Soul Time

King Curtis, born Curtis Ousley in Fort Worth, Texas, was one of the defining tenor saxophonists of R&B and early soul, celebrated for his "yakety" honking style heard on hits by the Coasters and countless New York session dates of the late 1950s. The tracks gathered here - "Soul Twist," "Big Dipper," "Camp Meetin'," "What'd I Say," and companions - stem from his early-1960s instrumental sax-combo recordings for Bobby Robinson's Harlem-based Enjoy/Tru-Sound labels, cut in the wake of his Prestige jazz dates and just before his mid-1960s Capitol and Atco/Atlantic years. "Soul Twist" itself was a genuine national hit, riding the twist-dance craze to the top of the R&B charts in 1962 and becoming one of Curtis's signature instrumentals. These sides capture Curtis at a pivotal, transitional moment - moving from raw honking rock and roll saxophone toward the funkier, groove-driven instrumental soul he would perfect later in the decade - and they helped cement the tenor sax as a lead voice in soul music rather than a mere backing texture. The music's blend of gospel-tinged organ grooves, twist-era backbeats, and Curtis's blistering solos made it a favorite on jukeboxes and in dance clubs, and it remains prized by soul and R&B collectors as some of Curtis's most purely danceable, unpretentious work. Critically, Curtis's catalog from this era is regarded as foundational to instrumental soul-jazz, bridging 1950s rock and roll sax and the Memphis/Muscle Shoals soul sound he would later champion as a bandleader and session ace for Aretha Franklin and others.