If there’s a lesson to be learned from Drop Hop, the debut album from the Alan Evans Trio, it’s this: Approach is everything. Despite identical instrumentations—organ, guitar and drums—drummer Alan Evans’s new trio couldn’t be more different from his main squeeze, Soulive. Where Soulive takes much of its inspiration from jazz and hip-hop, the AE3 is steeped in the un-slick, instrumental R&B of groups like The Meters, The Bar-Kays and Booker T. & The MG’s. Featuring Beau Sasser on organ and Danny Mayer on guitar, Drop Hop is fillerfree, without a wasted note or overlong solo to be found. The title track, a blues number, has late-‘60s written all over it: Swirling organ, spiky guitar and thick, trustworthy drums keeping everything funky and on time.
