Once upon a time long ago in a land far away an entertainer came along and saw the potential of blending jazz, rock and funky R&B into an entirely new musical hybrid. It was England in the early Sixties and the musician was Brian Auger. His favorite instrument has always been the classic Hammond B-3 organ with its warm, rich, bouncy, whirling, distinctive sound. Now three-and-a-half-decades later, Auger has put together a new Oblivion Express band and has recorded an album, Voices of Other Times on Miramar Recordings, that once again combines all of those same classic ingredients that stunned audiences years ago, but now can be embraced like an old friend. Although Auger has had solo albums as well as recordings with his first group, the legendary Brian Auger Trinity, he also has been involved in many historic collaborations with artists such as Long John Baldry and Rod Stewart, Sonny Boy Williamson and Jimmy Page, Julie Driscoll, and Eric Burdon. But since 1970, he is best-known for his group Brian Auger's Oblivion Express which has toured the world numerous times and recorded many albums. The latest edition of the Express is a youthful, hard-hitting, family-oriented incarnation that features Brian on keyboards (the Hammond B3 organ supplemented in the studio by a Rhodes electric piano and on-stage with a Korg S.G. Pro X stage piano), his son Karma D. Auger on drums and percussion (he also serves as producer and engineer, and has his own solo album, Blue Groove), Brian's daughter Savannah Auger on vocals, Dan Lutz on bass, and Chris Clermont on guitars. Long John Oliva is a special guest on the album playing congas. "With this new band, I wanted to revisit some of the older material to see what it would sound like with different musicians playing in the modern era," explains Brian, "and I wanted to place those tunes alongside new compositions that would show the kind of music we've been introducing to concert audiences lately." The album mostly contains vocal songs, but also three instrumentals and one mostlyinstrumental tune. There are new versions of "Isola Natale" (previously recorded on the open album), "Voices of Other Times" (the original appeared on Closer To It), Richie Havens' "Indian Rope Man" (originally on Streetnoise and "Never Gonna Come Down" (first heard on Happiness Heartaches). The band also completely revamps Marcus Miller's instrumental "Splatch" which Auger discovered on Miles Davis' Tu-Tu album. Another instrumental is Auger's original, jazzy, energetic "Victor's Delight," which was inspired by jazz pianist Victor Feldman. "I was going through some old vinyl albums one day and I put on a Cannonball Adderly album recorded live at The Lighthouse in California with Feldman on piano. I woke up in the morning composing this melody in my mind. Listening to Victor when I was young taught me a lot, especially new voicing possibilities for my left hand." Other originals include "it Burns Me Up" ("At the time of America's greatest affluence, it is inconceivable that so many children go to bed hungry."), "Soul Glow" (rhythmic, but smooth soul written by all three Augers), "Circles" (by bandmembers Chris and Savannah) , and "Jam Side Down" (a band-composed instrumental that got its title "because if you drop a piece of toast with jam on it, it always falls jam side down"). Brian learned to, piano as a child by pumping the foot-pedals of a player piano and watching the keys move., he was moving up an octave on the keyboards and playing along to classical and ragtime piano-rolls. His older brother shared his extensive American jazz collection (Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, Nat King Cole, George Shearing). Brian also heard acts like Oscar Peterson for the first time on radio broadcasts by the American Forces Network out of Germany. In his early teens Auger started to play jazz at parties and local events. Born and raised in London, he was soon playing some of the top clubs there (The Marquee, The Flamingo, The Ronnie Scoff Club) with some of the best jazz musicians in England. "We were addicted to. Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and the early Blue Note releases of East Coast hard-bop with swing and blues edges." In the prestigious Melody Maker magazine's musicians poll in 1964, Auger won first place in two categories -- "Jazz Piano" and "New Star." One day in the early Sixties, Auger walked into a record store where they were playing Jimmy Smith's Back at the Chicken Shack album. "I said, 'Who is that and what instrument is he playing?' They showed me the album cover and I was hooked. As soon as I could, I bought a Hammond B-3 organ and that changed my life around completely." Inspired by Smith and Mose Allison, Auger started the first Brian Auger Trinity as a jazz-blues trio and began building a following. Legendary American bluesman Sonny Boy Williamson was living in England at the time and often came to watch the shows and occasionally sit in. Just before he left to return to the United States, Auger pulled together a recording session to document their rapport. Besides his band, Brian invited two top saxophonists (Joe Harriot and Alan Skidmore) and active studio guitarist Jimmy Page. The album, Don't Send Me No Flowers, was released a short time before Williamson died. Long John Baldry, England's top blues singer at that time, asked Brian to put together a band which became Steampacket and included two other singers -- Rod "The Mod" Stewart and Julie Driscoll (Brian had played on a few sessions with her). The band toured with The Rolling Stones and backstage at the London Palladium, Auger jammed with fellow jazz enthusiasts Charlie Watts (the Stones' drummer) and Denny Laine (Moody Blues' guitarist). Brian's rock'n'roll contacts led him to play harpsichord on The Yardbirds' first hit, "For Your Love." "After playing with Steampacket, I wanted to put my own band together again to combine numerous elements -- the jazz sounds I had always loved, the newly-emerging rock'n'roll, the kind of blues I had learned about from Williamson and Baldry, and soulful funk which goes so well with the organ. I was trying to build a bridge between all these diverse elements and after awhile they started calling it 'jazz-rock' or 'fusion.' But you have to remember this was still several years before Miles put out Bitches Brew, so we were treading in unknown waters."

