THE FLYING HATS - THE RETURN OF THE FLYING HATS

Every ATA project is marked by collaboration – some over a few weeks and some over decades. When drummer Sam Hobbs and bassist Neil Innes decided to make The Return of, by The Flying Hats they were building on twenty years of playing together; Innes’s years of nightclub residencies and love of Afro-American dance music, and Hobbs’s intensive exploration of the links between American soul and R&B, Jamaican rocksteady and roots, and the music of the wider Caribbean from Cuba to Trinidad and Brazil. Organist Bob Birch (the original Organ player for New Mastersounds) and Chris Dawkins (Nightmares on Wax, Jimi Tenor, David Holmes, Finlay Quaye) were the other crucial elements – Birch started out as a jazz Hammond player in the bluesy McGriff/McDuff role before discovering the more exotic colours of Art Necille and Jackie Mittoo, and Dawkins has been a session guitarist for the cream of British reggae and rock for a generation. 

The Return of the Flying Hats occupies a space somewhere between The Aggrovators and The Meters, under the influence of Lynn Taitt & the Jets, and Fatman Riddim Section. Tracks like Grafter and Bust Up conjure up the image of classic New Orleans funk recorded in Kingston, whilst Tough Swagger sounds like half of Bunny Lee’s Aggrovators have dropped in at Ultrasonic to jam with Ziggy Modeliste. 

In other places the Jamaican sound predominates: An Autumn Sun is as sweet a dish of Kingston soul as you could wish for, Strong Fish an honest homage to Hot Milk-era Mittoo, whilst the introductory fanfares of opener Night Bus and Power Cut feel like they should be ushering in hot I Roy cuts.

Meanwhile, Iron Fist mixes everything up together in a fresh brew of asymmetric drums, talking bass and free-flowing organ melodies: when Innes and Hobbs started jamming together they roughed out melodies to every groove, but Birch came in and ignored virtually every note, preferring instead to simply channel extempo lines that sound both original and traditional at once.

It would be a mistake to call this group a new band, with all the communal miles they’ve travelled together: what this undoubtedly is though, is a fresh take on a couple of cherished genres (New Orleans R&B, Instrumental Rocksteady) that comes up with something more than the sum of its parts.