Zoot Money - Were You There - Live 1966 (CD)

All Music Guide

Previously unreleased, 65-minute disc of live 1966 club performances. The 1966 Live at Klook's Kleek album is a better representation of this British RB-soul band; the material and playing on that album are superior. However, if you like that record and want more, it's a safe bet that you'll want Were You There? too, since only one of the 19 songs (James Brown's "I Got You (I Feel Good)") is also presented (in a different version) on Klook's Kleek. Zoot Money's Big Roll Band were competent fusers of soul, blues, and jazz, but not nearly in the same class as the best British practitioner of the form, Georgie Fame. So what you get here are decent, good-spirited covers of well-known and obscure songs by Ray Charles, Booker T. the MG's, T-Bone Walker, Marvin Gaye, and the like, with just a smidgen of original material. The sound is alright, though not sparkling. It's one for the British RB completists, owing to the rather generic and unoriginal approach to the form, although it's historic...ally interesting in that not too many U.K. bands were taking the soul-jazz-heavy angle. - Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide Read more Less