The Brothers are a British trio of singers, songwriters, producers and multi-instrumentalists based in Europe, who mix soul, jazz and pop. They started out as The Illumination Experience, which is also the title of their debut album, produced by the band and released on 19 April 2015; Incognito remixed its “Get Down”, and Bah Samba reworked “Now Is the Right Time”. In March 2025 they put out Keeping the Music Alive, an EP with the guitarist Mark Whitfield, the vibraphonist Sasha Berliner and the saxophonist Stacy Dillard, and that November Whitfield joined them at Nublu in New York for a night billed as The Brothers & Friends. A 10th anniversary edition of the debut, remixes included, followed in December. This July, as winners of the talent contest Ageas Cooljazz runs with Smooth FM, they played the festival’s Cascais Jazz Sessions stage on the night Franz Ferdinand headlined.
Bobby Caldwell, who died in March 2023, wrote “What You Won’t Do for Love” with Alfons Kettner and released it in 1978 as the lead single from his self-titled debut. It reached No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became his signature song. The Brothers recorded it for The Illumination Experience, and the long version on this single, out on 5 June through In The Pocket Productions, is that 2015 recording, at just over seven and a half minutes. What is new is a 3:49 radio edit, which leads the release. The artwork redraws the cover of Caldwell’s debut: there, a lone silhouette in a hat sits on a park bench against a huge orange sun; here, three of them share the bench.
It works. A song from 1978 comes out sounding like the late 1980s and the 1990s, and the mood it sets is a good one: warm and easy to sink into.
