Brian Auger & The Trinity

The ground- breaking, unique jazz/R&B/pop group Brian Auger & The
Trinity were formed from the ashes of Long John Baldry’s and Brian
Auger’s previous group bandThe Steampacket, an R&B Revue collective,
which also featured a then barely known Rod Stewart and Julie Driscoll .
Adding the UKs then greatest soul/pop singer Julie Driscoll to this new
collective meant that not only did the band have a unique, beautiful voice
and face to front the group – Driscoll also embodied everything about the
1960s fashionable It Girl; her sound, her clothes, hair styles and make up
assured that nearly as many column inches were dedicated to her stylish
demeanour as much as the band’s genre bending music.
The group were the one of the first too to intentionally set out to break
down musical barriers – Brian himself specifically stated in the sleeve
notes for 1968s ‘Definitely What!’ album that his concept “lies along a
straight line drawn between pop and jazz and aims at the ‘fusion’ of both
elements”. ‘Fusion’ at that time was not even a recognised musical term,
reinforcing Auger’s credentials as an originator and innovator.
“Back then the jazz audiences were purists. They really looked down on
rock and pop,” he explains. “I had people cross the road when they saw
me coming, I was persona non grata at Ronnie Scotts because of the
music we were doing and the clothes we were wearing”.
Happily – audiences of the time didn’t take the same dismissive
approach, Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & The Trinity toured the US and had
exploded onto American TV screens as guests of The Monkees, and also
scored hits across Europe's pop charts via the singles ‘This Wheels On
Fire’ & ‘Save Me’ – but simultaneously appeared on the UK’s ‘Top Of The
Pops’ in the same month as headlining major European Jazz Festivals –
a feat no other act has equalled since.
Between 1967 and ’70, Brian Auger experienced a four year run of
unprecedented creativity – 1967’s Open with Julie Driscoll, 1968’s
Definitely What!, 1969’s Streetnoise again with Driscoll and 1970’s Befour
– taking the Hammond Organ in new directions with their thrilling fusuion
fusion of club R&B, jazz and psychedelic cool, engaging both the
underground and the mainstream, and bringing the group chart success
in the UK and Europe. “I look back on my years with The Trinity as a
period of discovery,” Auger concludes. “I didn’t know what would happen
or where it would take me but we were breaking down barriers and going
someplace new.”