js You would expect the music on "Live Oblivian Volume 1" to be better than Volume 2, but actually it is the other way around. As usual this album shows off the amazing high energy jazz/rock/RnB keyboard playing of Brian Auger. Brian rocks harder than most jazzers, and is a little jazzier than most rockers, this makes him sort of a misiing link between the worlds of Jimmy Smith and Jon Lord. Unfortunately this album does not contain his best material from this era. The album opens with "Beginning Again" which shows the bands main strengths, Stephen Ferrone's kinetic drumming pushing Brian's fast licks over a very unpretentious RnB/jazz groove. Brian has great keyboard sounds on this album, pure analog B3 and Fender Rhodes with a bit of distortion and occaisonal tape echo. After that scorching opener things bog down a bit on "Don't Look Away", which features their weak spot, the vocals of Alex Ligertwood.

Side 2 starts with Wes Montgomery's "Bumpin on Sunset". Wes's original is a great peice of smart urban groove, but Auger's version seems a little slow on this album. To make matters worse, Alex starts improvising vocals about how Wes "found himself". The song does get in one nice B3 solo before it grinds to a halt. The album closer, "Truth", has the band back playing their trademark high energy two chord vamps, but the arrangement is too choppy and relies too much on the lead guitar playing of Jack Mills. Jack is OK, but no match for Auger.

This album has its moments, but if you want to hear this band at their best, get "Live Oblivian Volume 2".

js If you are looking for Brian Auger at his best I would stay far away from this album. I'm not sure what went wrong here, but what we have on this album is a collection of terribly bland and unmemorable laid back 70s Southern California soft rock swill. The whole thing sounds suspiciously like an attempt by some record label big-wig to turn Auger and crew into some kind of gravy train.

Each song is full of weak attempts at CSN&Y harmonies that don't work because these guys voices fall flat over and over again. Most of the solos are handled by Jim Mullen, whose guitar playing is mediocre at best, and often as out of tune as the vocals. Brian gets in a couple of solos, but he never really takes off because I am sure the supposed record company leech told him to "keep it mellow". Brian Auger has put out some great jazz/rock albums, but this isn't one of them.

js The late 70s were not good years for jazz fusion. Long expressive solos and extended group jam sessions were out of fashion and the various artists invoved in the genre struggled to find a way to be relevant in a changing music scene. On this record, Brian Auger and his band opt for the jazzy RnB of bands like Steely Dan and Tower of Power in an attempt to sound current, and achieve mixed results. The vocal sections are rather mundane, but the instrumental sections really take off sometimes. The group of musicians featured on here make up one of the best bands Auger ever put together. The rhythm section of Lenny White on drums, Lennox Langton on congas and Clive Chaman on bass is capable of hitting some very nimble Latin grooves that past versions of his band could never touch. Auger rises to the challenge thrown down by his lightning quick rhythm section and kicks out many great solos. One of the nicest is the extended spacey electric piano ride at the end of 'Spice Island'.

If this was an instrumental album it would have been one of the better fusion albums of the late 70s, but unfortunately it isn't.

js Nothing too serious going on here, just some fun very high energy mostly instrumental Hammond B3 music for those of you who like that sort of thing. Brian is heavily influenced by the blues-jazz of Jimmy Smith and Jimmy McGriff on this recording, but also infuses some youthful rock energy which makes this album more similar to some of the highly kinetic organ instrumentals that Billy Preston was putting out at about the same time. Although Brian is not quite in the same league as long-time jazz players like Jimmy Smith, he still does pretty well for a young upstart. Also, his band does a great job of laying down funky swinging grooves and the guitar playing is outstanding. I don't know why most later Auger albums have such mediocre guitarists, its nice to hear him being pushed by someone with comparable chops.

There are a couple of vocal numbers on this record, but they seem like filler compared to the instrumentals. This style of rocking jazz hipster lounge music enjoyed a resurgance of popularity in the early to mid-90s when acid jazz DJs would place cuts like these along side instrumental hip-hop numbers.

This record is not for everyone, but if you enjoy this kind of fun retro music this album is great.

js This is a very eclectic album from Brian Auger, unfortunetly most of it is not very good. The album starts off nicely with two 60s instrumental hipster soul jazz numbers that feature Brian's great Hammond playing. This is a good style for Brian and shows his playing progressing nicely from his first album. Both of these songs also have much better production than his first album and feature a warm analog sound with a big natural reverb background that you would expect from a classic 60s RnB-jazz record. The third song is an amatuerish rock song that features Brian on vocals, It sounds like a bar band covering Winwood's "I'm a Man", except they forgot the lyrics and the chorus. This song is followed by "Lament for Miss Baker", a nice piano ballad that mixes Ellington style elegant jazz with French neo-classical music. It would be nice if Brian recorded more songs like this. Side one closes out with "Goodbye Jungle Telegraph" that opens with Martin Denny style log drums and bird calls before stumbling into a free RnB-jazz percussion groove with an uncredited saxophone solo and weird keyboard sounds from Brian. I think they were trying for a Sun Ra type thing here but didn't quite succeed.

Side one must have been the opening set because they bring on vocalist Julie Driscoll for side two. Julie isn't a bad singer, but she tends to over-sing in an attempt to sound more RnBish. The first two songs on side two are covers of classic 60s soul songs. No one, but no one should ever ever cover classic 60s soul songs, there is no way you can improve on that sound.

These two songs are followed by a nice Brit pop-psychedelic song called "A Kind of Love In". Julie and the band sound much better with this style. The last two songs on the album are pretty bad with their cover of "Season of the Witch" being one of the longest most tedious songs I have ever heard. Brian's solo toward the end of the song sounds like he is falling asleep.

In a few years Julie would drop her glamorous RnB pose and become Julie Tippet and join her new husband Keith's avant garde jazz-rock band Septober Energy in which she would lead utopian hippie chants while the horn players tried to drown her out.