Julie Driscoll left Trinity, the band she fronted and directed with Brit soul-jazz icon Brian Auger, in 1969.
She recorded a pair of solo albums, married Keith Tippett, a brilliant jazz improviser and bandleader, and recorded with Ovary Lodge, a free-form vocal ensemble, in 1977.
In 1978 she and Auger reunited for Encore, a one-off studio offering that revealed the hole she'd left in the progressive pop scene of the late '60s.
Her voice was in even better shape nearly a decade later: fuller, stronger, more throaty, without giving up a bit of her range.
Auger, meanwhile, had remained very active with his groundbreaking soul-jazz-funk ensemble the Oblivion Express.
While some complain that these sides don't have the Swinging London imprint on them, that would be because they stayed back there in the musty, dusty pop history bin.
Listening to Encore in the 21st century is nearly a revelation.
Auger, for his part as the band's musical director on his trademark B-3, acoustic piano, and a slew of electronic keyboards, is a strictly no-BS performer.
He's as straight-ahead as they get, and Julie Tippetts understands that the root of the song is in its intention.
Together, they make a nearly flawless pair on these nine cuts.
Nowhere is this clearer than on the two tracks previously defined by other vocalists.
"Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood," while oft-covered, had never come close to Eric Burdon & the Animals' version.
Tippetts, however, plasters the song with bluesy feeling and a smoldering, nearly angry plea.
Then there's Jack Bruce's "Rope Ladder to the Moon." Tippetts implicitly understands the jazz feel of the tune as Bruce wrote it.
The funky backdrop bassline by David McDaniels doesn't even muddy it up.
Auger's Rhodes piano and B-3 and George Doering's gorgeous acoustic guitar playing are certainly the pegs the tune turns on, but it's Tippetts who delivers the authority and dark secret in this song about love's cruelty.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SpiritAl Jarreau | Brian Auger, Julie Tippetts, Brian Auger & Julie Tippetts | Play | 04:10 | 9 MB | 0 MB |
| 2 | Don't Let Me Be MisunderstoodBennie Benjamin, Gloria Caldwell, Sol Marcus | Brian Auger, Julie Tippetts, Brian Auger & Julie Tippetts | Play | 03:37 | 8 MB | 0 MB |
| 3 | Git UpBrian Auger | Brian Auger, Julie Tippetts, Brian Auger & Julie Tippetts | Play | 03:50 | 8 MB | 0 MB |
| 4 | Freedom HighwayRoebuck "Pops" Staples | Brian Auger, Julie Tippetts, Brian Auger & Julie Tippetts | Play | 02:52 | 6 MB | 0 MB |
| 5 | Future PilotBrian Auger | Brian Auger, Julie Tippetts, Brian Auger & Julie Tippetts | Play | 04:22 | 10 MB | 0 MB |
| 6 | Rope Ladder to the MoonPete Brown, Jack Bruce | Brian Auger, Julie Tippetts, Brian Auger & Julie Tippetts | Play | 03:05 | 7 MB | 0 MB |
| 7 | No Time to LiveJim Capaldi, Steve Winwood | Brian Auger, Julie Tippetts, Brian Auger & Julie Tippetts | Play | 06:17 | 14 MB | 0 MB |
| 8 | Nothing Will Be As I Was | Brian Auger | Play | 03:48 | 8 MB | 0 MB |
| 9 | Lock At The Gates | Brian Auger | Play | 05:06 | 11 MB | 0 MB |
| 37 mins | 85 MB | |||||
| 0 mins | 0 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brian Auger | Composer, Keyboards, Organ, Percussion, Piano, Primary Artist, Producer, Synthesizer, Tambourine, Vocals |
| 2 | Brian Auger & Julie Tippetts | Primary Artist |
| 3 | Ronaldo Bastos | Composer |
| 4 | Bennie Benjamin | Composer |
| 5 | Pete Brown | Composer |
| 6 | Jack Bruce | Composer |
| 7 | Gloria Caldwell | Composer |
| 8 | Jim Capaldi | Composer |
| 9 | Dave Crigger | Drums |
| 10 | George Doering | Guitar |
| 11 | Julie Driscoll | Vocals |
| 12 | Seth Dworken | Engineer |
| 13 | Al Jarreau | Composer |
| 14 | Sol Marcus | Composer |
| 15 | David McDaniels | Bass |
| 16 | Milton Nascimento | Composer |
| 17 | Jessica Smith | Vocals, Vocals (Background) |
| 18 | Roebuck "Pops" Staples | Composer |
| 19 | Bruce Steinberg | Art Direction, Cover Design, Photography |
| 20 | Julia Tillman Waters | Vocals (Background) |
| 21 | Julie Tippetts | Harmonica, Performer, Primary Artist, Vocals |
| 22 | Joe Tuzen | Engineer |
| 23 | Rene Vincent | Composer |
| 24 | Maxine Willard Waters | Vocals, Vocals (Background) |
| 25 | Steve Winwood | Composer |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |