For hardcore soul music fans, hearing the same old Curtis Mayfield tunes or Al Green songs can get a little tiresome. Nothing against them, James Brown, Marvin Gaye or any of the other well-established geniuses from the soul era, but for a lot of DJs, that’s about the extent of their soul music catalog. Not so for Julius Papp and The Selector DJ Kirk, whose knowledge of soul music is vast.
Papp and Kirk have made Luxury Soul a regular thing at Chambers in San Francisco every Thursday night, and here in San Jose at the Pagoda every second Friday night of the month. Their soul catalog extends all the way back to the heyday in the ’70s, up to the hot new neo-soul tracks of 2012, and through everything in between.
They’ve got lesser known B-sides and remixes from the legends, lost tracks from underappreciated, forgotten masters. And if you think the ’80s and ’90s were an unfortunate dip in soul music brilliance, Papp and Kirk will prove you wrong. They’ve got lots of crazy, funky jams. We’re talking acid jazz, disco, boogie and every weird sub-genre of soul that ever existed.
Julius Papp’s tenure as a DJ started way back in 1987. He always had a particular interest in collecting weird disco and dance records, so you can bet he’s sitting on gems you never knew existed.
Luxury Soul will be held Fri, Jun 8 at Pagoda in San Jose, 10pm; $5.
