Isley Brothers Are Back, With Some Hip-Hop Help

Ronald Isley, whose voice has defined the smooth, classic Isley Brothers sound, is delighted to talk all day about the Isleys reunion and his new hit with R. Kelly.

He’ll also reminisce freely about the night in Philadelphia that the group first performed “Shout” and became overnight stars . . . the time he discovered an unknown guitarist named Jimmy James and hired him for the Isleys’ band (he became better known later as Jimi Hendrix) . . . his close friendship with Marvin Gaye.

But it takes a special question to give him pause: How old are you?

“I don’t know if I want everybody to know that I’m 55,” Isley says with a deep, mischievous laugh. “If I say I’m only 50, I might get to do five more years of this stuff.”

At a time where most veteran musicians are counting on boxed set retrospectives to keep the royalties flowing, Isley is reintroducing himself to the pop market with an adolescent’s enthusiasm--as well as with his appearance on R. Kelly’s “Down Low,” one of the season’s hottest pop singles.

The record, which features Isley’s effortless falsetto wailing behind Kelly’s lead voice, has put the singer and the Isley Brothers back in the pop spotlight.

On Tuesday Island Records will release “Mission to Please,” the first formal Isleys album since 1987. It reunites Ronald with his brothers, guitarist Ernie and bassist Marvin, who are hoping to attract an audience familiar with the Isley catalog mostly through the recycling of their riffs on hip-hop records. The album’s tracks were produced by such contemporary hotshots as Kelly and Babyface.

Bruce St. James, program director of radio station KPWR-FM, thinks the R. Kelly single sets the album up nicely.

“Any time you have the opportunity to be on a hit single or involved in the video, it’s gonna be helpful,” St. James says.

“You see that happening with an artist like [R&B; singer] Roger doing a song with 2Pac and Dr. Dre, and you see Roger’s catalog doing well. There’s a measure of respect, even with younger kids who weren’t around when those records were big hits the first time. Besides, the Isleys’ music still sounds fresh. It doesn’t sound like you’re having to play an oldie.”

Given that old Isley songs have fueled big hits for hip-hop stars such as the Notorious B.I.G., Da Brat and Ice Cube, you’d think Isley would have a ready answer when asked about the enduring impact of the group, which was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.

But Isley finds himself at a loss.

“I can’t put it into a couple of words,” the Cincinnati native says. “It’s almost like the Ford motor car. It’s still here, and after all the changes, we’re still around.

“I’ll stand outside of wedding receptions and when everybody starts dancing to ‘Shout,’ I want to run inside and say, ‘Hey, I wrote that.’ Or I’ll watch the Super Bowl and people in the stands will be singing ‘Twist and Shout’ like it just came out last month. That’s just the way our music is. It’s a gift from God.”

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Raised in the gospel tradition, Ronald and his brothers O’Kelly and Rudolph moved to New York from Cincinnati in 1956 after winning some local talent shows.

After languishing on small labels, the group signed with RCA in 1958. A year later the group recorded “Shout,” a fiery mixture of church-style call-and-response chants and pure rock ‘n’ roll romance. The effect was electrifying.

“It was like the sky opened up,” Isley remembers, still conveying the excitement he must have felt at the time. “We moved from the front of the shows to the end. Nobody could come on after we played that record--the crowd would leave.”

(The song became part of the live repertoire of the Beatles, who had a big hit with another Isleys song, “Twist and Shout.”)

Over the years, the Isleys added younger brothers Ernie and Marvin and brother-in-law Chris Jasper, and expanded their sound into a blistering amalgamation of new soul flavored with choice bits of rock ‘n’ roll and funk, keeping pace with Earth, Wind & Fire and Parliament/Funkadelic in the ‘70s.

Things began slowing down in the late ‘70s and the group eventually split up in 1984--with the original circle of elders--Ronald, O’Kelly and Rudolph--moving to Warner Bros. Records and the youngsters (Ernie, Chris and Marvin) forming their own group--Isley, Jasper, Isley--and releasing two albums for Epic.

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O’Kelly died in 1986, and Rudolph was on his way to becoming a minister. Ronald released a few modestly successful solo albums that he produced with Angela Winbush (who would later become his wife), but the prospect of any new Isley Brothers records seemed unlikely--until pop music’s latest upheaval occurred.

“Thank God for hip-hop,” Ronald says with a chuckle. Rap producers, impressed with the versatility of the Isleys’ grooves, made the old recordings an integral part of hip-hop’s sampling vocabulary. That meant fat royalty checks and, perhaps more important, renewed exposure.

Ronald is optimistic about the new album and his reunion with his brothers.

“This is gonna be our biggest record yet,” he says with a rookie’s enthusiasm. “Our main focus is to show how we can take it even further than before, and we’re gonna make this a very special record. I’m not gonna scream the lyrics at you, or get loudly soulful. I’m gonna make it so, in the bedroom, the record won’t disturb your groove. It will only enhance what you’re trying to do.”