So exciting, so intense and so satisfyingly performed is the music on the Nigel Price Organ Trio’s latest album that several times I found myself cheering aloud at the CD player and punching the air as I listened to it.
Guitarist Price, whose influences include Wes Montgomery, Kenny Burrell, Jim Mullen and Louis Stewart, Hammond organist Ross Stanley and drummer Joel Barford are all exceptional players who together comprise a marvellously interactive trio.
Opening track ‘Make Someone Happy’, a Jule Styne/Adolph Green/Betty Comden standard which has been performed vocally by everyone from Doris Day to Aretha Franklin, begins with a virtuosic unaccompanied introduction by Price and his playing thereafter is simultaneously elegant and impassioned.
‘Backatcha’, one of six original Price compositions, features fingerbusting guitar, a spectacular, hard-driving organ solo from Stanley and a characteristically creative drum solo from Barford, whose playing throughout the album is remarkably supple and sensitive.
‘76’ was inspired, writes Price in his interesting liner notes, by memories of the glorious British summer of 1976. But the impact of the track is deepened by the sense of melancholy which is communicated: that those carefree days of yesteryear are gone forever.
‘Chonky’ is a word, Price explains, used by his daughter to describe a fat cat (their family pet, that is, not their bank manager). ‘Splash The Cash’ is based on the chords of ‘Gee Baby, Ain’t I Good To You’; both songs have a funky vibe. Art Pepper’s ‘Red Car’ brings the album to a vibrant conclusion.
‘It’s On!‘ is due for release on 17 October 2025. Today 15 September is the start of the tour to support the album.