Chicago Studio Club Live Music

The song that Geoff Driscoll, UK sax man is playing (embedded at the bottom of this page) is an old Lee Dorsey song written by Allen Toussaint called "Freedom for the Stallion".  Geoff says he loves that New Orleans feel that came across on Lee Dorsey’s stuff, so loose and tight at the same time.

Geoff’s musical career, goes back to 1967. He has worked with so many of his heroes.  Geoff was with Jackie Wilson when he met our good friend Chicago keyboardist Vince Willis.

He has toured with Fat Boy Billy Stewart, Arthur Conley (a tour alongside Sam and Dave and Joe Tex ("they were somethin’ else!") Brook Benton, The Chi-Lites,  The Temptations (3 times) Marvin Gaye, not to mention Bill Haley!

Geoff Driscoll spent 18 months recording with George Harrison, working with Billy Preston,  Doris Troy, Eric Clapton,  Stephen Stills, Leon Russell and did a couple of tracks for John Lennon as well as " Let it Be" with The Beatles.

Geoff says he did quite a bit with Phil Spector ("Now, there’s a weird gentleman for ya!") . Geoff  toured the States with The National Theatre of Great Britain  in 1974 and stayed at the Essex Inn on Lakeshore Drive when they played the Wolftrap Theatre. He says he really took to Chicago. "My kind of town: noisy, smelly, vibrant, exciting, all the things a proper city should be".

In addition Geoff has done about 4,000 performances of the Rocky Horror Show – right from the beginning with Tim Curry on and off until the mid-nineties. Mix all that up with other theatre work, record dates, jazz gigs, radio and T.V. and the occasional film stuff, writing orchestral film music and one and a half theatre shows and he says "He has to admit he has one hell of a good time!". Geoff still does gigs (StealingDan) and LOVES teaching not just the saxophone but about jazz and soul music. One young man came to Geoff as a great young oboist, age 14. "He’d never heard of King Curtis or Junior Walker, well he has now! You wanna hear him wail!". This link is to one of Geoff’s students, she even mentions him. Geoff’s old mentor (when he was a kid), said (when he was probably the age Geoff is right now) "You gotta spread the word. Pass it on, tell the young or they will never know!"  We agree with Geoff when he says "We’ve all got to do it in our own sweet way!".               

Tags: Allen Toussaint, Arthur Conley, Astrid Driscoll, Bill Haley, Billy Preston, Britain, Brook Benton, Chicago, Chicago Studio Club, Doris Troy, Driscoll, England, Eric Clapton, Essex Inn, Fat Boy Billy Stewart, Freedom for the Stallion, Geoff, Geoff Driscoll, Geoff Driscoll - UK Sax Man, George Harrison, Jackie Wilson, Joe Tex, John Lennon, Junior Walker, King Curtis, Lee Dorsey, Leon Russell, Marvin Gaye, Phil Spector, Rocky Horror Show, Sam and Dave, saxophone, saxophonist, Stephen Stills, The Beatles, The Chi-Lites, The National Theatre of Great Britain, The Temptations, Tim Curry, United Kingdom, Vince Willis, Wolftrap Theatre . This entry was posted on Thursday, August 13th, 2009 at 10:33 am and is filed under Blues, Chicago, Geoff Driscoll, Illinois, Jazz, Live Music, Music, Soul, U K, Vince Willis, live music videos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.