Manfred Mann - Instrumental Asylum (1967)

The Mann-Hugg Blues Brothers were formed in London by South African keyboard player Manfred Mann and drummer/vibes/piano player Mike Hugg, and the early line-up also featured Graham Bond. They brought a shared love of jazz to the British blues boom then sweeping London's clubs, and with addition of Mike Vickers on guitar, alto saxophone and flute, Dave Richmond on bass and Paul Jones as lead vocalist and harmonicist, the renamed Manfred Mann were born. Gigging throughout late 1962 and early 1963 they soon attracted attention for their distinctive sound, and in 1964 the group were asked to provide a new theme tune for the ITV pop music television programme 'Ready Steady Go!'. They responded with '5-4-3-2-1' which became their first hit single, reaching No. 5 in the UK Singles Chart. They followed this with more singles, all covers of blues/R'n'B songs like 'Doo Wah Diddy' and 'Sha La La', but when they recorded their first album in 1964 they went back to their roots and included a lot of those early R'n'B covers like 'Smokestack Lightning', 'I've Got My Mojo Working' and 'I'm Your Kingpin', although they did write their own stuff for B-sides and EP releases. They changed their style slightly around 1964, and with singles like 'Come Tomorrow' and covers of Bob Dylan songs such as 'With God On Our Side' and 'If You Gotta Go, Go Now' they became more of a pop band. Paul Jones left in 1966 to pursue an acting and solo recording career, and he was replaced by Mike D'Abo, who brought a softer, folkier sound to the group, but before he actually joined, the rest of the band went into the studio to record some jazz versions of then current pop hits. They were pleased with the results and the tracks were released as two four-track EP's - 'Instrumental Asylum' and 'Instrumental Assassination'. However, the public weren't as impressed and both EP's sold poorly. As I'd always liked their version of the jazz standard 'Autumn Leaves' from the 'As Is' album, I had to hear these EP's to see if they were really that bad, and of course they aren't. The band are all excellent musicians and started out playing in jazz clubs, so I thought these tracks sounded perfectly fine, and now you can make up your own mind, as they are all collected here, along with a few albums tracks, b-sides and out-takes from 1966 and 1967 to make a 43 minute album. It's not the Manfred Mann that most people are familiar with, and to me it sounds like a proper jazz album from the late 60's, but I love it. I've adapted the 'Instrumental Asylum' EP sleeve for the cover of this post, and I hope that it goes some way to show what an innovative and versatile band Manfred Mann were, as what other group have been as successful in genres as diverse as R'n'B, jazz, pop, folk/pop, jazz-rock (with Chapter 3) and progressive rock (with The Earth Band) as the Manfreds.  

Track listing

01 Still I'm Sad
02 Sunny
03 My Generation
04 God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
05 Spirit Feel
06 Wild Thing
07 Bare Hugg
08 I Got You Babe
09 Autumn Leaves
10 Get Away
11 One Way
12 With A Girl Like You
13 (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
14 Sweet Pea
15 Miss JD