RENEE GEYER - RENEE GEYER CD

The much-loved RENÉE REBECCA GEYER was long recognised as Australia’s foremost R&B, funk and blue-eyed soul singer. She was born in Melbourne (11 September 1953), the daughter of Hungarian Jewish refugee parents, and died on 17 January 2023 at the age of 69. Her classic, eponymously titled solo album, backed by Mother Earth, has been unavailable since its original release in September 1973. It now gets the remastered reissued CD treatment on Aztec Records, replete with six Bonus live tracks.

Renée was the consummate performer and by any criteria her career was phenomenal. With her rich, sultry and husky vocal delivery she thrilled audiences and melted hearts for over 50 years. In that time, she recorded 20 albums and scored hits with ‘It’s a Man’s Man’s World’, ‘Heading in the Right Direction’, ‘Stares and Whispers’ and ‘Say I Love You’. She also lived and worked in the United States for many years, where she earned accolades for her role as backing vocalist for international artists such as Sting, Joe Cocker and Chaka Khan.

At the age of 18 she had made her recording debut with Sydney jazz rock band SUN. Aztec reissued Sun 1972 (AVSCD095) in 2023. In 1973 she formed Sydney funk soul band Mother Earth with guitarists Mark Punch and Jim Kelly, Harry Brus (bass) and Russell Dunlop (drums). At a time when blues, boogie and glam rock were most prominent on the Australian live circuit, Mother Earth was one of the first local bands to present funk and soul as a force to be reckoned with. They were always grooving hard and right on the “one”. Her manager, jazz entrepreneur Horst Liepolt, scored the singer a solo deal with RCA Records. She insisted on Mother Earth backing her in the studio. She was a band singer after all.

The album comprised ten interpretations of other people’s songs. She’s at her soulful best on Penn-Moman’s ‘Do Right Woman, Do Right Man’ – made famous by Aretha Franklin – Lambert-Potter’s ‘If Only You Believe’, Matthew Moore’s ‘Space Captain’ and Bill Withers’ ‘Lean on Me’. Van Morrison’s ‘Moondance’ is a jazzy delight, while on Bob Dylan’s 1966 classic ‘Just Like a Woman’ her emotional vocal delivery is on full display across the band’s dreamy, seven-minute arrangement, which is over two minutes longer than Dylan’s original recording as featured on the Blonde on Blonde album. Rocky Thomas’ string arrangement is particularly effective here. The singer and the band ramp up the funk for versions of Gulliver Smith and Russell Smith’s ‘Mascara Blue’ and Buddy Miles’ stomping ‘Them Changes’.

The Bonus Live material comes from GTK sessions circa 1973-74, including Jackie Moore’s ‘They Tell Me of an Uncloudy Day’, Booker T. Jones’ ‘Born Under a Bad Sign’, Bill Wither’s ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’, James Taylor’s ‘Country Road’, Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On’ and Otis Redding’s ‘Respect’.