Shand Explores R&B; and Soul Sounds at El Rey

Remy Shand gets soul music. It may be surprising that he’s a white man from Winnipeg, but ultimately that’s irrelevant. At the El Rey Theatre on Friday, long improvisational passages suggested he aims not simply to imitate R&B; history, but to explore thoroughly the sound from the inside.

On his self-produced debut album, “The Way I Feel,” Shand taps into some of the most exciting, timeless corners of laid-back ‘70s funk, showing his debt to the likes of Marvin Gaye and Sly Stone. He performs virtually all the instruments himself on the album. But at the El Rey, Shand was better served by the interaction of a live band.

Onstage, the music was sweatier, punchier, matching a heartbreak beat with a voice to back it up: a crisp, reedy tenor that could be breathy when he wanted to be. Sitting behind four keyboards, he performed something he called “our L.A. jam,” more jazz-funk groove than finished song, with the words “Send me to the front line!” repeated like a lovelorn mantra.

“Take a Message” opened with a falsetto cry, demonstrating that his chosen tradition includes as much Prince as ‘70s soul heroes. For “The Mind’s Eye,” the 24-year-old picked up an electric guitar, breathing deeply into the mike.

Classic soul keeps coming back for good reason. But it requires performers of depth to bring it alive. Between songs Shand was no husky-voiced loverman, but whenever he sang one of those slow jams, it was plenty authentic.