Gabriel Roth says he was at his best musically when he played bass on stage behind the dynamic Sharon Jones as part of Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings.
The Grammy-winning performer, producer, record label owner and engineer, who is also credited under the alias Bosco Mann, said that a huge part of his life was gone following Jones’ death in 2016.
“I was very grateful for the time that I had, but at the same time, as more time passed after her death, I kind of found myself floating a little bit and in a strange place musically where I didn’t really feel I had the energy to start something,” he said.
These days things are different. Roth has launched Penrose Records, an imprint of the Brooklyn-based Daptone Records that he co-founded, in his hometown of Riverside, with a stable of Southern California acts making “souldies” (soul + oldies) records.
Penrose Records will release inaugural set of 45 RPM records from five different artists on the label in June: Thee Sacred Souls from San Diego; Jason Joshua from Miami; Thee Sinseers and The Altons, both from East Los Angeles; and Los Yesterdays from Altadena.
Riverside-based Vicky Tafoya and The Big Beat, another group that recorded with Roth, will also have a 45 out as part of a subsequent release.
“This Penrose thing kind of really made sense to me. It let me say, ‘You know what? I did my thing,’” Roth said. “Now it’s time for these artists in this scene to do their thing and my job now is to be generous with them in whatever I can as far as studios and recording and distribution and money and pressing records. … whatever I can do to help them kind of elevate their scene and it kind of gave me a new purpose in a way.”
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Coming home
A Riverside native, Roth moved to the East Coast in 1992 to study at New York University, with plans to become a high school math teacher. But he also discovered some courses in recording.
That ultimately led to co-founding Daptone Records in Brooklyn and the label started putting out records from artists such as Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, the Sugarman 3, Lee Fields, the Budos Band, Charles Bradley and more. The label’s studio in Bushwick was also where Amy Winehouse recorded her breakthrough “Back to Black,” which netted Roth a Grammy for his engineering work on the hit “Rehab.”
The husband and father moved back to Riverside with his family in 2010 as he continued to perform with Jones, but for years also split time going back to Brooklyn to run the business and record artists.
Roth also began to record in Riverside, where he built a temporary live room in an apartment in the Life Arts Center downtown in a space he dubbed Penrose Studios. It’s where he recorded the James Hunter Six’s album “Hold On,” which was released in 2016.
But with the passing of Daptone acts Jones in late 2016 and Charles Bradley a year later, Roth started spending less time in New York and more time at home. He recorded with Hunter again in Riverside in the Life Arts Building for the 2018 release “Whatever It Takes” as well as for this year’s “Nick of Time.” Roth eventually took over the space permanently last November.
Taking root
Soul music and oldies have decades of history in Southern California. Roth noted the music’s long-running ties with Chicano and car club culture in the region.
“They were always into oldies and soul records but it was most definitely DJs and compilations and stuff, whereas all of a sudden, in these last few years, there’s been this explosion of young bands,” he said.
Slowly, Roth began to meet the acts in the souldies scene that would become the network of roots that has blossomed into the Penrose label.
“I met somebody and they’d introduce me to someone else and I’d see somebody else’s show and somebody would say ‘Oh you’ve got to check these guys out’ and next thing I know we’d found a new little family of musicians here.”
As was the case with Daptone, Penrose grew out of a network of artists who have built the imprint (literally) and have been recording music and singing background or playing instruments on each other’s songs.
Gabriel Rowland and Victor Benavides from Los Yesterdays were among the musicians involved in helping to turn the Riverside apartment space into a permanent studio.
“When Roth was building Penrose, man, it was like just like he did Daptone. It was the same thing: He got the homies together and everyone did what they could,” Benavides said, explaining that musicians were hammering, carrying drywall and putting in equipment.
Benavides said he was particularly excited about putting in glass for the recording booth in which he knew he soon would be recording music.
Joey Quinones, lead vocalist for the band Thee Sinseers, was also involved in converting the apartment into a recording studio and that further helped the network of artists to grow.
“A mutual friend got us in there, we met, we hit it off and he invited me to come throw away some trash and I kept bringing more and more friends and next thing you know we’re cutting records there pretty much,” Quinones said. “It’s just kind of as organic and neighborly as you can get, you know?”
Team building
Many of the Penrose artists got to know each other as the studio came together and not only backed each another on songs but also formed close personal friendships.
“There’s a camaraderie among the musicians on this label that’s coming up,” Adriana Flores, of The Altons, said.
That’s something that Tafoya, who had been brought on to sing background before recording her own 45, also found.
“These people are awesome,” Tafoya said. “Every single person in every band. Sometimes you see the person with the folded arms who’s like, ‘Hey, who’s that?’ There’s none of that.”
Matt Beld, Tafoya’s bandmate, said that after singing background for some of the soul tracks, other artists on the label then sang background for their songs.
Though originally the record imprint had hoped to put on some showcases for the artists on the label to perform, those have been postponed because of the novel coronavirus.
“I really like the idea, particularly through these showcases and stuff, of these artists coming together as a family and kind of understanding how much they can accomplish by kind of teaming up as opposed to looking at each other as competition.”
Roth said he wants to do full albums eventually, but really, 45s made the most sense to start.
“That’s really the format of that scene,” he said. “It always has been since the ’60s. It was always kind of a real 45, single-based genre so it really makes sense and there’s a great market for it. And it’s a lot simpler as far as the investment of time and money, and even on the artist side as far as what they have to sacrifice to do it.”
He’s glad to be able to help bring the scene some exposure, while letting it be its own thing apart from what Daptone does.
“We’re kind of walking a line and trying to put those resources behind it but at the same time give it enough room to have its own sound and its own feel, you know?” he said. “And really let these musicians and these bands dictate what that is.”