Dec 28, 2009

BRIAN AUGER & THE TRINITY - DEFINITELY WHAT? (MARMALADE 1968) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 3 bonus




Brian Auger was raised in London, where he took up the keyboards as a child and began to hear jazz by way of the American Armed Forces Network and an older brother's record collection. By his teens, he was playing piano in clubs, and by 1962 he had formed the Brian Auger Trio with bass player Rick Laird and drummer Phil Knorra. In 1964, he won first place in the categories of "New Star" and "Jazz Piano" in a reader's poll in the Melody Maker music paper, but the same year he abandoned jazz for a more R&B-oriented approach and expanded his group to include John McLaughlin (guitar) and Glen Hughes (baritone saxophone) as the Brian Auger Trinity. This group split up at the end of 1964, and Auger moved over to Hammond B-3 organ, teaming with bass player Rick Brown and drummer Mickey Waller. After a few singles, he recorded his first LP on a session organized to spotlight blues singer Sonny Boy Williamson that featured his group, saxophonists Joe Harriott and Alan Skidmore, and guitarist Jimmy Page; it was Don't Send Me No Flowers, released in 1968.
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By mid-1965, Auger's band had grown to include guitarist Vic Briggs and vocalists Long John Baldry, Rod Stewart, and Julie Driscoll, and was renamed Steampacket. More a loosely organized musical revue than a group, Steampacket lasted a year before Stewart and Baldry left and the band split. Auger retained Driscoll and brought in bass player Dave Ambrose and drummer Clive Thacker to form a unit that was billed as Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger and the Trinity. Their first album, Open, was released in 1967 on Marmalade Records (owned by Auger's manager, Giorgio Gomelsky), but they didn't attract attention on record until the release of their single, "This Wheel's on Fire," in the spring of 1968, which preceded the appearance of the song on the Band's Music from Big Pink album. The disc hit the top five in the U.K., after which Open belatedly reached the British charts. Auger and the Trinity recorded the instrumental album Definitely What! (1968) without Driscoll, then brought her back for the double-LP, Streetnoise (1968), which reached the U.S. charts on Atco Records shortly after a singles compilation, Jools & Brian, gave them their American debut on Capitol in 1969. Driscoll quit during a U.S. tour, but the Trinity stayed together long enough to record Befour (1970), which charted in the U.S. on RCA Records, before disbanding in July 1970...
Here

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

As always, Small Town Pleasures is a classy and distinctive blog, far away from the rest This album by Brian Auger is a true jewel. Many, many thanks for this post. I have the album but this remastered japanese edition is a fantastic gift. All the visitors should pay attention to this awesome album.

Thanks again and a Happy New Year for you.

Julio

www.thatwasmusic.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

Just found your blog. Thanks for sharing this! We put you on our blog list. Have a Great New Year!

Anonymous said...

Can't wait to hear this one. Thanks Much.
Zim

Anonymous said...

nice post. thanks.

Mr B said...

hi thanks

linked you...

cheers

Gerard said...

Thanks

apollojams said...

Hi. Would love to join the happy throngs groovin' to the "Def...What" album, but RS is giving me the "DL permission denied by uploader" jazz-ola. Is there a workaround? Or is that just their way of saying "come back later, when it's not so busy"?
Thanx. Love your blog, btw. A pleasure to look at and absorb.