POWER OF SOUL

OVER THE COURSE of his 40-year recording career, Robert Cray has forged a sophisticated blues-soul sound that is timeless, even while it has hewed to the roots of the Memphis soul scene. His recordings have been imbued with the sound of Stax and Hi Records, and he even cut his 2017 Grammy-nominated album, Robert Cray and Hi Rhythm, with members of that label’s rhythm section.

For his latest release, That’s What I Heard (Nozzle/Thirty Tigers), the guitarist has taken a different tack by paying tribute to the sound of Sam Cooke’s late-’50s/early ’60s soul, R&B and gospel records, which the late singer cut in Hollywood. The album is Cray’s sixth with producer/drummer Steve Jordan and was recorded at L.A.’s legendary Capitol Studios.

“One of the great things about working with Steve Jordan is he’s really good at putting people in the mood and capturing that mood in the studio,” Cray says. “Part of it was the combination of the styles we were going after — like doing a Curtis Mayfield number and a gospel number and stuff like that — and also by being at Capitol and using some of those old microphones