Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & The Trinity - Open
(1967)
Tracks
1 In and Out 3:06
2 Isola Natale 5:27
3 Black Cat 3:23
4 Lament for Miss Baker 2:37
5 Goodbye Jungle Telegraph 6:12
6 Tramp 4:04
7 Why (Am I Treated So Bad) 3:33
8 A Kind of Love In 2:32
9 Break It Up 3:00
10 Season of the Witch 7:51
Brought together out of the remnants of
Steampacket, a rhythm and blues outfit whose other members included Rod Stewart and Long John Baldry; Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger and The Trinity would go on to become the ultimate proponents of Psychedelic Jazz. Their finest moment together would come in 1967, with the release of their debut, entitled
Open; it really is a unique piece of 1967’s London this one.
Open begins with a sawing noise (as in a man cutting wood), which than goes into some marvellous lounge action, this is Brian Auger and The Trinity, perfect instrumental stuff with a brass section thrown in,
In and Out is followed with another Auger instrumental,
Isola Natale is again another loungesque tune which is just fabulous and well worth the money alone.
But this album really kicks in by track three;
Black Cat begins with a cuckoo clock followed by Auger screaming in a count in, and BANG! We’re off! This song is by far my favourite from this album and is just staggering stuff, perhaps one of the best songs from the sixties. I’m not really sure how I can even begin to do this song justice by just using boring old words, but let’s just say that after one listen you may need some help to pick up your chin from the floor, glorious, wonderful and magnificent all rolled into one.
We’re kind of brought down to earth by a lovely solo piano instrumental from Auger on
Lament for Miss Baker, this is lovely sweet stuff but probably only goes to demonstrate how truly strange and odd this album is at times, for from here it goes into the six minute progressive exotic jazz rampage of
Goodbye Jungle Telegraph. From track three to the end of this song, you will be sure to sit there believing you may have bought some funky, jazzy compilation, but alas not, you have merely bought an album like no other.
But what of Julie Driscoll? Well for the flip side she finally makes her entrance, and what an entrance it is ladies and gentlemen;
Tramp, the first of these tracks is just proper mod and is very impressive, her voice is belting and with a backing band like Brian Auger and The Trinity, you just know that they must have been very happy with themselves back when this album was being made, all boxes are ticked here. This is reaffirmed with
Why (Am I Treated So Bad), the electric
A Kind of Love In, and the fabulous
Break It In.
The original album finishes with a pleasurable 8 minute beastie, a cover of
Season of The Witch, which is nice! But in later years Open has been subject to a reissue, with modern versions of this album we have the wonderful inclusion of some of the belting singles from this fine act during 67 and 68. The finest and probably best known is
This Wheels on Fire, this Bob Dylan cover reached number five back in the day.
For me there is little doubt, combining all the best bits of Psychedelia with the Avant-Garde whilst mixing in Jazz with R&B, what Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger and The Trinity have done is make the ultimate popular jazz album. Firstly if you’re new to jazz, this is a perfect place to start, but with all the other elements rolled in, if you’re just a music lover in general, you will not be going too far wrong in purchasing this marvellous record.