Brian Auger

Brian Auger is one of the least known but most revered musicians that the UK has produced and his career goes all the way back to ‘straight’ jazz in the early 1960’s and through the British R&B boom with Steampacket (which included Rod Stewart, Long John Baldry, Julie Driscoll, Micky Waller in the lineup) in the mid-60’s and on to rock & pop with Brian Auger Trinity in the late 60’s. Finally, and to date, he has been with Brian Auger’s Oblivion Express ever since. All of that experience is covered on this collection.

He has had a career as a session musician as well, working with names like The Yardbirds (he played keys on ‘For Your Love’), Rod Stewart, Tony Williams, Jimi Hendrix, John McLaughlin, Sonny Boy Williamson, and Eric Burdon.

The collection here is fascinating.
The two early solo numbers are pretty straight jazz and the energy and passion is clear.

From there we move to his years with Steampacket, who were never officially recorded except for a few demo tracks to advertise the band. ‘Just Got Some’ features Rod Stewart on vocals, a pretty standard R&B number with Auger playing Hammond for the first time, ‘Sidewinder’, a Lee Morgan instrumental jazz piece & ‘Up Above My Head’ a gospel number with both Rod Stewart & Long John Baldry swapping their vocal chops.

‘Walk With Me’ sees the first mention of The Trinity and with Sonny Boy Williamson and Jimmy Page in the lineup it is a belting R&B number complete with horns.
After that the familiar Trinity material starts to appear and it’s easy to see that he is still straddling the Jazz & R&B worlds as the straight Jazz of ‘In & Out’ gives way to a great rock version of Duck Dunn & Steve Cropper’s ‘Red Beans & Rice’.
The transitions from Jazz to R&B to Rock are fascinating and it is incredible to hear the common denominator of Brian Auger all through. This is all strong material and fits together really well.
The ‘Trinity’ material sees him in a more ‘Pop’ mode with covers of Sly Stone’s ‘I Wanna Take You Higher’, The Doors ‘Light My Fire’ (a remarkable version with Julie Driscoll on vocals) and the most successful (commercially) track, Rick Danko’s ‘This Wheel’s On Fire’.

Then it morphs into Brian Auger’s Oblivion Express and his jazz origins once again are to the fore. A lot of these tracks are in the ‘Jazz Fusion’ genre but he also developed the origins of acid jazz and jazz/funk and rightly received a US Congressional Certificate of Special Recognition for his ‘contribution to the American art form of Jazz’.

The whole album is an intriguing and informative introduction (to the uninitiated) to a brilliant musician. Inevitably, every track won’t appeal to everyone but there is enough here to grab the ear of most people whose interest touches on jazz and R&B.