Columbia showcase presents the future of soul music
The future of soul music is unfolding before eyes and ears that are willing to take notice.
From the inside out, Josh Runnels has witnessed enough to invest full faith in this sound. The Chicago-forged, Columbia-based musician — who performs as J. ARTiz — presents a sliver of its creative possibility each month at a showcase called Soul Sessions.
Soul Sessions will stretch across its biggest stage in January, gathering artists and audience at The Blue Note. This will be the fifth event in the ongoing series; previous concerts have been housed at venues such as Pressed, Orr Street Studios and The Atrium.
January's showcase will, per the design of Runnels and a larger steering committee, mingle local and farther-flung talent, emerging performers with those who've established themselves on significant platforms.
Symonne Sparks and Justin Oliver are among those scheduled to appear; Runnels will double as a performer and master of ceremonies and the MO Soul Collective will back a number of the evening's artists.
A Renaissance vibe
Local listeners likely encountered Runnels first as a member of the "future soul" band Loose Loose. Performing as J. ARTiz, his solo work extends that tag as classic R&B, jazz, neo-soul and hip-hop meet to ask what sounds have yet to be heard.
Something of a Renaissance man, Runnels also performs spoken-word poetry and his first creative obsession was visual art, expressing ideas through drawing and illustrating. Circling back around to the discipline, he now occupies an artist's studio at Orr Street.
Runnels grew in experience and musical wisdom while singing backup for Chicago-based performers. But he truly came into his own with Loose Loose, stepping to the front of the stage; from that vantage point, he saw the potential for soul exchange through music.
"You get so deep into your music that you forget about the crowd sometimes, and that’s great because the crowd loves that," he said. "But if you can do both — interact and then go deep into the music and zone out — people are going to watch you in that zone. Then you come out of the zone, and (say) ‘Hey, let me invite you into the zone too.’ And that’s what I love the most."
Runnels' stage name reflects his crystal conviction that art sits at the center of existence. Once he saw his creative preoccupations as distinct; now he recognizes them as rivers which feed a greater sea of storytelling.
He recognizes like souls in this month's featured artists. He and Sparks collaborated closely in Loose Loose; gospel-raised and classically-trained, she is a powerhouse vocalist with experience across genres.
Based in New York City, Oliver also creative alternative forms of R&B, Runnels said; Oliver's catalog ranges from buzzy and visceral anthems to ethereal, hymn-like ballads.
The sound of community
The musical backbone of Soul Sessions is the MO Soul Collective, a flexible group that can count up to 10 singers and players on stage at a time; the group's name acknowledges both the Show-Me State and a desire to build on the existing foundation of soul music, Runnels said.
He assembled the band for weekly jam sessions where up-and-coming artists ground themselves in the soul canon. Watching performers with an intimate knowledge of other genres bond while they sound out soul music delights Runnels.
"There are things that surprise me. And I’m like, 'This is the future of soul music,' " he said.
Some of these growing performers will share the bill alongside Sparks and Oliver later this month.
We quantify the elements of music in various ways — beats per minute express tempo; intervals describe the space an artist travels to deliver a melody. Runnels and Co. hope to experience another aspect of music, one that's harder to measure but easy to identify — the community it creates.
The Blue Note is key to that vision, a venue organizers hoped to occupy. The size of the stage affords the sort of human connection Runnels craves.
"When people are on their feet, you can have a direct connection with the crowd — and, especially, if they’re giving energy back to you that you’re giving to them. It’s like a conversation," he said.
And this sense of community spills beyond the crowd. Soul Sessions events also introduce local businesses to their audience. Graduating to their biggest venue yet allows even more exposure and interaction between patrons and vendors, said Keondre Harrison, who coordinates logistics for Soul Sessions.
Organizers hope to sustain Soul Sessions on a monthly basis, and cross generational divides to bring the past, present and future of soul music together, Runnels said.
This month's Soul Sessions takes place at 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 29. Tickets are $10-$15. Find more information at https://thebluenote.com/.
Potential sponsors and others interested in Soul Sessions can contact organizers by emailing soulsessionscomo@gmail.com.
Aarik Danielsen is the features and culture editor for the Tribune. Contact him at adanielsen@columbiatribune.com or by calling 573-815-1731.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Columbia showcase presents the future of soul music
