James Taylor’s trademark howling Hammond sound is featured to fine effect on his new Dome album, Don’t Mess With Mr T: James Taylor Quartet Plays Motown, a storming set of Motown covers featuring guest lead vocalists Omar, Hil St Soul, and Donna Gardier

The 12-tune collection kicks off with an explosive version of Barrett Strong’s Money (That’s What I Want). The rest of the album certainly builds from its opener, with the funky vibe continuing through Marvin Gaye’s Got To Give It U,; Stevie Wonder’s Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours), Shorty Long’s Function At The Junction, Jimmy Mack, Machine Gun, Ashford and Simpson’s You’re All I Need To Get By, Jr Walker’s Cleo’s Mood , and Don’t Mess With Mr T, a Marvin Gaye tune written for the blaxploitation movie, Trouble Man.

Album highlights include After The Dance, the second hit from Marvin’s 1976 album I Want You, on which Omar, the father of nu-classic British soul, lends his immense vocal talents; Come See About Me, featuring Donna Gardier, one of the UK’s most soulful voices; and Smokey Robinson’s You Beat Me To The Punch, with the magnificent Hil St Soul, a regular on the US Billboard R&B charts, providing inspiring vocals.

The regular JTQ line-up of James Taylor: Hammond organ; Nigel Price: guitar; Andy McKinney: bass; and Adam Betts: drums is augmented on this album by Jamie Anderson: sax; Nick Smart: trumpet; Dave Williamson: trombone; and Oreste-Noda Fernandez: percussion.

Click the link below and check out the band on YouTube: