Friday 11 December 2015

Jellyroll - Jellyroll [1971], album review

Horn and Vocal Clone

I am listening to this rousing hornrock album this morning, just reissued, and it is easy to describe because, like others, one only has to mention Blood, Sweat and Tears as a reference. So many bands of this time emulated their brass rock and gutsy vocal, especially from the second album onwards, but Jellyroll have in Roger Troy the remarkable vocal clone of David Clayton-Thomas, and the rest is more of the BS&T same, superbly. Probably more consistently heavy as a band, Troy's vocal dominates above everything but that band's playing throughout is excellent, the horns obviously, as well as organ and guitar work, for example on penultimate Hard Times. One song, Trying to Forget Someone Too, is the perfect vehicle for the dynamism of Troy's emotive singing: it begins as a slow ballad and its raison d'être is to rise to a melodramatic crescendo. The difference between Jellyroll and BS&T is there is no Spinning Wheel, or similar, on this album, but the funkiness is a consistent quality. Great way to wake of a morning.


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