Brian Auger & The Trinity
Streetnoise

There’s an abundance of covers on this 1969 double album by Brian Auger, as often happens in his works: this time, reinterpretations include pieces by Miles Davis, Laura Nyro, the Doors, Nina Simone, Richie Havens, and a few others. But the real stand-out song is all Brian’s: a top-notch jazz-rock number called "Tropic of Capricorn", featuring a torrential organ solo and even a brief drum break. He also handles the (concise) vocals himself.

But right after comes the group’s lead voice, the reborn Julie Driscoll, who’s both writer and lead singer on the second track, "Czechoslovakia", which does not hide its political intentions (including explosive sounds and simulated blasts by shaking the spring reverb of the Hammond... Czechoslovakia had endured the Russian invasion the year before). After a first album in '67 with Driscoll and a second the following year with only the rhythm section, here's, another year later, a release titled Julie Driscoll Brian Auger & the Trinity, merging both experiences. The curly-haired Julie is still a bit unripe, but her soulful timbre and strong persona are beyond debate. She’s also given space to express herself with the acoustic guitar, offering up a few of her own, understated compositions.

The gospel "Take me to the Water" by Nina Simone enjoys some lovely pastoral piano by Auger, but his singer is back front and center on the next track, "A Word About Color" (she alone on stage with her voice and guitar, while Auger and the others are off at the corner pub for a drink…).

Not that Julie shows a particular forte for songwriting: the jump from her just-mentioned track to the following cover of the Doors’ "Light My Fire" is total, at the motivic level. The expanded Trinity quartet’s rendition of this super classic (which at the time was not yet such worldwide, but instantly well-loved and picked up by many in the industry) is, unsurprisingly, loaded with soul.

"Indian Rope Man" by Richie Havens is an intense soul rock number, with Auger at his most aggressive at the keys—and in sound. In contrast, "When I Was a Young Girl" feels subdued and nocturnal, showcasing Driscoll’s beautiful voice. She might have graced us with a heftier career, rather than soon after this marrying pianist Keith Tippett (known as "the cat that pounces all over the keyboard") and promptly proceeding to an intense period of reproduction.

The Auger/Driscoll version of the unsinkable "Let the Sunshine In"—a pillar of the musical "Hair"—is evocative. The instrumental "Ellis Island" is also solid, a playground for Auger’s flourishes over his two beloved stacked keyboards. Have you ever been to Ellis Island? In the great hall where immigrants were sorted into good and bad, men and women, healthy and sick, there’s a palpable, powerful energy—like a trace left behind by the millions of desperate people who once passed through in search of a decent life.

"In Search of the Sun" is composed and sung by Trinity’s bassist Dave Ambrose, who turns out to have a more appealing voice than Auger, and is inspired by Jim Morrison. "Finally Found You Out" is an instrumental by the bandleader in which, for once, he layers piano over organ, in a style somewhat reminiscent of Traffic. In "Looking in the Eye of the World", a decidedly Satie-esque minimalist piano accompanies Auger’s voice, making for one of the highlights of the record.

Driscoll’s folk side, absent from several tracks, returns on "Vauxhall to Lambeth Bridge", the latter being one of London’s central bridges over the Thames, at the height of Parliament and Big Ben. Julie’s voice is certainly good… here it’s evocative and pure—admirable, without doubt. Once again she’s the sole performer, singing and playing herself… the Trinity get no say here. But they’re back in "All Blues", reuniting the full quartet with Brian at the piano, for a gentle, pleasing soul-jazz-blues that pays homage to its composer, Miles Davis.

The unbeatable percussive sound of the Hammond introduces the sultry "I Got Life", also taken from "Hair". Maybe the young singer had been involved in one of the countless productions of this musical… I imagine she knew it by heart—it was a centerpiece for many of that era. A final soul cover, "Save the Country" written by Laura Nyro, closes the hefty double album as the sixteenth track.

A record with two souls, then: Auger’s soul jazz providing a home for the graceful and extremely promising singer, who gets to unleash three or four wholly different, let’s say psych-folk, numbers, but is more than willing to grace the soul jazz work of the three instrumentalists with her vocals. Sadly, this partnership ends here, and the Trinity’s next work would still be as a quartet, but with a guitarist replacing Julie, who would only resurface several years later, after motherhood, for a brief rekindling.