Since the end of the 1990s, jazz-funk trio Soulive have melded vintage soul-jazz with modern jazz-funk, sophisticated pop, and hip-hop. Their core membership includes guitarist/producer (and co-founder) , drummer and studio engineer , and Neal Evans on Hammond B-3 organ and keyboards (and a first-call sideman for many artists. While they record and play together as an instrumental trio, they have collaborated with horn players and vocalists. The band’s 1999 debut Get Down! registered with college audiences and won them international touring spots with , , and others. Between 2001 and 2003 they issued three Top Ten albums as part of a non-exclusive deal with , including the number three Next. They shifted to for 2005’s Break Out. Between 2006 and 2007 they collaborated with vocalist Toussaint Yeshua, resulting in the band’s album No Place Like Soul. For 2009’s Up Here, their debut, they recruited vocalist and a horn section. The following year Soulive delivered an instrumental tribute to entitled Rubber Soulive, and Live at the Blue Note Tokyo that featured jazz trumpeter in the horn section. 2012’s Spark was a collaboration with . Soulive spent the next five years on an informal hiatus while its members pursued other projects. They reunited for the studio EP Cinematics, Vol. 1 in 2018, and in 2021 issued Gettin Down at Hampshire College and re-released an expanded version of Get Down! ‎

The band was formed in Woodstock, New York in 1996. and Neal had been members of – also played with – and then hip-hop with Edreys () as , then formed a jazz organ trio by enlisting former schoolmate and guitarist to record some tracks with them in their home studio. That session became the Get Down! EP, released on their own , and they hit the road. Soulive toured with and opened for a number of notables (including , , , , and ) before headlining their own shows.