GEORGIE FAME – RHYTHM & BLUES & JAZZ – Live In Europe 1967 LP

DescriptionAsked at the end of 1967 if he would ever give up pop for jazz, Georgie Fame replied: ‘No, I couldn’t do it. It would be like cutting off one of my arms.’ This collection of R&B, pop and jazz finds Fame at the commercial peak of his career with a new single, ‘The Ballad Of Bonnie & Clyde’, heading towards No.1 in the UK and Europe. Despite the Blue Flames having officially broken up in October ’66, the Offenbach band is in effect the Blue Flames, whereas at Lucerne, it is the Georgie Fame Quartet on the bill. ‘The show with a quartet is very experimental,’ Fame explained, ‘with things like three part harmonies with voice, guitar and flute and new treatments of new tunes as well as some standards.’ As one critic put it at the end of ’67, ‘for my money he’s equally good at pop and jazz’ and we couldn’t agree more.