European Soul-Funk Instrumentals From the Early '70s

Digging into Casey and the Pressure Group

Here’s another chance to marvel at just how fast inspiration traveled in the pre-digital days.

In 1970, the same year the Meters dropped two world re-aligning albums (Struttin’ and Look-Ka Py Py), a band from the Netherlands called Casey and the Pressure Group brought out two sets of crisp keyboard-based instrumental music that directly glances at (but doesn’t mimic) the Meters, Booker T and the MGs and others.

The two records, Powerhouse and Lazybones, show how European musicians (the Pressure Group sometimes collaborated with members of Golden Earring) distilled and recombined those influences. “Soul Tango,” the hit from Lazybones, presents Cees (nee Casey) Schrama playing acoustic piano in an assertive way that melds the stately clomp of tango with New Orleans piano blues. “The Train,” the opening track on Powerhouse, starts with a recurring piano framework and then evolves into a rippling, levitating showcase for Schrama’s Hammond organ. Further into the record, Schrama utilizes exotic, unfailingly tasty organ stops and textures; what he lacks in Memphis grease he makes up for in sonic invention.

The solos are rousing. But it’s worth hearing just for the groovetending, which is economical and heated at the same time — and, in important ways, directly descended from the Meters. (This is a wonderful time to lament the fact that the New Orleans quartet is *still* not enshrined in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Sigh.) These Pressure Group players convey deep reverence for the tension-cultivating rhythmic tactics of the Meters while putting their own spirit into the sauce. It’s not rocket science — just another link in the long and unbroken chain of inspiration from the days before the Internet made everything instant.

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