Royal Family

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.