COL NOLAN & THE SOUL SYNDICATE Whatever It’s Worth
By Ian McFarlane © 2020
“Having long contributed to the evolution of contemporary Australian Soul, Funk and Jazz, Lance Ferguson (The Bamboos, Lanu, Menagerie ex Cookin’ On 3 Burners), now aims to revive its history with a new reissue label, Pacific Theatre Encore. The first release on the label is undoubtedly one of Australia’s rarest and funkiest jazz albums.” (pacifictheatrerecords.bandcamp.com/album/whatever-its-worth)
COL NOLAN & THE SOUL SYNDICATE – Whatever It’s Worth (CBS SBP 233621) 1968
Side 1
1. Shades Of McSoul
2. Rivera Mountain
3. Angel Of The Morning
4. Ode To Billy Joe
5. Got My Mojo Working
Side 2
1. Sunny
2. Green, Green Grass Of Home
3. Blues For Madeleine
4. Whatever It’s Worth
5. By The Time I Get To Phoenix (vocal)
COL NOLAN & THE SOUL SYNDICATE – Whatever It’s Worth (Pacific Theatre Encore PTE002LP/2CD) 2019
I was unaware of this rare album until very recently, not being a Soul Jazz fanatic or Funk DJ (although I love both those genres). So my musical education continues with this lil’ beauty.
Renowned jazz keyboardist Col Nolan was often billed as “Australia’s King of the Hammond Organ”. Taking inspiration from the likes of US Hammond giants Jimmy Smith and Jimmy McGriff and English jazz / R&B kingpin Georgie Fame, Nolan & the Soul Syndicate were resident band at the legendary Whisky A Go Go club in Sydney’s Kings Cross.
The history of the Whisky is a whole other story, suffice to say that it was not only the Swinging Sixties but also the height of the Vietnam War, so Sydney was R&R central for American servicemen. They flocked to the Whisky for entertainment. The combo developed a repertoire to suit their audience best, so this ultra-rare, mostly instrumental album includes swinging covers of Chip Taylor’s ‘Angel Of The Morning’, Bobbie Gentry’s ‘Ode To Billy Joe’, Red Foster’s ‘Got My Mojo Working’, Bobby Hebb’s ‘Sunny’, Curly Putman’s ‘Green, Green Grass Of Home’ and Jim Webb’s ‘By The Time I Get To Phoenix’.
All tried and trusted material but the Soul Syndicate stamp them with their own mark. Add to that a brace of band written tracks, ‘Shades Of McSoul’, ‘Rivera Mountain’, ‘Blues For Madeleine’, ‘Whatever It’s Worth’, and it combines to make Whatever It’s Worth the Holy Grail of Aussie Soul Jazz. The funk and the groove throughout are palpable, there are break-beats to die for, even touches of psychedelia. The other players were John Sangster (drums, percussion), Jimmy Doyle (guitar), Col Loughnan (sax, flute) and John Allen (bass). Loughnan also contributes vocals to one track, ‘By The Time I Get To Phoenix’.
When the Soul Syndicate’s Whisky residency finished, the newly installed resident band was Barrie McAskill and Levi Smith’s Clefs. A later version of The Col Nolan Soul Syndicate – Nolan, Johnny Nicol (guitar), Roger Sellers (drums) and Laurie Lewis (saxophone) – issued Live At Jason’s in 1973. Sangster followed his own career; his Lord Of The Rings series is stupendous. Doyle and Loughnan went on to guide jazz fusion heroes Ayers Rock in the ’70s.
For swinging, rare-groove history this is the one.
Postscript – In an odd twist to the tale of the album’s original release, the parent record company (CBS) issued the Eddie Boyd album 7936 South Rhodes (on Epic in the US, Blue Horizon in the UK) with exactly the same cover photo, at the same time!
