George Jones
FILEUNDER The Tour De Force 1972-1980
Jones filtered into jerky funk, heavy on the Linn drum and early ’80s tropes, created by Jamaican in-house engineer Steve Stanley for Mambo Nassau Lizzy’s role seemed as much curator as featured voice. You won’t be listening for the quality of her yelps and interjections but for the grooves and atmospheres she gathered around her. By the next album, Lizzy was seeing new beau, English producer Adam Kidron (Scritti Politti) and Esteban, now her manager, escorted them to apartheid South Africa to record with the locals, some years before Paul Simon, for Zulu Rock a trendy blend of highlife and funk (not miles from Malcolm McLaren’s Duck Rock a year earlier). First single Mais Où Sont Passées Les Gazelles (Where Are All The Gazelles?) was a surprise smash back in France, voted Best Song Of 1984 in one poll, and Lizzy seemed set for an intriguing career. But follow-up One For The Soul recorded in newly liberated Brazil in 1985, caused a rift in the team. Lizzy fell out with both Kidron and Esteban when this pleasingly confused, global mash-up, with Lizzy crooning on top, failed to connect. It’s worth hearing for the pretty Fog Horn Blues and the Sambaflavoured Off Off Pleasure, both with late performances by Chet Baker on trumpet. Her final album, 1988’s Suspense was more focused but less interesting and she gave up music, moving to Corsica in the ’90s to write and paint. She died of cancer in 2004, just 47 years old.