James Taylor Quartet - Don’t Mess With Mr T

The JTQ live show captured on 12 Motown covers

Earlier this year James Taylor, with his 4th Dimension, released one of his most exhilarating works this decade with Picking Up Where We Left Off, a brilliant LP of Charles Earland/Jack McDuff-esque magical mayhem. The prolific Medway Hammond organist returns to the studio this time with his core group (Grant Green-esque guitarist Nigel Price, bassist Andrew McKinney and drummer Adam Betts) and a four-piece brass and percussion section to deliver an equally exciting LP of Motown. Like his Hammond forebears Jimmy Smith and Jack McDuff, Taylor is able to sympathetically rework others’ material, honouring the original while still making it his very own. After all, he’s made his name on renditions of Blow Up and The Starsky & Hutch Theme, and his choices here are impeccable once more. There’s a frenzied, dancefloor-a-go-go re-imagining of Barrett Strong’s Money (That’s What I Want) – think Junior Walker’s rendition, all screaming brass, delicate guitar, ferocious Hammond playing and tight drumming. Elsewhere he excels on Marvin Gaye’s Got To Give It Up while Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours) and You’re All I Need To Get By sound like they were lifted straight off the The Booker T Set album. Brilliant!

4 stars 4 stars 4 stars 4 stars

Dome | CD 86

Reviewed by Alice Clark
<< Back to Issue 342

Login Here