Brian Auger's Oblivion Express
Straight Ahead / Beginning Again

My unfortunate and much-missed friend Eugenio, a skilled pianist and organist, loved this album and with his rock-jazz group used to play its two best tracks: namely, "Bumpin’ on Sunset" and the one that gives the album its title.

The former is the instrumental version of a piece by jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery, very long, but you really drink it down in one gulp: it sublimates into a calm, syncopated melody along the upper manuals of the Hammond, while the rhythm section gently rolls out its nocturnal groove. Particularly sexy is the very long sequence of chords that interrupts the mantra-like swaying on the two only (and very elegant) chords that make up most of the composition. Definitely a song for… well, making love, and just the right length at that (eleven minutes: I don’t know about you, I’m speaking for myself here).

"Straight Ahead" instead has lyrics and is much livelier thanks to the funky rhythm guitar and an Auger who’s increasingly confident in his singing, here coming across as both likable and encouraging. A long electric piano solo carries the track beyond the five-minute mark.

The other lengthy song, the opener "Beginning Again", is even more Santana-like than Santana, truly. No less than two percussionists, a conguero on the left and a timbalero on the right, hammer away at full throttle for the entire track. As for Brian, at that time he was in the midst of his Fender Rhodes phase—a keyboard that, during those years, managed to interrupt the reign of the Wurlitzer and establish itself with its rounder, bell-like sound. So much so that it feels just like listening to a mid-70s Santana number, when Carlos used to dress in white, sometimes clasped his hands together, and took the stage surrounded by jazz musicians, including Tom Coster, another Rhodes enthusiast. In any case, it’s always a pleasure to hear, even when we’re not talking about Santana, a drummer in close conversation with two percussionists.

"Change" has the same funky jazz atmosphere as "Straight Ahead", though thematically it’s a gear lower. It’s the only point in this work where Auger really lets loose on the organ. The result is a virtuoso ramble, but once again it’s the two percussionists who add value by skillfully pounding their skins in a long tail that stretches the track past the eight-minute mark.

The modest "You’ll Stay in My Heart" closes the album—a stereotyped, albeit brief, filler, banal both in melody and lyrics, but featuring yet another brilliant Rhodes solo. That’s the whole album: just three long tracks, one average, and one short. It’s a pity, but the artist was releasing one album a year and it wasn’t easy to build up new material at that pace.

It was, after all, Brian’s golden period who, even if he didn’t quite break through to the big international audience, managed to make his mark in the United States among the many enthusiasts of jazz and rhythm & blues, granting him regular tours and an indelible following.

In fact, that’s where he’s lived for many years (Los Angeles). If he’s not in California or on tour, you’ll usually find him in Italy, where he has in-laws on his wife’s side. He insists that Italian is his second language, but honestly, hearing him ramble on in his Anglo/Sardinian hybrid is a real ordeal, I can testify to that. Listening to him, instead, soar creatively and confidently over his keyboards is a deep joy.