How Cool Is Cool

Two CD 42 track set featuring their complete CBS recordings. Once derided as three blokes in matching shirts playing easy listening interpretations of pop hits, they now have a certain retro cool for what keyboardist/ vocalist Roy Phillips describes as 'a sort of pop-art-jazz' and can be seen as an influence on acts as diverse as Air & Lemon Jelly. This double CD compilation gathers the group's three late-60s albums they cut for CBS Freewheelers, Three in a Cell and Birthday as well as singles and rare recordings. Unbelievably tight, The Peddlers could swing with the best of them and their rich organ and funky rhythms recall both Ramsay Lewis & Booker T & the MG's. Although The Peddlers did not split up until 1976, the group and their fans consider these recordings the finest recordings Peddlers available and listening to them is a pleasure. Imaginative interpretations of 'Little Red Rooster' and 'Stormy Weather' alongside brooding originals make this a definitive set of a seriously underrated '60s act who truly embody the pop-art-jazz thing like no other. Sony Jazz. 2002.