BRIAN AUGER – Support the making of a documentary of genre-bending and groundbreaking Hammond organist Brian Auger.
Filmmaker Alfred George Bailey and Auger’s creative and business manager Greg Boraman have started a crowdfunding campaign for I Speak Music, a documentary film about Auger, trailblazing Hammond organist that came up in the swinging sixties in London and went on to change the game of fusion with The Oblivion Express in his typically kinetic fashion.
Auger ran into Billie Holiday in a London club, backed Jimi Hendrix on the guitar god’s first UK gig. He is a jazz cat who tuned into rock and soul and worked and played with a staggering variety of artists including Rod Stewart, John McLaughlin, Ronnie Scott, Tubby Hayes, Tony Williams, Jimmy Smith, Eric Burdon, Paul McCartney, Jimi Hendrix, Elton John and many others. His work was embraced by the acid jazz movement and hiphop acts such as Mos Def and The Beastie Boys.
Check out the crowdfunding page and the trailer of I Speak Music and donate here:
https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/brian-auger-i-speak-music-film
The Hammond maestro’s current Oblivion Express includes his son Karma and his daughter Savannah. He is 85 and lives in Los Angeles, Venice to be precise and everybody’s happy that he came out unharmed by the terrible fires in the Los Angeles region.
I spoke with him at length for the now defunct Jazzism in 2023, here are some quotes:
“I already played organ in the early sixties but I couldn’t get the sound of my hero Jimmy Smith. Then I discovered Live At The Apollo by Jimmy McGriff. On that cover he was depicted with the B3 organ. I brought it to the Hammond office and said, ‘I have to have one of those!’ That was quite a hassle. But it eventually was shipped as a building kit from the US. And it really turned out to be nirvana.”
“I wanted to build a bridge between the rock scene and the jazz world. When Trinity & Julie Driscoll had a hit with Bob Dylan’s This Wheel’s On Fire, the record company wanted to build on that success. But I was already thinking about the next step. As a jazz pianist I had worked with the best musicians. At the same time, I loved the cheerful beats of the new pop music. Our crossover music went down really well in the US. The promoters were amazed. Normally, the white and black audience was segregated. Not with us. We were just used to interracial mingling in England. The people from the Caribbean and the whites raved together in the clubs in London.”
“All I can say to young and ambitious musicians is follow your heart. Unfortunately, the industry manages to sell a lot of nonsense. I would stay away from that as far away as possible. There remains more than enough good music. If you have something original of your own that you have made, then bring it into the spotlight. That in turn stimulates others of the same breed. In this way the level will be higher again.”