Richie Cole - Keeper Of The Flame

The sleeve of this album has Richie in a classic jazz saxophonist pose, decked out in a white three-piece disco suit, wearing a white fedora. He has a large, red carnation in his buttonhole. Behind him are red theatre-style curtains with mock flames licking up behind him. Kinda like he’s at a disco wedding in Hell.

This album is one of those where only the banger (New York Afternoon) gets played. The rest of it’s nothing to write home about, although I’ve always thought Harold’s House of Jazz should’ve got more dancefloor love than it did. And on this listen I’ve been very impressed by Vic Juris’ guitar playing.

New York Afternoon is just perfect. Eddie Jefferson’s vocals are superb – especially on the fade-out. The sleeve notes say that it was written for the Fifth Dimension, but they split up before they could record it. Cole was planning for The Manhattan Transfer to record it on their next (Cole & Jefferson produced) album, but it doesn’t look like either the production gig or the cover version ever eventuated. More’s the pity, because I’ve had a quick listen to the available cover versions and, fuck me, they’re all cat shit.

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