Boogie In The City

" This album came about a couple of months ago", says pianist Dave Taylor, talking in June 1993. "The last few I've done had various themes - somewhere between Count Basie and Bill Haley, say - but the album I've always wanted to make is a straight forward boogie record. So when Charly Records suggested it, I got to work right away."

Taylor is a seasoned rock & roll performer whose professional pedigree goes back to a two-year stint with rockabilly the Hellraisers in the mid-70s. It was this that led, accidentally, to his current status as the biggest pop star in Finland! After a successful Hellraiser swoop through the frozen north, the band was invited back.

"A month's guaranteed work", recalls Dave. "But it was in the middle of winter. I rang round the rest of the band to tell them. 'Too bloody cold', they reckoned. So I went over on my own, pick up a local band- and stayed five years! My wife is Finnish, and the place is my second home now. Except that Hong Kong is becoming a second home as well! Back in England I'm based in Herne Bay, where I've got my own Recording studio".

The new album mixes Taylor originals with such boogie greats as Meade Lux Lewis and Ludwig van Beethoven - he gives Fur Elise a touch of the B Bumbles. The Finnish connection is maintained with a couple of dynamite arrangements by Taylor's colleague Paul Fagerlund.

This is boogie as it should be played, and whether you live in Romford or Rovaniemi, Dave Taylor delivers.

John Collis

Rockin Dave - Mister Boogie Woogie -Midnight Rock