There are those strings, tastefully applied, and otherwise it's a lean rhythm-section affair.
The band knew it well, and the unbroken music kept changing, from a mellow line played on steel drums, bass and piano to highly chromatic full-band sections with rapid chord movement to lean rhythm-section montunos.
Rather than recreate the lean rhythm-and-blues arrangements of the great 1960's Motown studio bands, the concert deployed a large orchestra with strings, horns and backup singers, as well as 10 dancers doing a Gap ad version of 1960's go-go routines.
And the gospel standard "Woke Up This Morning (With My Mind on Jesus)" is lean — acoustic rhythm guitar, brushes on the drums — but determinedly celebratory.
At the album's core is a lean but darkly woozy rhythm section composed of Adam Benjamin on Fender Rhodes piano, Kaveh Rastegar on electric bass and Nate Wood on drums.
Many arrangements lean heavily on the rhythm section, with lesser contributions from strings, brass and woodwinds.
The Marshall Tucker Band drew from western swing, Wet Willie borrowed from soul, and the Atlanta Rhythm Section leaned toward country.
The National has always leaned heavily on its rhythm section to give its songs a frantic edge.
"Io Mi Son Giovinetta" ("I Am a Young Girl") and "Anima Dolorosa" ("Grieving Soul") both lean on lively, changeable rhythms, though for very different expressive effects.
The Israeli jazz bassist Avishai Cohen leads his International Vamp Band, which leans toward Latin rhythms; Silk Road plays Chinese folk music, and the steel drummer Andy Narell plays easygoing Caribbean-tinged jazz.
Working with leading Jamaican producers like Bunny Lee, Winston Riley, Prince Buster, Leslie Kong, Byron Lee, Lee Perry and Coxsone Dodd, he recorded hundreds of songs from 1963 to 1973 at a time when Jamaican ska was giving way to the leaner, more steadfast rhythms of rock steady and reggae.
