Out now is the latest studio set from Bay Area legends, Tower Of Power, titled Step Up. The new album, which was produced by Joe Vannelli, was recorded during the sessions for the band's 2018 critically acclaimed collection, Soul Side Of Town. 52 years after forming in Oakland, California, the band still features classic members tenor saxophonist Emilio Castillo, baritone saxophonist Stephen “Doc” Kupka, drummer David Garibaldi, and bassist Francis “Rocco” Prestia.
Tower Of Power will always be best remembered for its standards “Down To The Nightclub,” “What Is Hip?,” “Sparkling In The Sand,” and “You’re Still A Young Man.”
Emilio Castillo shed light on the music scene that was brewing in the Bay Area when Tower Of Power began making their bones: “The psychedelic scene kinda started around late-'64, '65, and it was starting to run its course. And during that time, Bill Graham had kind of tweaked the collective ear of the Bay Area by bringing in all these eclectic acts to be with these psychedelic bands. So, you'd see Quicksilver Messenger Service, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk, and Sam & Dave; next night it would be Otis Redding, Big Brother & The Holding Company, and Miles Davis. And we come along, right at the tail end of that psychedelic thing, we had this big horn section. And I remember on our audition night, we came out after five bands — and all the four bands before us were the same.”
We asked Castillo if he could ever have thought Tower Of Power would still be creating incredible music past its half-century mark: “Y'know, I just didn't think like that. I was 17-years-old. I was just totally in love with being in a band. I don't think I even prized my bandleader position at that point. My whole life was the band. This band I idolized was called the Spiders, and I remember, they got a gig at a club up in Sacramento, and I thought, 'Man. If I could just play Sacramento. . . ' Y'know, so way beyond my wildest dreams, 'y'know?”