Biography
Prior to emerging as a solo performer in 1992 under the adopted name Little Steven and leading Little Steven & the Disciples of Soul, Steven Van Zandt had already built a reputation as a formidable songwriter, instrumentalist, and producer. As a key architect of the signature New Jersey sound through his role in Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and his guidance of Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes, Little Steven infused the Disciples of Soul's first album, 1992's Men Without Women, with a robust blend of Jersey-style rock and blue-eyed soul. On the politically charged 1984 release Voice of America he forged an international hard-rock approach, while 1987's Freedom No Compromise incorporated funk and hip-hop textures. Although he sidelined the Disciples of Soul during the 1990s and 2000s to concentrate on solo projects and continued work with Bruce Springsteen, the 2017 album Soulfire prompted him to reconvene a new lineup of the group for the subsequent tour captured on 2018's Soulfire Live!, after which they reconvened in the studio to create 2019's Summer of Sorcery.
Born Steven Lento on November 22, 1950, in Winthrop, Massachusetts, Little Steven Van Zandt saw his mother, Mary Lento, remarry William Brewster Van Zandt when the future musician was seven; he took his stepfather's surname and the household moved to Middleton Township, New Jersey. After acquiring a guitar in childhood and forming his first group, the Whirlwinds, in 1964 following the Beatles and the Rolling Stones' arrival in America, Van Zandt encountered fellow New Jersey musician Bruce Springsteen in 1967. The pair forged a close friendship and collaborated in the hard-rock outfit Steel Mill; Van Zandt later joined the Bruce Springsteen Band after Steel Mill disbanded and supplemented his income with bar-band gigs. While performing on the oldies circuit as guitarist for the Dovells, he learned that Springsteen's career was accelerating, which drew him back to New Jersey to launch his own venture. Although his formal tenure was brief, Van Zandt became an indispensable behind-the-scenes contributor to Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes, the incendiary blue-eyed soul ensemble fronted by vocalist Johnny Lyon: he helped assemble the band, penned most of its strongest material, and produced its first three albums—I Don't Want to Go Home (1976), This Time It's for Real (1977), and Hearts of Stone (1978)—all while serving as guitarist in Springsteen's E Street Band, a post he assumed in 1975 during the Born to Run sessions.
When Springsteen issued the superstar-making Born in the U.S.A. in 1984, Van Zandt had already parted amicably from the E Street Band ahead of the supporting tour. He had made his solo debut two years earlier with Men Without Women, adopting the Little Steven stage name and introducing the Disciples of Soul, a potent rock-and-soul revue styled after the Asbury Jukes and featuring Jukes horn-section alumni, Rascals drummer Dino Danelli, Alvin Ailey percussionist Monti Louis Ellison, and ex-Plasmatics bassist Jean Beauvoir. For 1984's Voice of America Little Steven steered the ensemble toward a harder-edged rock direction by eliminating the horn section and infusing the lyrics with a pronounced leftist political perspective; he also recorded the anti-Reagan single "Vote That Mutha Out," which his label initially limited to release in the Netherlands. The third Little Steven album, 1987's Freedom No Compromise, maintained the political focus yet relied primarily on session musicians rather than the Disciples of Soul and appeared under the solo billing Little Steven.
Throughout much of the 1990s Van Zandt maintained a lower profile, engaging in occasional live appearances and recording an unreleased album with his garage-rock side project the Lost Boys, until Springsteen reassembled the E Street Band in 1995 to cut new tracks for his Greatest Hits collection and formalized the reunion with a worldwide tour in 1999, diplomatically reinstating both Van Zandt and his replacement Nils Lofgren. Occupied with hosting Little Steven's Underground Garage radio program, acting on The Sopranos and Lilyhammer, operating Wicked Cool Records, and recording and touring alongside Springsteen, Van Zandt had suspended his solo work until 2017, when he returned with Soulfire, an album emphasizing the vintage soul and R&B strains that had defined his Asbury Jukes productions and Men Without Women. To support the record he assembled a fresh 15-piece Disciples of Soul featuring guitarist and musical director Marc Ribler, drummer Rich Mercurio, bassist Jack Daley, and a large complement of keyboardists, horn players, and backing vocalists; the tour was documented on the 2018 live album Soulfire Live!, credited to Little Steven & the Disciples of Soul. That configuration promptly reentered the studio to record the stylistically varied Summer of Sorcery, issued in May 2019. In January 2021 Little Steven & the Disciples of Soul released Macca to Mecca!, a live collection drawn from two 2018 British concerts saluting the Beatles—one at the London Roundhouse featuring a guest appearance by Paul McCartney, the other at Liverpool's Cavern Club, the Fab Four's former haunt.
