Music Review: The Magnificent bring the soul to South Pasadena

When rhythm and blues collided with gospel music in the early 1950s, it scandalized the faithful, but the sound quickly developed into one of the most enduring and emotionally affecting styles in pop music.

It's a genre with a particularly rich heritage, and when high-voltage seven-piece soul band the Magnificent get going at South Pasadena's Barkley on Saturday, expect an explosive conflagration of nonstop, deep soul.

The aptly named band's dynamic presentation — two finger-popping vocalists flanked by a pair of shimmy-shaking go-go dancers, accompanied by a tight, joyously aggressive band — and a lovingly curated repertoire of funky 1960s-era rarities makes for a wildly satisfying, celebratory experience.

Comprised of tenured Los Angeles music stalwarts, mostly of the garage and punk rock persuasions, the Magnificent operate strictly for pleasure.

"The Magnificent is really like a side project for all of us. Everybody else is in their own bands and it can be difficult to get seven people together for a show, but it is a labor of love, and we do it as often as we can," said singer "Mighty" Manfred Jones, AKA the Professor of Rock and Soul. "We've been going for about three years now. Usually, I sing with my band [Athens, Ga garage rock veterans] the Woggles, but they are all down in the Southeast and I needed something I could do on this side of the country. I'd been wanting to do a soul-R&B thing and was talking with [singer] Nathan Long — he is the Deacon of the band, and he wanted to do the same thing."

"So, we thought, well, let's try it: Do a Sam & Dave type show. Hopefully it'll be a lot more Sam & Dave than Aykroyd and Belushi! Let's just do some cool R&B and soul songs that aren't as well known, so we got the players together, Bruce Duff and Todd Westover, Adam Bones on guitar, all the other guys and a couple of dancing gals, Moana Santana and Lux Lacroix."

"To me, being from the south, I love the Southern soul. It just hits me harder, especially if it's got some gospel to it, but really it's anything that moves you. We even throw in a little early rock & roll." Jones said.

The Magnificent aren't some standard issue Motown Madness greatest hits machine; their set list encompasses relatively obscure gems like Etta James and Sugar Pie DiSanto's party time anthem "In the Basement," Big Mama Thornton's frantic rocker "Wade in the Water," the Emperors' classic garage-funk throwdown "Karate," Edwin Starr's lusty foot-stomper "Twenty-Five Miles," and a few choice instrumentals, like Eddie Bo's New Orleans go-go funk workout "Pass the Hatchet."

Jones is a drastically skillful performer and Long matches his untamed physicality: "We put on a show, we've got the girls up there and the Deacon and I, we're all movin' and groovin'. It's a rock and soul revival, a soul-felt tapestry of sound and color. And the Barkley is a great room. We just set up on the floor, it's a free show and we do a couple of sets."

"I've been singing rock 'n' roll since 1987, with the Woggles," Jones said. "We formed down in Athens, Ga. We just wanted to play rock 'n' roll, garage rock, and back then bands like [garage revivalists] the Fleshtones and Lyres used to come though and, locally — we had Flat Duo Jets. There were a lot of punk bands in that scene but that wasn't what we wanted to do. And the Woggles are still going strong today. We just did a West Coast thing with the Pandoras, we go overseas. Next year we'll be touring along with the Sonics."

"My heart keeps beating, and it's in 4/4 time, it's in rhythm with the music so I just have to do it. Maybe I'm crazy, but it's all for the love of it — the Magnificent and the Woggles, it's about the passion, so we just keep it going."

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Who: The Magnificent

Where: The Barkley Restaurant & Bar, 1400 Huntington Dr., South Pasadena

When: Saturday, Dec. 19, 9:30 p.m.

Cost: Free

More info: (626) 799-0758, thebarkleyrestaurant.com

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JONNY WHITESIDE is a veteran music journalist based in Burbank and author of "Ramblin' Rose: the Life & Career of Rose Maddox" and "Cry: the Johnnie Ray Story."