Soulive crashed out of the Northeast soul jazz scene around the turn of the millennium, an uber-talented and ultra-cool trio of brothers Neal and Alan Evans on keys and drums, respectively, and guitarist Eric Krasno. The guys were hot-chopped torch bearers for the Grant Green/Wes Montgomery organ-trio style of Blue Note Records in the late ’60s, pumping out tight, punchy instrumental jams punctuated by Alan Evans’ hiphop-inflected drumming and Krasno’s hollow-body guitar flights. Their first two albums were incredible, fully within that classic jazz trio lineage that they studied, but fresh and vital as hell. Their live shows were impeccably funky affairs, headnodding on mid-tempo, organ-driven compositions and furious improvisation made to look easy.

It’s been a bumpy ride since then.

They added an able sax player in Sam Kinninger, a move that only diluted the hard-swinging power of the trio format. Their only album on Blue Note was good but not great. Their last album matched the trio with a slew of guest vocalists and musicians, from Chaka Khan to Ivan Neville to Reggie Watts—further watering down their instrumental potency. Armed with a chunk of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, their performances in 2004-2005 were actually majorly raucous affairs, proving that they still had the chops and the energy to kill in a live setting.

Adding vocalists, horns, and MCs (they’ve backed Talib Kweli on a number of occassions and fucking wrecked shit) makes for a more accessible sound than the straight jazz trio. I understand a band as supremely talented as Soulive needing to reach the masses, but I wish there was a different way to attempt it.

Recently signed to the revived Stax label, Soulive has a new album set for July release. They’ve got a few sample tracks on their MySpace page. They added a full-time vocalist. Hoo boy.

Rebirthed as a 21st century soul/R&B band, they again settle for a more accessible, vocal-heavy style that frankly just isn’t their forte. This new guy, Toussaint, has a sort of reggaeified Marvin Gaye thing going on that’s good but, lyrically, could be better. The few vocal songs on their MySpace are alright; the one instrumental track slams. And that’s the problem with adding a vocalist to a great instrumental band: Unless he or she is REALLY good, it’s only gonna mediocritize your sound. Is that even a word? It should be, because that seems to be what’s happening here.

Soulive plays the Showbox on May 28.