{"id":23251,"date":"2022-06-29T05:30:12","date_gmt":"2022-06-29T09:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=23251"},"modified":"2022-06-23T10:58:41","modified_gmt":"2022-06-23T14:58:41","slug":"whenever-youre-ready-brian-auger-celebrates-60-years-in-music-part-3-of-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2022\/06\/29\/whenever-youre-ready-brian-auger-celebrates-60-years-in-music-part-3-of-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Whenever You\u2019re Ready: Brian Auger Celebrates 60 Years in Music (Part 3 of 3)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part Two<\/a>\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

\"\"The electric fusion group drew inspiration from across the musical landscape, combining sounds the likes of which one might find on a Miles Davis album of the era with a funky soul and r&b sensibility. Among the Oblivion Express\u2019 most beloved recordings is a scintillating Auger original, \u201cHappiness is Just Around the Bend.\u201d The song would be an r&b Top 10 single in 1974 when covered by soul trio The Main Ingredient.<\/p>\n

Oblivion Express showcased a great deal of excellent original material by Auger and\/or his band mates, some of whom would go on to play with The Average White Band and Santana. And \u2013 like any good jazz ensemble \u2013 the band truly excelled at interpreting the work of others. Some of the group\u2019s most rewarding recordings include covers of Marvin Gaye\u2019s \u201cInner City Blues,\u201d Wes Montgomery\u2019s classic \u201cBumpin\u2019 on Sunset\u201d and Eddie Harris and Les McCann\u2019s \u201cCompared to What.\u201d<\/p>\n

Auger always intended Oblivion Express to explore musical areas outside the prevailing pop mainstream. He drew inspiration from early and \u201coutside\u201d sources, but channeled that inspiration to yield contemporary results. He recalls having conversations with his friend (and fellow keyboard hero) Keith Emerson. \u201cWe used to have a good laugh,\u201d Auger says. \u201cOur styles were so different, but when when we started to recount who we’d been listening to, it was all the same people!\u201d<\/p>\n

Oblivion Express went inactive after 1977\u2019s Happiness Heartaches<\/i>. Auger stayed busy throughout the following decades with session work and touring, and acting as musical director for a German television series. Once the 21st<\/sup> century rolled around, he re-formed Oblivion Express, this time with a lineup that included members of his family.<\/p>\n

Auger explains how that came about. \u201cMy son Karma, who is the eldest, started to play drums, and I thought, \u2018Wow, he\u2019s actually really good!\u2019 And he starting learning all my tunes.\u201d From a young age, daughter Ali was \u201ca Sarah Vaughan freak,\u201d Auger says, \u201cand she just has the most wonderful voice.\u201d Eventually Ali found that the musician\u2019s life on the road was not for her, so she stepped away.<\/p>\n

The band needed a replacement, and Karma suggested his other sister. \u201cShe had done several plays for her high school and college,\u201d Auger says. \u201cBut I said, \u2018Savannah doesn\u2019t sing!\u2019\u201d Karma assured his dad that yes, she did. \u201cBut you\u2019ve never heard her,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Intrigued but a bit skeptical, Auger said to his son, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you ask her to learn a half dozen tunes, and then we\u2019ll do a rehearsal?\u201d That happened, and Auger says he was \u201cblown away. I was like, \u2018Do you want to come on tour with us?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Auger \u2013 who has long had a reputation of surrounding himself with top-flight musicians \u2013 emphasizes that his progeny didn\u2019t get any sort of special consideration in getting into his group. \u201cThey\u2019re all great players, otherwise they couldn’t have played in my band. They did a tremendous job.\u201d Savannah eventually left to raise a family, and vocalist Alex Ligertwood \u2013 a veteran of many \u201870s era Oblivion Express albums \u2013 returned.<\/p>\n

Brian Auger will celebrate his 83rd<\/sup> birthday in July. The pandemic has meant that live concert dates weren\u2019t an option, but in recent years he\u2019s been busy with a number of archival projects. In 2015, the first in a two-part anthology series Back to the Beginning<\/i> collected highlights from across Auger\u2019s long career. 2016\u2019s Back to the Beginning\u2026 Again!<\/i> continued the chronological survey. In 2020, a three-CD set, Introspection<\/i> celebrated his 50th<\/sup> career as a recording artist; 18 of its 35 live and studio tracks were previously unreleased.<\/p>\n

And now in 2022 comes Auger Incorporated<\/i>. Emphasizing that Auger\u2019s work has influenced a wide array of artists \u2013 his music has been sampled by Air, Common, Jurassic 5, Kid Loco, P.M. Dawn, Mos Def and many others \u2013 Soul Bank Music\u2019s Greg Boraman notes that the new digital-only release features outtakes and radio sessions that haven\u2019t shown up on previous releases. Auger and Boraman have known each other for more than 25 years. \u201cGreg\u2019s a big fan, and also an organ player,\u201d says Auger. \u201cAnd he knows more about my music than I<\/i> do!\u201d<\/p>\n

Brian Auger knows what he loves about jazz, and about music with a jazz sensibility. \u201cThere is a freedom,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019ll play the \u2018head\u2019 of a tune or whatever, but there\u2019s a freedom to play as you like, you know? And you don\u2019t get any freer than that!\u201d<\/p>\n

Adopting a posh British accent for effect, Auger recalls a conversation many years ago with a stereotypical dyed-in-the-wool Englishman. \u201cHe would say, \u2018God-damn<\/i>! You\u2019re not classically trained?\u2019 I\u2019d say, \u2018No, I just play by ear.\u2019 And he\u2019d say, \u201cWot!? Don\u2019t tell me you play that sort of gin mill<\/i> music!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

After the uproarious laughter subsides, Auger reflects on his life as a musician. \u201cI don\u2019t know what else I could be that would have made me so happy,\u201d he says. \u201cBut you know, this is it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part Two\u2026 The electric fusion group drew inspiration from across the musical landscape, combining sounds the likes of which one might find on a Miles Davis album of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23241,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,32,41,42,49,62,69],"tags":[4009,4872,4871,4870],"class_list":["post-23251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-compilation","category-fusion","category-interview","category-jazz","category-new-release","category-rawk","category-soul","tag-brian-auger","tag-julie-driscoll","tag-oblivion-express","tag-the-trinity","cat-19-id","cat-32-id","cat-41-id","cat-42-id","cat-49-id","cat-62-id","cat-69-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23251"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23260,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23251\/revisions\/23260"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}