Fifty Years of Oakland soul and East Bay funk

When sax player Emilio Castillo put together the band that would evolve into Tower of Power in 1968, he had no grand expectations. “We were hoping to get good enough to play the Fillmore,” Castillo said. “I started the band in Fremont, at John F. Kennedy High, with my brother Jack, who was the original drummer. We called ourselves the Motowns and played covers, leaning heavily on the sound of Stax and Hi—Otis Redding, James Brown, Sam and Dave, and other soul acts.”