Brian Auger's Oblivion Express

Brian Auger’s Oblivion Express was the phoenix that rose from the ashes of sixties combo The Trinity. Fusing R&B, jazz, soul and funk, Hammond organist and keyboard maestro Brian Auger created a new breed of music that took the US and much, much later the UK by storm. Now regarded as The Godfather Of Acid Jazz, his unique experimentation culminated in rhythm-infused jazz-funk that united Black and white ’70s audiences.

“What I was trying to do with the Trinity was bridge the gap between the jazz scene and the R&B scene,” begins Brian Auger from his home in LA. “Later on, when that was successful, I decided that I would like to push on and see whether I could develop that music... maybe I’m headed the quickest way to oblivion?”

And so began Phase Two in the genre-bending career of Hammond-organ extraordinaire Brian Auger, whose ’70s incarnation as jazz-funk band Oblivion Express was that of a man removing the shackles of the previous decade and letting the creative juices run wild. Made up of a crack team of musicians, Oblivion Express blended jazz, R&B, funk, rock and soul creating a new music that pulsated with rhythm and groove, on the crest of a zeitgeist that was engulfing the dancefloor of ’70s America.

By the time 1970 rolled around though, Auger was looking for inspiration. He joined (and swiftly abandoned) jazz-rock commune Wassenaar Arrangement, before deciding to put together a new band. “I didn’t pull any punches either way. I’m just going to let it all hang out.” Oblivion Express seemed like a suitable name for this new venture. Having always walked a fine line between jazz and R&B, the keyboardist absorbed influences from everywhere and needed musicians that could straddle the jazz-R&B divide in the same way that he could. “I needed to have people in the band who could step into both scenes,” Brian affirms. “‘Can you play this run?’ And they didn’t look at me like, ‘Hey, are you out of your mind?’ I was lucky enough to find people that liked jazz, or had played jazz or were involved in the R&B scene. I picked people that I thought were really great musicians and I thought they would be able to handle my style.”

It would be easy to spend the rest of this piece waxing lyrical about Auger’s ’70s output. In those five or so years until ’75, the music of Oblivion Express metamorphosed from jazz-fusion, pseudo-prog, dreamy psych and laid-back balladry to out and out funk – even pseudo-disco. Starting off with the eponymously titled debut ‘Oblivion Express’

Album number two A Better Land takes a more introspective turn. Gone is the raucous driving guitar and in its place is an easy-going singer-songwriter mood with Mullen’s guitar sounding fantastic on the country-rocker ‘Marai’s Wedding’. ‘Trouble’ and ‘Tomorrow City’ have a Steely Dan vibe.

On the next album Second Wind, The Oblivion Express was joined by Scottish vocalist Alex Ligertwood (previously in ’60s soul cover band The Senate with Robbie McIntosh and later becoming best known as Santana’s lead vocalist). Comprised of just six tracks, the album grooves all the way. Ligertwood original ‘Truth’ is a jazz jam with rock and soul credentials, while ‘Somebody Help Us’ is reminiscent of Barrabas – the Latin rock-funksters of the ’70s – with its hybrid of rock voice, funk guitar and driving rhythm; ‘With Second Wind Oblivion Express had finally found its place and its voice.

It was, however, follow-up Closer To It! that really took the US by storm. When Auger got off the plane in Cleveland in ’74, he discovered that RCA had gone hell for leather in advertising the band. “Somebody just went nuts over that album and had bought a load of billboards. I drove in and there were billboards up with the train on [from the front cover],” Brian recalls. “That one went on the jazz/R&B and the rock charts simultaneously.” Closer To It! is (almost) where he wanted to be – hence the title

Auger continued to make music for the rest of the decade, following up Closer To It! with more of the same on Straight Ahead – this time with drummer Steve Ferrone on board. Every bit as good as its predecessor, it’s probably best known for its 10-minute version of Wes Montgomery’s ‘Bumpin’ On Sunset’, while opener ‘Beginning Again’ found its way onto Madlib’s Mind Fusion mixtape. There followed two live albums, the AWB-sounding Reinforcements and the magnificent Acid Jazz prototype Happiness Heartaches, not to mention a brief reformation with Julie Driscoll (now Tippetts) on the aptly titled Encore. Unfortunately, Auger’s river ran drier during the ’80s until, like so many great artists of the ’60s and ’70s, he was rediscovered by the crate-diggers of the ’90s and a whole new world opened up.

A new version of The Oblivion Express started touring and recording in the mid 1990’s with Brian’s son Karma on drums, and the group has continued to criss-cross the US and Europe, in recent years with original vocalist Alex Ligertwood back in the fold some forty years since his and Brian’s first musical collaborations.

Bio credit: Edited version taken from an interview feature by Sarah Gregory