by Jason AnkenyWhile it remains Georgie Fame's closest brush with psychedelia, Seventh Son nevertheless suffers from few of the more clichéd affectations of its era--apart from sparing use of vocal effects and some fuzzed-out bass, the record is very much of a piece with Fame's catalog as a whole, continuing his maturation from R&B-inspired tyro to jazz-influenced sophisticate. Recorded with an ace session band featuring trumpeter Les Condon, trombonist Chris Pyne and percussionist Frank Ricotti, the session boasts an intimacy somewhere between the blues and folk-pop, even if the overall approach appropriates from sources far more varied than either source--soul and jazz still dominate, but their absorption into the overall approach is more seamless and organic than before. Songs like "Am I Wasting My Time?" and "Ho Ho Ho" cement Fame as a storyteller as much as a singer, complete with a perfectly calibrated flair for the dramatic.