James Taylor Quartet: Don't Mess With Mr. T, CD

An album that explodes into life from the opening bars of ‘Money’, the very first Motown hit song – DON’T MESS WITH MR T: JAMES TAYLOR QUARTET PLAYS MOTOWN is one of the Hammond maestro’s most exciting albums ever. Twelve tracks that run the gamut of Motown flavours – from the driving groove of Marvin Gaye’s ‘Got To Give It Up’ to the late night, jazzy soundtrack mood of the title track.

And the guest vocalists would be hard to beat – the UK’s leading male soul vocalist OMAR turns in a wonderful new version of Marvin Gaye’s ‘After The Dance’; HIL ST SOUL stays deliciously in period on the early Sixties Smokey Robinson song ‘You Beat Me To The Punch’, originally a hit for Mary Wells; and DONNA GARDIER revisits the Supremes hit ‘Come See About Me’.

The band blow up a storm on ‘Function At The Junction’, and the early Jr Walker instrumental ‘Cleo’s Mood’ – with saxist Jamie Anderson uncannily close in tone and feel to the Motown saxman – while ‘Jimmy Mack’, with chorus vocals from Donna Gardier and Incognito’s Joy Rose, is an absolute delight.