Manfred Mann's Chapter III - 1969 Vol 1

00:00 Travelling Lady (5.48)
05:48 Snakeskin Garter (5:48)
11:36 Konekuf (5:57)
17:33 Sometimes (2:37)
20:10 Devil Woman (5:24)
25:34 Time (7:25)
32:59 One Way Glass (3:33)
36:32 Mister, You're A Better Man Than I (5:10)
41:42 Ain't It Sad (1:58)
43:40 A Study In Inaccuracy (4:06)
47:46 Where Am I Going (2:46)

Mike Hugg - Piano, Vocals
Manfred Mann - Organ, Police Whistle
Steve York - Bass, Guitar, Harp
Craig Collinge - Drums
Bernie Living - Alto Flute

Having definitely left the pop realm, Manfred turned into a Mann (I know but I could not resist ;-) and opened a new chapter, this time not being afraid to take heavy risks. And venturing into jazzy territories and this for our greater pleasure, he became one of the
earliest rock musicians to fuse rock with jazz in the UK along with Colosseum (who had jazz musos in their line-up) as opposed to jazz musos who decided to expand towards rock music. MMCT is definitely a rock group, but can these guys play jazz!!

Still with his buddy Mike Hugg (a drummer in the RnB outfits, but strangely here only on vocals and KB) and sharing the songwriting credits evenly among them, Steve York on bass and guitars, and Collinge on drums, they were augmented with a brass section for their studio sessions. And there are some real superb tracks such as the opener, Snakeskin Garter and Devil Woman have plenty of great ambiances set-up on a mid- paced tempo.

Second side opens on rather lenghty Time starting as a slow blues with harmonica, but the heavy brass section quickly expand the horizons, but with the same tempo dominating the first side. Highlights on this vinyl side include You’re A Better Man Than I and Accuracy.

BTW, this album is incredibly long for the era it was released in clocking in at 50 minutes, and the immense majority of them very enjoying, but a little too tempered f the full spread of the album. But to think that this album was written by the two pop stars that did Doo-Wah-Diddy is flabbergasting indeed. -- Review by Sean Trane --