StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: 50 years of Tower of Power

This week, our video spotlight is focused on Tower of Power, who will be coming to St. Louis to perform next Saturday, August 11 at River City Casino.

Touring this summer to celebrate 50 years as a band and to support a newly released album called Soul Side of Town, TOP under the direction of co-founder and tenor saxophonist Emilio Castillo has maintained its signature sound through dozens of personnel changes and shows no sign of slowing down.

You can see the current edition of the band in today's collection of videos, all but one of which come from the 50th anniversary tour. The first clip up above features a performance of the title track from Soul Side of Town, recorded in May for the BBC Two program Later… with Jools Holland.

After the jump, you can see three audience-made clips from the band's 50th anniversary shows presented the first weekend of June at the Fox Theater in their hometown of Oakland, CA: a medley of "What is Hip?" and "Soul Power"; the instrumental "Squib Cakes"; and a medley of "Do You Like That?" and "Drop It In The Slot."

That's followed by another medley, including "Soul with a Capital S," "You Ought To Be Having Fun," and "On The Soul Side Of Town," recorded in May in Tucson, AZ.

Last but not least, the final video offer a retrospective look at the band's past, documenting TOP's 40th anniversary show in 2008 in Oakland.

For more about Tower of Power and Soul Side of Town, read Castillo's interview with Billboard from April of this year; his interview published last week in Denver's Westword; and this review of a show in March in Lake Tahoe, NV.

You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...