Written by Every now and then a mail drops into my inbox that just peeks your attention. This was the case last week when Paul Murphy from Jazz Room Records mailed this item through.
Back in early May Dave Greenfield (keyboardist with The Stranglers), best know for the mega hit “Golden Brown” died at the age 71 after contracting Covid. Greenfield wrote the piece of music that would become Golden Brown. His bandmates initially discarded the song not considering it a potential single, yet once released, the track became their biggest hit eventually winning the band an Ivor Novello award.
A week following Greenfield’s death, British musician Laurence Mason puts together this off the wall idea of editing together two of his biggest musical heroes, namely Greenfield and Dave Brubeck. The result, this montage of Brubeck’s classic Take 5 and the Golden Brown.
Mason uploaded the demo to YouTube not really expecting much in the way of feedback. He couldn’t have been more wrong, the video scored over three million views and generated hundreds of requests for a release. Jazz Room Records “Head Honcho” Paul Murphy contacted Laurence and suggested releasing the track commercially. With the answer being “Affirmative!” Mason went to work and the result is this version of “Golden Brown” released digitally and as vinyl EP. The “B” side being a languid and super cool version of “Walking On The Moon”, originally by 80’s Supergroup The Police. Murphy went on to say “This is just a taster for what we’re confident will be a must have album to be readied for 2021 release.”
For those interested in how Mason put it together, in the video description on YouTube he wrote the following: “I took a clip from a 1964 live version of Take Five and made the drum loop by chopping up the intro and turning it from 5/4 into the 3/4 – 4/4 groove that Golden Brown has. The upright bass sound is sequenced from Logic, and the piano part was played in using one of the piano sounds from a Nord Electro 5D. Then I played the sax part over the top (I play a King Zephyr alto and for this I used a hard rubber Yanigasawa mouthpiece rather than my usual bright Guardala). The video was then edited using the clip I’d taken the drum loop from.”
It seems the EP was a success with the vinyl version selling out and “Golden Brown” spending 2 weeks in the top 40 and reaching Number 24 in the Official Vinyl Singles Chart.
More Information Here.
Last modified: November 18, 2020
