(Translated from my original italian text and updated by Ellie Buchanan)

Pianist and organist Zoot Money (George Bruno Money) was the most colourful exponent of early British rhythm and blues, legendary for his outrageous live appearances. Born in Bournemouth to Italian parents, he moved to London in the early 1960s where he worked with Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated in between spells with his own Big Roll Band, with whom he had a minor hit (Big Time Operator) in 1965. On their first album, Live At Klooks Kleek (CBS, 1966, produced by Gus Dudgeon), the band comprised Nick Newall on sax, Colin Allen on drums and Andy Summers on guitar, and featured Johnny Almond in the last line-up. Money went on to form Dantalian's Chariot (a psychedelic trio with Summers and Allen), in response to the new mood of 1967. In September 1967, at the height of the "Summer of Love", they released a typically bizarre single, Madman Running Through the Fields. The trio broke up soon after and Money and Summers moved to San Francisco to join Eric Burdon's New Animals for a while. In 1970 Zoot released his first solo album, Welcome to My Head. He also played grand piano on Peter Green's jazz-rock masterpiece End of the Game. By this time he was also in demand as a session-man, always managing to leave his personal stamp on a recording, in particular on Kevin Coyne's In Living Black And White (Virgin, 1976). During the 1970s Zoot Money started a parallel career as a film actor. He continued to record and perform, both as a featured artist with fellow 1960s stars such as Spencer Davis and Alan Price and in his own right with the Big Roll Band, who enjoyed a renaissance of sorts.

Zoot Money died in 2024.