FRUMPY LIVE

This is an excellent mix of blues, soul, hard rock and prog, with some "classic" brief interludes. Frumpy was a band which ended much too soon, they were talented musicians and singer Inga Rumpf had a powerful (although a bith rough) voice. This live album was a posthumous release, and Repertoire Records added two live 1970 songs to the original seven pieces. Apart from "Backwater Blues" (one of the highlights of the album), which was written by Bessie Smith, all the songs were written by band member (specially Inga Rumpf and Jean-Jacques Kravetz). Please note that guitar player Rainer Baumann played on this album (his name must be added at the line-up above - and the band's drummer was Carsten Bohn - "Bandstand" was the band he formed after Frumpy's end). All tracks on CD 1 (first five songs at the songlisting) are definitely worth a listen, making this album a good addition to any prog-rock fan's collection, although it's not essential. By the way, don't be fooled by the fact they were Germans: if you like kraut- rock, this will not be your band.

Life (live) keeps going ... just another album which has been a reliable compagnion next to me during the 70's. I was always fascinated by Inga's unique while somewhat raw singing voice. Just given with the same importance it went with, let's say, Renaissance and Annie Haslam or Jefferson Airplane and Grace Slick (though musically of course not really comparable, I know). Just another attraction in general is keyboard wizzard Jean-Jacques Kravetz, who's excelling with his solos during diverse jamming parts.

On a special side note, not joking, most of the songs have been recorded in my close neighborhood. This means 10 respectively 15 kilometers away from my hometown, which is still the same 'til today. Far away from a cultural metropolis. Not that this has been a special attraction to me for a long time actually. But today, yeah, 45!!! years since then, when listening to this again ... I'm wondering, back then, it must be a real thing, that I have attended the gig at Bünde in April 1972 above all. Man, if I ever would have have kept a log about such things.

Anyway, you should know, it's not that unusual when considering the recording era, that the songs are presented in a strong heavy blues rock outfit. Where some of them are rather decent, I'd like to underline Singing Songs at first, a marvelous blues tune which shines with perfect vocals. Duty comes as the album's absolute highlight. It's an 18 minutes lasting joy of playing, with a lot of prominent guitar and hammond interaction. While rich in contrast, provided with way more progressive characteristics, always associated with the band name, my alltime FRUMPY favourite is manifested by Take Care Of Illusion.

Completing the best-of ranks here, finally let me also mention the jamming stand out track Release which shows them experimenting quite a bit. This also includes the obligatory or maybe essential drum solo. Overall the album is not what prog purists are looking for. Fans of rrrrrrocking live performances though can't fail here. I mean those gigs where the band is featuring a lot of prowess and acting very close to 100 percent. Nice remembrance, at turbulent times nonetheless, for diverse reasons. Although being prolific and successful, surprisingly the group was disbanded in 1972 for the first time - 3.5 stars.