Music

Brian Auger’s Oblivion Express

O2ABC, Glasgow

Rob Adams

FOUR STARS

I Belong to Glasgow came later than promised, as the encore with Alex Ligertwood and Brian Auger arm in arm like twa Glesca Jimmies on Hogmanay. There were a few delays involved here, in fact, not least Ligertwood’s first return to his home town in forty-five years. A breakdown en route from Manchester, involving reloading the gear, Auger’s mighty Hammond included, into another van, meant his homecoming wasn’t the smoothest. It was, however, quite the event expected.

Auger and Ligertwood are elder statesmen these days, seventy-six and sixty-eight respectively, yet their music is sprightly. Every phrase Auger plays, whether on organ or electric piano, has inbuilt excitement, conveying that same sense of itchy-fingered appetite that marked him out decades ago as an endlessly creative jazz personality and an absolute master of the good groove.

Across a repertoire that invoked jazz greats including Jimmy Smith, John Coltrane, Wes Montgomery, Miles Davis, and Art Blakey and even turned Scotland the Brave into the bluesiest of musical quotations, Auger, his drummer son Karma and bass guitarist Mike Clairmont rocked in rhythm while Ligertwood added occasional guitar, percussion and his magnificent voice.

Ligertwood’s athleticism in vocalising Eddie Harris’s playfully intricate Freedom Jazz Dance was a marvel fortysome years ago. And so it remains. His range is gravity-defying and if his banter here was Glaswegian (“pick a windae, yer leavin’”) his delivery reeked of Memphis and Chicago as he howled Al Kooper’s I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know with soul-blues conviction and, yes, an impish Helensburgh reference. No wonder he got the gig with Santana and no wonder Auger’s chuffed to have him back aboard the Express.