This time the billing was the Brian Auger Trinity with Julie Driscoll. Their first album, 0 .pen featured their classic organ-propelled version of "Season of the Witch." The album went Top 5 on all the European charts. Brian followed the recording with the instrumental solo album Definitely What! which featured brass and string sections. Meanwhile, in 1968 the Trinity became the first fusion group to headline at the Montreux Jazz Festival and the Berlin Jazz Festival ("it was a real barrier-breaking year"). The group put out the Streetnoise album followed by a lengthy tour of the United States. But exploding stardom, management problems and the grueling tour schedule broke the band apart. Driscoll left before the group recorded the album Befour. and before long Auger was putting together a new band. "After the shambles of Trinity, I was in a cynical mood. I encouraged everyone in the new band to be as creative as possible and not worry about what the record company or the public might want. This seemed to be going against the commercial tide and I thought we might be headed the quickest way toward oblivion, so tongue-in-cheek I called the band the Oblivion Express."However, it didn't work out that way. The public. liked their albums beginning with Oblivion Express and A Better Land (from which Sarah Vaughn recorded three of Brian's tunes). That year Brian was the first musician to ever take first place in both the jazz and rock categories in the major European Rock & Folk Magazine. The Express followed with SecondWind and.Closer To It ("we called it that because we got the exact sound I was looking for, and it went on Billboard magazine's rock, jazz and R&B charts, and really established me in the U.S."). Other albums included Straight Ahead, Live Oblivion, Reinforcements, Best of Brian Auger and Happiness Heartaches. The Oblivion Express toured with both jazz, R&B and rock acts like Herbie Hancock & The Headhunters, Chick Corea and Return to Forever, Weather Report, The Crusaders, Earth Wind & Fire, Blue Oyster Cult and ZZ Top. Though living in the United States by this time, Brian reunited with Julie Driscoll in 1977 for the Encore album. In the Eighties, in the midst of punk-rock and disco, he released albums such as Search Party -- Planet Earth Calling, Here and Now, Steaming, Superdrumming (a series of albums from a German Television show) and Keys to the Heart. "During the Eighties I experimented with synthesizers like every other keyboard player, but eventually I came back to the Hammond." During this time he also produced music for Italy's premier La Scala Milan Ballet Troupe. At the beginning of the Nineties, he teamed up with Eric Burdon, whom he had known since the early Sixties, to form the Eric Burdon/Brian Auger Band which toured the world extensively for four years. They filmed a full-length video, "Eric Burdon: The Animals and Beyond." Before they parted, they recorded a live album, Access All Areas. The last year of touring and on the album Karma Auger plays drums. In the mid-Nineties, Brian got the rights to re-release many of his catalog albums worldwide and they appeared on CD for the first time. Brian also played on the album -Donna Monarch & The - Inside (produced by Karma). In addition,while touring Europe with the new Oblivion Express, Brian was surprised to find that the media was hailing him as "the Godfather of Acid Jazz." On top of that, he discovered a number of "Hammond Organ Societies" that attended many of his shows en masse. "There has been a great resurgence of interest in the Hammond organ in the past few years," Auger says. "Unfortunately, they don't make the B-3 anymore. The company was bought out and the new firm makes a synthesized portable version, but it can't duplicate the 'chorus' that the old tone-wheel produces. It was first designed in 1928. The one I use I've had since 1968. Years ago I had the electrical parts changed over to American current, and I had the whole thing rebuilt a few years ago. It weighs about 300 pounds and it's hard to transport, but I take it on tour because it's my trademark sound. Its sound goes so well with a female voice just like it did years ago with Julie's and now with Savannah's. Some fans travel hundreds of miles just because they want to hear the old B-3. It's an instrument that can whip the audience into a frenzy. Even after all these years, I never get tired of playing it." MIRAMAR RECORDINGS www.miramarupx.com* 800-245-6472 PUBLICITY AGENCY: THE CREATIVE SERVICE COMPANY (email: CreatServ9@aol.com) 4360 Emerald Dr., Colorado Springs, CO 80918 * 719-548-9872 * fax 719-599-9607