Brian Auger's Oblivion Express

Andy's Jazz Club, Chicago,IL
April 2, 2008

Brian Auger

Story and Photos by James Walker, Jr.

As the packed house anxiously awaited the beginning of Brian Auger's explosive set at Andy's, he calmly strolled through the crowd greeting guests, taking pictures and signing autographs for these mainly 50-year-old-plus revelers. To many, Brain brought back memories from their days in the '60s and '70s when he developed a reputation crossing many genres with his dynamic Hammond B-3 organ. Auger began his career in his native England in the mid '60s as a straight ahead jazz player, but soon after switched to playing R&B/jazz. His many influences include the likes of Jimmy Smith, Jack McDuff, Richard "Groove" Holmes and Charles Earland, to name just a few. These gentlemen for years were the premier jazz organ players and all played with a "funky" style. Before moving to America in the mid 70s, Brian toured extensively around the world with many rock groups from England before finally settling into his current groove with the "Oblivion Express." Although there have been many personnel changes over the years, the obvious constant, his driving B-3 organ always remained the catalyst for this explosive, funky sound. The band now consist of Andreas Geck on bass, his son Karma Auger on drums and his daughter Savannah Grace Auger with vocals.

They began this set with "Freedom Jazz Dance," which he abruptly ended after a few bars after realizing Savannah's mike was inaudible. Auger quipped "that was the short version, we'll continue with the long version." Throughout this 90 minute set, Auger peppered the crowd with tidbits of information about his storied career as a "funkster." This first number set the tone for the entire evening as it was up tempo and immediately whipped the crowd into a frenzy. They responded with a rousing ovation at its conclusion.

The next number, taken from his "Straight Ahead Album" again featured Savannah's vocals while Brian wailed away with plenty of energy. His assault on the organ was a sight to see. He was constantly all over the place and not missing a beat. His rendition of James Brown's "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" was riveting. From this writers perspective, Brian appeared to really get into a "zone" when Savannah WASN'T occupying the mike, as was the case on most of this song.

The entire set seemed to have been more congruent when Savannah was not on stage and this writer didn't see where she complemented her father's driving spirit. She often had to "sing" over his sound and that just didn't work. A few features of her vocals would have be sufficient, as was the case when Brian paid homage to the great Wes Montgomery with "Bumpin' On Sunset." This is a standard tune that's more often associated with a guitar player, but Auger did it justice. On this song, Savannah's lyrics actually were very complementary and interesting. It was an nice twist to an all time classic number, without committing musical sacrilege.

The absolute highlight of the set was his encore version of Les McCann's "Compared to What." It was an infectious piece as all present were "grooving" to the beat with heads nodding, feet tapping, and audible "shout outs" as Auger hopped up and down while attacking his arsenal of organs with rapid fire strokes. The audience was ecstatic and didn't want this "funkfest" to end. Auger's son, Karma was also spectacular with some power precision drumming on the final number. The standing room only crowd spontaneously responded to this finale with a standing ovation.

What an evening for those "flower children"of the '60s and '70s as Brian Auger and the Oblivion Express allowed them to reach back into their memory bank for 90 minutes and just have a damn good time while enjoying this "wild" organ man.

Andy's continues its monthly "Spotlight Performers Series" with the appearance of guitarist Larry Coryell with his all star bandmates of Paul Wertico on drums and Larry Gray on bass, May 21st and 22nd. For detailed information about all Andy's programs , refer to their website at: www.andysjazzclub.com.