Post Description

Chris Jagger - Channel Fever 

Release Date: 2001
Label: Blueprint
Genre: Blues
Format: MP3  320 kbps
Time: 49:05
Size: 113 MB

For those of you that don't know, Chris Jagger is Mick's younger brother. But, to be quite honest, there's not a lot that they have in common musically. Channel Fever is a blend of Cajun/Zydeco, Blues, Rock & Roll and Country as Jagger hedges his bets with this series of self or co-written tracks. Having said that Chris and Mick don't have much in common there are a couple of songs in the good time title track (up to the Cajun accordion at the chorus) and Baby Is Blue that do have Rolling Stones sounds to them. The latter certainly is in the Waiting For A Friend mould. Law Against It is a slowish catchy boogie on which Jagger gives us a taste of his drawl but the following, atmospheric Still Waters will have few fans. He's In A Meeting is straight up old time country whereas Funky Man is the first blues track and delivers some snappy guitar and organ as well as the first outing for the horn section. The first of my favourite tracks is Monique, which is sung in French and straight out of the Louisiana bayou. This is Cajun music played to the highest standard. The Arms Of Kari-Ann is a straightforward, medium paced country-rock effort and the tempo is raised again on the rock and roll style, Crazy. We get full-on country, fiddles and all on the foot-tapping Rodeo before moving on to the aforementioned acoustic Baby Is Blue. Back to the favourite songs with Libido Blues and Blanchishears, the former being standard rhythm & blues but with just that little something extra and the latter is just another good time, bluegrass influenced track. The best vocal on the album is saved for the final song, C.J.'s Blues. This shows off his voice majestically and may show him the future path. He is very good at the Cajun and Country offerings but surely he must devote more space to gritty blues in the future. 
Chris’s career, unlike his brother has spanned many fields in the artistic spectrum, from clothes design and theatre to journalism. He has appeared in repertory at The Citizen’s Theatre in Glasgow (his first play there was with one Pierce Brosnan), Nottingham Playhouse and the ICA in London as well as in TV and film. He has written for various magazines and newspapers including The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, the Mail on Sunday and Rolling StoneHis first records were made during the 1970’s for David Geffen of Asylum Records in Los Angeles and he toured the USA and the UK.He revitalised his song writing in the late 1980’s when he worked in France as lyricist for producer Franck Langolf [Vanessa Paradis] and helped brother Mick out on the Stones acclaimed albums “Dirty Work” and then later “Steel Wheels.”Chris decided to then concentrate on his own material and the result was the critically acclaimed Sequel C.D. ‘Atcha!’ in 1994, a mix of Cajun style with Chris’s individual brand of song writing. Acclaimed and respected music critic Tony Parsons in the Telegraph compared his lyrics to those of the famed Sammy Cahn. Contributions came from David Gilmour (Pink Floyd) and Dave Stewart (Eurythmics) on ‘Lhasa Town, Leo Sayer and a touch of brother Mick on ‘Stand Up for The Foot.’ This record was later released in the US by Curb Records as ‘Rock the Zydeco’ where Chris and his band promoted the record on the Conan O’Brien Show for NBC.Additionally he arranged the music for the Bosnian charity concert – “Bop for Bosnia” -at the BBC in Studio One with Dave Stewart and David Gilmour and two subsequent concerts for Tibet in Battersea Park and Alexandria Park in North London. In 1996 Chris recorded an acoustic album, ‘From Lhasa To Lewisham’ with associates Ben Waters and Charlie Hart and there followed ‘Channel Fever’ with the Atcha! Band.Act of Faith’ which was released in 2005 on the Hannover-based label SPV,has also brought Chris and his music to a wider audience in Europe, Australia, Japan and Canada where he appeared at the Montreal Jazz Festival in 2007.Besides writing and touring Europe with his band.Chris has recently written and presented a three part series for BBC Radio on Alexis Korner, the pioneering blues musician and broadcaster. He has also finished a film for SKY ARTS on the blues in Austin Texas with guest contributions from some of the finest and most respected blues musicians including Muddy Waters pianist Pine Top Perkins, Hubert Sumlin who worked with blues singer Howlin’ Wolf and guitarist Jimmy Vaughan. We catch up with ninety three year old Pinetop as he visits with brother Mick and Chuck Leavell backstage at a Rolling Stones show in Austin TX and reveal stories from the heydays of Chicago blues. The film was a direct result of a radio show that Chris co-hosts from Austin, ‘The Blueseum Of Fine Art’.


Member:
Chris Jagger (guitar, voices)
Oskar Aichinger (piano)
Achim Tang (bass)
Paul Skrepek Jun (drums)


Tracklist:
01 Channel Fever   
02 Law Against It   
03 Still Waters   
04 He`s In A Meeting   
05 Funky Man   
06 Monique   
07 Arms Of Kari-Ann   
08 Crazy   
09 Rodeo   
10 Baby Is Blue   
11 Libido Blues   
12 Blanchishears   
13 C.J.`s Blues

Im Schatten seines Bruders Mick fühlt Chris sich nicht so unwohl wie die meisten immer meinen. Auch Chris spielte schon vor Riesenpublikum auf berühmten Festivals weltweit und trat wiederholt in der Royal Albert Hall auf. Er bevorzugt jedoch kleinere Spielstätten, an denen Nähe zwischen Musikern und Publikum möglich ist. Der Preis für Berühmtheit ist ihm zu hoch. Stattdessen genießt er es, unbehelligt von Reportern oder Autogrammjäger in Restaurants zu speisen, Museen zu besuchen oder über Flohmärkte zu schlendern.

Chris lebt mit seiner Familie zurückgezogen in Somerset, in einem alten Farmhaus mit riesigem Grundstück. Gemeinsam kümmern sich alle um Hunde, Katzen, Schafe, Hühner, Haus und Garten, so dass Chris immer nur ein paar Tage touren kann.

Nach den CDs "Atcha" (1994), "From Lhasa To Lewisham" (1996), "Channel Fever" (2000), "Act Of Faith" (2006), "The Ridge" (2009) wird 2013 das neue bluesige Album, "Concertina Jack", erscheinen, an dem auch Bruder Mick wieder mitgewirkt hat.       
*Doris Städing