FILTER REISSUES
Duffy Power
Innovations (Expanded Edition)
★★★★
REPERTOIRE. CD
Outstanding Brit blues from 1965 to ’67.
DUFFY POWER started out with manager Larry Parnes but on discovering the ’60s London blues scene began playing gritty R&B. A gifted guitarist with a powerful soul voice, he had star quality but due to suffering mental ill health was unable to hold down steady work. What he did manage, though, was remarkable, borne out on 1971’s Innovations – here with 11 additional tracks – comprising sessions recorded between 1965 and 1967 for his publisher Marquis Music, most of which were unissued at the time. Put down live in various studios across London with musician friends – John McLaughlin, Danny Thompson, Jack Bruce no less – there are nuggets galore, from an imaginative cover of One Night with Power’s passionate singing over Mingus-styled bass lines, to original Little Boy Blue, a stupendous, jazz-inflected driving blues with spiritual heft.