Tony! Toni! Toné! reflect on decades of soul that 'make people feel some type of way'

For the first time in a quarter century, Tony! Toni! Toné! — the Oakland, California, funk-soul trio of brothers D'wayne Wiggins and Raphael Saadiq, plus their cousin Timothy Riley — are doing it again.

And yes, it "Feels Good" to the trio known for 12 top-10 hits between 1988-1998 (including the just-mentioned 1988 R&B to hip-hop to pop crossover single) to continue their work onstage over the roughly dozen dates that remain on their nationwide tour, which arrived at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville on Wednesday.

"You can't come from Oakland and not be funky," says Wiggins as the group spoke to The Tennessean in transit to a Boston appearance at the Orpheum Theater.

The roots of Oakland funk

The roots of Tony! Toni! Toné!'s four decades in music evolved from things that occurred another four decades before that era.

Between 1940 and 1970, tens of thousands migrated to Oakland as part of the 5 million Black people who moved westward after facing Jim Crow segregation in the American South.

By the late 1960s, that migration had birthed then 20-something-year-old acts like the Chambers Brothers and Sly and the Family Stone, whose psychedelic-era takes on rock and soul fused the blues and gospel into those traditions. Mix that with James Brown's groundbreaking desire to craft songs using heavier drum breaks, single-chord harmonies and syncopated rhythms and the underpinnings of the particular variant of funk that emerges from Oakland occurs.

Between 1965 and 1980, songs like the Chambers Brothers' "Time Has Come Today," Sly and the Family Stone's "Everyday People," "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" and "Family Affair," plus bassist Larry Graham's solo ballad "One in a Million You," defined California's stamp on funk's soulful emergence.

"That music, like those people, having their personalities and style, helped create our identity, Wiggins says.

For Tony! Toni! Toné!, that Oakland-born legacy of uniquely styled personality emerged as a bohemian, Afro-centric spin on '60s and '70s R&B that, when merged with that era's love of sampling percussion loops and multilayered production, created an inimitable musical imprint on the 1990s and beyond.

The making of 'Feels Good'

Released in 1990, "Feels Good" remains a standout of the dance-friendly material in the trio's catalog.

Saadiq recalls that the song began in the studio as an "homage" to "If You Want Me To Stay," Sly and the Family Stone's last top-five charting soul single, released in 1973.

"Eighth and sixteenth notes on the bass, but we threw in a breakbeat (the song samples Lyn Collins' 1972 classic "Think" and James Brown's 1974 "Funky President") and all of a sudden, D'Wayne walked in from a party with like, a dozen people holding balloons in their hands," says Saadiq, smiling at the recollection.

"It's an organic song built in the moment," Wiggins adds. He had a friend who was a voiceover artist also visit the studio to record the "play this record as frequently as possible" intro.

Riley adds that the track's feel errs in the direction of a shouting and dancing-ready gospel house track, too.

"That track still resonates because it feels like the moment we created it never stopped happening," he said. "The guitar, Wurlitzer piano and the MPC60 and SP1200 samplers. That's it. That's the best of all worlds."

R&B and hip-hop inspirations

Wiggins is succinct when asked what allowed the group's 1990 ballads "It Never Rains (In Southern California)," "Whatever You Want," "Anniversary" and "(Lay Your Head on My) Pillow" to sound both wholly of their '70s inspirations but "modern" enough to top the charts in the early 1990s.

"We were definitely in the business of making love ballads like all of the acts that inspired us, but we were right amid hip-hop's boom, too — so they had to be a little bit gritty."

Saadiq adds that hip-hop's cultural ubiquity in that era led him to have frequent conversations with acts like A Tribe Called Quest and Ice Cube about mimicking their tracks' sonics in Tony! Toni! Toné!'s R&B releases.

Dig deeper into Saadiq's 20 years as a Grammy-winning solo soul artist and producer and gems emerge like 2002's "Still Ray."

It is built around a loop of piano chords from Dr. Dre feat. Snoop Dogg's "Still D.R.E.", released a year prior, and a very funky tuba solo.

Saadiq calls the song "a (sonically) hard West Coast love lullaby" that he's proud is still "instantaneously recognizable."

In 1996's "Thinking of You" as well, the desire to lean in on the power of the Wurlitzer plus the warmth of the production allowed the group's inspirations to incorporate Memphis-style, Hi Records (everyone from Al Green to blues vocalist O.V. Wright) soul flair.

The trio all speak of the idea that when they first picked up instruments and learned how to sing, because of their childhood exposure to music, it wasn't long before acts like Al Green, Earth, Wind and Fire, Frankie Beverly and Maze and other instrumentally driven R&B acts with love songs in their DNA were a part of their musical development.

Names including Beyoncé, her sister Solange Knowles, Drake and John Legend claim Tony! Toni! Toné!'s work is inherently inspirational in their craft.

"Birthing passionate energy for soulful music, which extends our Oakland legacy, continues to inspire us to this day," Riley adds.

Tony! Toni! Toné!'s 'romantic' legacy

At the Ryman, or any venue where Tony! Toni! Toné! performs, their musical passion will blend with stunningly composed and performed love ballads to create "an uplifting room of couples slow-dancing and experiencing spiritual connections."

"These songs make people feel some type of way," says Wiggins.

Saadiq seconds that notion.

"We put everything into evolving a beautiful, lush style of music that we love — and accomplished that," he says. "We obsessed over how we made this music when we did. Only 25 years later can we finally step back and smell our labors' (proverbial) roses."

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tony! Toni! Toné! showcase funk-soul legacy at Nashville's Ryman