In June 2018, Tower of Power marked its 50th anniversary by playing a pair of hometown concerts at Oakland, California’s Fox Theater, and now the veteran horn-driven soul band is set to release a live album and video documenting the performances.

50 Years of Funk & Soul: Live at the Fox Theater will be released on March 26 as a three-LP vinyl set, a two-CD/DVD combo, a standalone DVD, and digitally. In addition, a high-res digital-audio edition will be released as an exclusive download and for streaming on February 26 via Qobuz.

The Fox Theater concerts featured the 10-piece band performing with an expanded lineup augmenting with extra horns and strings.

Making the shows extra special, Tower of Power band leader and sax player Emilio Castillo invited several notable former members to make guest appearances, including saxophonist Lenny Pickett — longtime musical director of the Saturday Night Live band — ex-Santana keyboardist Chester Thompson, guitarist Bruce Conte and singer Ray Greene.

Tower of Power played a career-spanning set list at the shows that included its early-1970s chart hits “You’re Still a Young Man,” “So Very Hard to Go” and “Don’t Change Horses,” as well as selections from its two most recent albums, 2018’s Soul Side of Town and 2020’s Step Up.

“People come up to me all the time and say, ‘Wow man, 50 years! We can’t believe it,'” Castillo notes, laughing. “I’m the one that can’t believe it. We’ve been through a lot of ups and downs and learned a lot along the way. We’ve affected a lot of people’s lives and done a lot of work that we’re very proud of.”

You can pre-order 50 Years of Funk & Soul now.

Here’s the track list for the album’s CDs:

CD 1

“Stroke ’75”
“Ain’t Nothing Stopping Us Now”
“You Ought to Be Having Fun”
“Soul with a Capital S”
“Stop”
“You’re So Wonderful, So Marvelous”
“On the Serious Side”
“Just When We Start Makin’ It”
“Soul Vaccination”
“What Is Hip?”/”Soul Power”
“Do You Like That?”
“Drop It in the Slot”

CD 2

“Can’t You See (You Doin’ Me Wrong)?”
“Maybe It’ll Rub Off”
“Don’t Change Horses”
“Squib Cakes”
“On the Soul Side of Town”
“Diggin’ on James Brown (Medley)”
“So Very Hard to Go”
“Knock Yourself Out”
“You’re Still a Young Man”
“Souled Out”

By Matt Friedlander
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