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Hart, Scone & Albin: Leading The British Invasion

By Dan Bilawsky
December 30, 2017
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Hart, Scone & Albin: Leading The British Invasion

The British are coming, the British are coming! No, not the Redcoats with rifles or tide-shifting rock royalty like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and the like. This time, it's the might and music of the English songstress that's landing stateside.

With Leading The British Invasion, this smart and stinging organ trio salutes a number of notable ladies from across the pond. Fifty years worth of history is covered here, as everybody from Dusty Springfield to Adele is given their due. In tackling radio staples of the distant past and yesteryear, guitarist John Hart, organist

Adam Scone

" data-original-title="" title="">Adam Scone, and drummer Rudy Albin Petschauer rework and retrofit familiar melodies and structures, allowing the music's pop, soul, rock, and R&B beginnings to show while adding a coat or two of their own colorful ideas to the proceedings. There's enough of the familiar to keep these songs moored to their origins and there's sufficient arrangement and development to separate them into a category removed from their birthplace(s).

Tributes to Amy Winehouse bookend the album, putting the spotlight on a talent taken too soon. First, "Rehab" rolls in at a faster clip than expected, riding over a street beat before shifting toward swing; then, a "Body And Soul" playing to tradition and nodding toward Winehouse's duet take on the song with

Tony Bennett

vocals
1926 - 2023

" data-original-title="" title="">Tony Bennett arrives in the penultimate position and points the way toward a swinging and grooving goodbye in the form of "Back To Black."

The eight tracks that sit between those performances are pure fun.

Joss Stone

vocals

" data-original-title="" title="">Joss Stone's "Don't Start Lyin' To Me Now" simmers over a plain-faced rock feel,

Sade

vocals
b.1959

" data-original-title="" title="">Sade's "Smooth Operator" is stripped of its smooth surfaces and given a semi-shuffling framework, a pair of Adele songs—a waltz take on "Turning Tables" and a raunchy and psychedelic "Rolling In The Deep"—salute the most current star on the roster, and a gently swinging stroll through the Dusty Springfield-associated "I Only Want To Be With You" looks back more than half a century. There's something positive to take from each of those numbers and several not cited, but the best of the bunch by far is the trio's expansive take on Lorde's "Royals," artfully moving from tight and textured lands to an aggressive space before settling into a jam band zone.

This album doesn't reinvent the wheel, the organ trio, or the female-influence on the British pop landscape, but it does provide an infusion of joy that uses catchy fare associated with some of music's leading ladies as a chief ingredient. Same great organ trio sounds, different angle on material. That's Leading The British Invasion in a nutshell.

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Track Listing

Rehab; Don't Start Lyin' To Me Now; The Look Of Love; Smooth Operator; Royals; Turning Tables; Rolling In The Deep; I Only Want To Be With You; Blues For the U.K.; Body and Soul; Back to Black.

Personnel

John Hart

guitar

John Hart: guitar; Adam Scone: Hammond organ; Rudy Albin Petschauer: drums.

Album information

Title: Leading The British Invasion | Year Released: 2017 | Record Label: Zoho Music

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