Here’s a brand new Brian Auger compilation then: Back To The Beginning: The Brian Auger Anthology – to give it its full snappy title – as Freestyle Records gathers up no fewer than twenty-four tracks from the sixties mod icon who went on to explore the outer reaches of jazz fusion in the seventies where he’s pretty much been ever since. But don’t let that scare you off. The comp. looks to be arranged in broadly (if not strictly) chronological order with the early jazz piano years stuff kicking things off and ending with the Oblivion Express pulling into fusion central.
Surely the man’s best work (and some of his best known) however is that done in the company of Julie Driscoll and The Trinity – those organ-fuelled mid-to-late sixties soul workouts that included a number of excellent covers – among them Aretha Franklin’s Save Me – which appears here. And while that cut, Black Cat and Indian Rope Man have all appeared on Auger comps. in the past, this one passes over other usual suspects like Break It Up and Season Of The Witch in favour of lesser known gems such as mod burners Shake, That Driving Beat and (perhaps of most interest currently, given the resurgence of northern soul) the driving 60s rnb-vibe of I’ve Gotta Go Now. It’s not out till the start of next month, so there’s still time to get yourself Auger-nized.
(Out 4 September on Freestyle Records)