ENCORE (WITH JULIE TIPPETTS)

As Brian's Oblivion Express was in its death throes, out of the blue Julie popped her strangely-cut head (see her haircut on the cover) around and said hello and most likely started jamming with her old pal Brian. If Brian had been fairly busy but not really in the public eyes, Julie had gone completely underground after marrying hubby Keith and singing free jazz in London, therefore light years away from the sunlight. The two pure solo albums she had recorded actually were both quite good (even excellent): 1969 (as Driscoll) and Sunset Glow (as Tippetts) are both real pearls and likely to please all jazz-rock fans.

Anyway, this album is mostly made of r'nb covers (a bit as if going back to the Trinity days, even when looking at the line-up on this album), two of them from Jarreau, bookending the album, but if the feeling is quite different than on the Express' HH album recorded around the time too, Encore is not that much more inspired, with huge classic like Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood missing the mark. Two tracks should hold our attention: Jack Bruce's Rope Ladder To The Moon, which is again a miss, and Traffic's No Place To Live (already done by Trinity on the Befour album), which doesn't fares better, partly due to the weaker instrumental passages. Our now-tired Ogre pens two tracks (Git up and Future Pilot), but they also fail to add a bit more energy. Julie's voice seems strangely quiet (as if suffering from a partial extinction), especially when compared to her marvellous 76's Sunset Glow album.

Sadly this futile attempt at reviving two careers on the threshold of losing their breath, actually contributes to their demise, Brian's next albums being few and far in between and Julie returning to her obscure participations in hubby's obscure works. Don't get me wrong, and even if I don't give three stars to it, this album is likely to please the Trinity days fans