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Brian Auger: Listen Here

Rating: 92/100 (learn more)

Brian Auger is much better known in Europe than in America. The keyboardist has been in the thick of the English jazz and R&B movement for 40 years. He was one of only a handful of musicians to successfully incorporate R&B, jazz, rock, soul and pop into a homogenized mix in the '60s. Luckily for him, much of it met with commercial success in Great Britain. It can rightly be said that Auger had a hand or two in planting the seeds of jazz-fusion. Auger wasn't just one of these guys who tried to sound like everyone else. He was a thinking man's musician. His take on Eddie Harris's hit "Listen Here" is a perfect example.

Auger wanted a unique sound to best express his version of the Harris pop-jazz piece. He wanted it to sound more like a rock record. That was a unique thought in 1970. So he augmented his popular group at the time by adding another bassist and three more drummers! That makes for one heavy beat and a deep groove. Auger plays a rolling Hammond organ and a pounding piano. Boyle's guitar pierces through the fireworks. Auger's solo is in your face. This is a Traffic jam on human growth hormone. The power of this performance is quite overwhelming. Auger says Eddie Harris told him it was his favorite cover of his composition. I have no doubt.

Reviewer: Walter Kolosky

Tags: 1970s jazz · fusion