The Soul Rebels // The Eisenberg Review Interview

For nearly 15 years, The Soul Rebels have expanded upon the New Orleans brass tradition and elevated it within a contemporary context. Prior to the group’s show at Grog Shop in Cleveland on July 21, 2023, founding member and percussionist Lumar Leblanc joined The Eisenberg Review to discuss the group’s evolution and his musical journey.

***

I first became acquainted with the Soul Rebels through the terrific Tiny Desk performance that you all did with GZA a number of years ago. It got me thinking that, certainly your live performances are legendary because of the tradition of New Orleans Brass that you bring to the forefront, your sound, your energy, but also because of the tremendous number of collaborations that you've done with Robert Glasper, Nas, Talib Kweli, Mobb Deep, Raekwon, even Metallica. It got me thinking, this is the question I most wanted to ask you. What makes for a good collaboration?

Wow, that's an awesome, interesting question. First thing as always, you have to have two individuals or groups that are willing to artistically work with each other. In the sense of Soul Rebels, we've been blessed that we approached the brass band genre from a more eclectical standpoint, not just the traditional New Orleans brass band approach. From the start, the group formed by some of the original members, myself Lumar, and Derrick Moss. We had an idea to blend jazz, hip hop, funk, reggae, classical, country rock music all together. And that comes from our upbringing as a matter of fact. But that was the journey that we started on so that when the time came to do other music that just doesn't signify the New Orleans traditional sound, we will be fully equipped to do that.

Now, we're always going to be New Orleans in our setup, meaning that it's a sousaphone, two separate drummers, trumpets, trombones, and saxophone. But our approach is totally different. We approach it as if we're just a regular band that has guitars and rappers and singers and keyboards. That's the way that we approach it. So when you do these collabs, you have to be able to give the artists who we are playing with, let's say it's a Nas who was such a awesome musically inclined artist, you have to give them a representation of their song that makes them feel that it's being performed in a way that they're comfortable with doing it. So people look at us and be like, well, they don't have a DJ, they don't have a keyboard, or whatever. So how are they going to reproduce “If I Ruled the World” or “New York State of Mind?,” because of that early mindset of approaching it from that perspective, we were able to give it to them sometimes in a representation that's more exciting than the original version. And no disrespect to the producers that may make records or produce the original songs, but when they get our spin on it, they're just so blown away.

And so that's how we do it. I mean, the drums and the rhythm section, we got to totally put away what traditionally has been done. We got to approach it as if, like I said, as if Quincy Jones is in the studio trying to produce a record with Michael Jackson. And that's how we were able to really do all those collabs successfully. One led to another. Once one person saw we could do it, that was a wrap.

I love that. And I think it speaks to both what resonates in me with your music—being rooted in tradition, but thinking forward—but I think that's also unique to the city of New Orleans, the tradition that you are, at least, based in and growing from. Because New Orleans to me is a music city that certainly has a unique and profound history within the space of American popular music. But it also seems a city uniquely positioned in that tradition. It has been a melting pot of so many different cultures musically that it seems to pre-position acts such as yourselves for that type of collaborative springboard because you're already drawing on so many different sounds, so many different influences. It's really, it's a beautiful thing.

Yes, it is. It's very innovative. It's constantly spontaneous and it takes a lot of work, I'll tell you that. But anything worth value is going to have a work ethic and a sacrificing component to it. It's just, fortunately, we're bred that we don't mind doing those things. So blessed.

I always say anything real takes time.

Yes. A lot of time in our case. A lot of time. A lot of time.

Absolutely. Time and relentless pursuit.

Woo, time, sacrifice, struggle and any adjectives you want to tie to it that personify struggle or suffrage, and then breaking through for success is tied to what we do. I mean, the journey has encompassed a whole lot as far as the band goes, not only musically, but emotionally, mentally, socially. It's been a journey that's spanned the full gambit of the human experience. I mean, I wouldn't have it any other way, but everyone I know is not built for it, not the way we did it, not the way we're continuing to do it. It demands so much of you. I mean, it just does.

I mean, the only artists I could see taking on that type of journey are the likes of a Michael Jackson, or a Prince, or Quincy, or Nas, or JayZ, or Beyonce, or Tina Turner. I mean, I can see why it becomes such a part of your life. And we could have easily done it the other way. Not that the other way is easy, but the other way was a little bit, how could I say it? A little bit less taxing. But when we committed to starting this journey, you have no idea what you're in store for. You just know it's going to be a ride.

Without a doubt. And I think this, speaking for myself and my work in music, it's something that possesses me. And I mean that for all of its positive and it's negative connotations. I wouldn't be doing anything else. I wouldn't be working within any other art form. It is just something that I feel called to do. Not necessarily as a means to an end, but as something that I always want to be in and around. So I feel what you're saying.

Yes, definitely. Definitely.

Where did that journey start for you? Do you have a first musical memory? Do you have something that kicked off a love of music in you?

Me, personally, my personal journey?

Yes.

My family put me on stage early in kindergarten. I was in a big production with bongo drums and something just clicked. It was in front of a large audience, but obviously, I probably was nervous and scared. It was all outdoors. But the drums have always been it for me. And something clicked. It resonated with, it reciprocated something back to me where when I did it, I could feel some kind of spark interacting in my sphere, in my hemisphere. And from that moment on, they couldn't turn it off. It actually, I don't know if they knew what they were getting into because drums, it has a tendency to be a triple forte noisy type thing. And I was beating on everything in that project and in the house, pots, pans. I was taking the pans and pretending they was cymbals and twirling them, like marching bands and beating on the gumbo pot, the deepest one I could find to get a bass sound.

And finally, they were like, well, we going to have to put you in something. I mean, it's not discussed with me because I'm so young. They probably said, we going to have to put him in something formal so he could exert this energy and maybe it'll be constructive. And I fell in love with it. I was in the band, the symphony band in the second grade.

Wow.

I was probably the youngest one to enter it at that time. And this is in the ghetto. I mean, it was a private school, but it was in the ghetto. It was fully urbanized and consisted of 100% African-American students from the 7th Ward neighborhood in New Orleans. But we had Catholic nuns who taught us symphony music. So my introduction to formal training was actually the symphony. Now you could imagine, I'm coming from imitating Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye at home, rap music hadn't come in yet, to all of this legato, staccato. And I used to brag on those terms to my friends in class because they had no idea what I was talking about. I knew all of the terms, legato, mezzo forte and triple forte, fermata. I would throw those terms out. So that was my passion. That's where it started for me.

Beautiful. And I would argue there is just much musical rigor and musicality to a lot of that early Motown stuff as there is to Symphonic Classic.

Oh, definitely.

I only had one question in proper left, and it's admittedly just asking whether or not the group's name is a Bob Marley reference.

Yeah, definitely. Its from Bob Marley.

I figured, but had to ask.

Oh, you know, you know that man. You're a musical connoisseur. The name was given to us by Cyril Neville of the Neville Brothers.

Oh really?

He got it from Bob Marley's record. I'm a rebel, a soul rebel because he helped us early on, him and Milt Batiste of Dejan's Olympia Brass Band. And Cyril Neville of the Neville Brothers helped us on. We wouldn't be where we were without those two entities. And Cyril, he gave us the name. He say "You all sound like some rebels of this music." So Cyril gave us the name of Soul Rebels and we're so indebted to him for life that he was able do that. But you're right, it comes from Bob Marley.

That's beautiful and I think it is certainly stuck.