A goldmine of sublime tracks and delicious rock anecdotes

Speaking to me from his home in LA, the pianist and organist Brian Auger sounds incredulous as he describes a recent phone call he received from an old associate of his, hoping to invite him to dinner. “It really surprised me,” he says. “The phone rang and this voice said: ‘Hello Brian is that you? This is Elton [John].’ I was blown away… he was so kind and gracious.” As our conversation continues, he touches on pivotal moments she’d ever heard. Then there’s the voodoo ritual he once sat through with Dr John, an appearance on TV show, an honour by the US Congress for services to ‘The American Art Form of Jazz’, not to mention encounters with Freddie Hubbard, Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley and other greats. If we were meeting as strangers, if he was propping up a bar somewhere in Soho reeling off these extraordinary tales I might be sceptical too – but the truth is that Auger has been at the centre of some of the biggest musical movements of the 20th century.