1970
ROCK AWAY * TOMMY McCOOK QUINTET * DUKE REID 2514 * UK
Intensely good instrumental from the late great Tommy McCook, for me, this ranks as one of the all time best's. I think it has something to do with the duality of, and in, the music; specifically the bubbling electronic organ riff that is sequenced throughout. This 'noise' from the organ seems to sit between being a traditional musical sound, the type of sound familiar in music until the advent of electricity, and a pure electronic 'sound'; a sound once only familiar to, and tolerated in music by the avant garde. A latter paradigm was the 'syn' (= synthetic) drum, which was to dominate the music the following decade. Rock Away was, astonishingly, put out as a mere B side, the A side, You'll Never Get Away by U Roy, is none the less a top side as well, making this British issue well worth the money.
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