed me that your time could always be better, and you can improve just by working with a metronome and focusing on groove and feel. There was a certain point where I got really into the funk organ stuff and the concept of holding down the bass in the left hand-being sort of the one man band. I was like, how can I be the funkiest? And figuring out how to get that sort of funky attack sound in your left hand has kind of been my goal. The record is kind of the result of that, I would say."
Expanding on the importance of the left hand, which he uses along with the Hammond organ's foot pedals to play bass parts while adding different textures, chords, melodies, and embellishments with his right hand, Fribush offered insightful observations about the different styles of organ playing.
"Jazz Hammond is basically walking a bassline with quarter-notes or eighth-notes in your left hand; gospel, you are playing chords and using your feet; but playing specifically funk counterpoint, the left-hand basslines really kind of pop and are short and funky. That's what I've been focusing on. So, the concept for this record and how this record came about was, like, let's make a Hammond organ trio record with the same instrumentation of the organ trio that we all know and love, but make it as funky as we can."
For this record, Fribush tapped Calvin Napper, longtime drummer for soul band Maze Featuring Frankie Beverly. "Calvin is just like the pocket master, and all of his grooves that he wrote for this record are so good," Fribush explained. "I mean, I think he's kind of the MVP or the star, so to speak, of the record, because they're these really interesting kind of syncopated beats where he puts the snare and the kick drum in different places. A lot of the songs were formed around Calvin's beats."
Sam Fribush Trio, including Charlie Hunter and Calvin Napper, will celebrate the release of PeoplePlease with a show at The Flat Iron in his hometown of Greensboro, NC on April 6th. Fribush also has upcoming shows in North Carolina and South Carolina and said he may announce more tour dates soon, but they will likely feature a different lineup, so don't miss your chance to see the trio featured on the recording playing the album live. For a full list of upcoming shows and to purchase tickets, head here.
Listen to People Please below or on your preferred streaming platform. For more information and to order the album on vinyl, visit Sam Fribush's website.
