Taylor, James -quartet-
Only Messin' Ep
James Taylor has been writing/recording albums and touring for the past 43 years, starting with The Prisoners and then The James Taylor Quartet (JTQ) from 1986 onwards, to great acclaim. In that time he has done several world tours and gained UK Top 40 Chart hits, notably with the late great soul singer Noel McKoy. He has also written and recorded a whole plethora of albums, often coming from a broad musical perspective. Ranging from funk to jazz to soul to rock and even choral projects, of late incorporating a full orchestra into many recordings and even transferring this onto the stage successfully at The Barbican, The Alexandra Palace and The Cadogan Hall, amongst other classical venues. Taylor was the pioneering force that spear-headed the Acid Jazz movement in the '90s, which saw a renaissance in live music. He has also virtually single-handedly driven the rediscovery of the Hammond organ, his trademark keyboard. He has developed his composition and arrangement skills and with these has recorded over 20 library albums. The current live line-up for The James Taylor Quartet is James Taylor (keyboards and orchestration), Mark Cox (guitar), Andrew McKinney (bass) and Pat Illingworth (drums), although recordings and live performances may include others. The band have developed a strong reputation as a live band, that remains to this day. The most recent of the library albums include the four tracks on this very EP, which feature Taylor's innovative horn arrangement skills, placing JB style horns over a funk groove, but in this case he had the novel idea of incorporating two guitars; one funky, one rocky. Sort of James Brown meets The Rolling Stones, and the result can be heard on this slab of vinyl. Limited to 300 copies.