Born Steven Lento on November 22, 1950, in Winthrop, Massachusetts, Little Steven Van Zandt saw his mother, Mary Lento, remarry William Brewster Van Zandt when the future musician was seven; he took his stepfather's surname and the household moved to Middleton Township, New Jersey. After acquiring a guitar in childhood and forming his first group, the Whirlwinds, in 1964 following the Beatles and the Rolling Stones' arrival in America, Van Zandt encountered fellow New Jersey musician Bruce Springsteen in 1967. The pair forged a close friendship and collaborated in the hard-rock outfit Steel Mill; Van Zandt later joined the Bruce Springsteen Band after Steel Mill disbanded and supplemented his income with bar-band gigs. While performing on the oldies circuit as guitarist for the Dovells, he learned that Springsteen's career was accelerating, which drew him back to New Jersey to launch his own venture. Although his formal tenure was brief, Van Zandt became an indispensable behind-the-scenes contributor to Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes, the incendiary blue-eyed soul ensemble fronted by vocalist Johnny Lyon: he helped assemble the band, penned most of its strongest material, and produced its first three albums—I Don't Want to Go Home (1976), This Time It's for Real (1977), and Hearts of Stone (1978)—all while serving as guitarist in Springsteen's E Street Band, a post he assumed in 1975 during the Born to Run sessions.
When Springsteen issued the superstar-making Born in the U.S.A. in 1984, Van Zandt had already parted amicably from the E Street Band ahead of the supporting tour. He had made his solo debut two years earlier with Men Without Women, adopting the Little Steven stage name and introducing the Disciples of Soul, a potent rock-and-soul revue styled after the Asbury Jukes and featuring Jukes horn-section alumni, Rascals drummer Dino Danelli, Alvin Ailey percussionist Monti Louis Ellison, and ex-Plasmatics bassist Jean Beauvoir. For 1984's Voice of America Little Steven steered the ensemble toward a harder-edged rock direction by eliminating the horn section and infusing the lyrics with a pronounced leftist political perspective; he also recorded the anti-Reagan single "Vote That Mutha Out," which his label initially limited to release in the Netherlands. The third Little Steven album, 1987's Freedom No Compromise, maintained the political focus yet relied primarily on session musicians rather than the Disciples of Soul and appeared under the solo billing Little Steven.
Throughout much of the 1990s Van Zandt maintained a lower profile, engaging in occasional live appearances and recording an unreleased album with his garage-rock side project the Lost Boys, until Springsteen reassembled the E Street Band in 1995 to cut new tracks for his Greatest Hits collection and formalized the reunion with a worldwide tour in 1999, diplomatically reinstating both Van Zandt and his replacement Nils Lofgren. Occupied with hosting Little Steven's Underground Garage radio program, acting on The Sopranos and Lilyhammer, operating Wicked Cool Records, and recording and touring alongside Springsteen, Van Zandt had suspended his solo work until 2017, when he returned with Soulfire, an album emphasizing the vintage soul and R&B strains that had defined his Asbury Jukes productions and Men Without Women. To support the record he assembled a fresh 15-piece Disciples of Soul featuring guitarist and musical director Marc Ribler, drummer Rich Mercurio, bassist Jack Daley, and a large complement of keyboardists, horn players, and backing vocalists; the tour was documented on the 2018 live album Soulfire Live!, credited to Little Steven & the Disciples of Soul. That configuration promptly reentered the studio to record the stylistically varied Summer of Sorcery, issued in May 2019. In January 2021 Little Steven & the Disciples of Soul released Macca to Mecca!, a live collection drawn from two 2018 British concerts saluting the Beatles—one at the London Roundhouse featuring a guest appearance by Paul McCartney, the other at Liverpool's Cavern Club, the Fab Four's former haunt.
Albums
Singles
