Georgie Fame (Born 26/06/1943)

Georgie achieved chart success the following year with the UK number one 'Yeh Yeh' - it did much to sum up Fame's style at the time; vocals heavily influenced by one of his all time heroes Mose Allison, jazzy but very cool, the interpretation and arrangement was still uniquely Fame. And the band could certainly swing, as it was to prove on a string of subsequent releases, many of which found the charts (including 'Getaway' and his interpretation of 'Sitting In The Park'). Although Fame often recorded material originally put together by many of his American heroes, unlike most of his contemporaries he could take a song and put his own stamp on it. He even managed to successfully interpret the Smokey Robinson / Temptations classic 'My Girl'. You can find all these early recordings on the compilation "Twenty Beat Classics"

He recorded for Columbia from 1967-71 and continued to have hits, occasionally duetting with Alan Price (it has to be said the pairing produced some of Fame's worst output) . His only USA chart entry was with the rather atypical 'Bonnie and Clyde' but over the four years he still championed the American blues and jazz that he loved and much of his material is worthy of further investigation - some of it hinted at his late 70s and 80s work when he often concentrated on straight jazz productions, frequently performing at the famous Ronnie Scott club in London. The Columbia recordings can be found on "The Best Of 1967-71" - it's a mid price collection and there's enough excellent material to make it a worthwhile purchase. There is a single CD that covers the whole 64 - 71 period ("On The Right Track: Beat, Blues and Ballads") but it's only 28 tracks in total and, whilst a good overview, it's worth getting more complete coverage by buying the 2 single CDs highlighted above.

Fame has always been a sympathetic and intelligent accompanist; he has spent a considerable period of time over the last few years playing in Van Morrison's band but he has never stopped recording and playing as a leader in his own right. In the early 90s (at the time when the Hammond B3 organ was undergoing something of a revival) Fame started to release albums on a more regular basis. "Cool Cat Blues" concentrates on jazz and blues, a mixture of his own material, standards and the occasional foray into relatively contemporary material (including Morrison's 'Moondance') and is uniformly excellent; it received excellent reviews, partly because Fame was given the backup and production he deserved, along with excellent contributions from the likes of Steve Gadd, Robben Ford and the great Jon Hendricks. The follow up, "The Blues and Me" is nearly as good!!

Throughout the 90s, Georgie has continued to gig with his latter-day version of the Blue Flames as well as recording and working with Van The Man. More recently, he has toured and recorded with Bill Wyman and His Rhythm Kings (along with Gary Brooker, Albert Lee, Martin Taylor and others), another show no self respecting R&B fan should miss. Fame is now an elder statesman of the British music scene - he can and does play what he likes (check out the live albums recorded at Ronnie Scott's, "Walking Wounded" and "Name Droppin'" to hear a man clearly at the peak of his powers). He's an exemplary musician, an undervalued talent and any of his work, early or late, is worthy of your record collection. Catch him live and you'll spot something equally important about the way he plays - he makes it fun!!