Today: The Allman Brothers played Fillmore East in 1971 – 42 years ago

AB-fillmore

Recorded at the Fillmore East concert hall, the storied rock venue in New York City, on Friday and Saturday March 12, 1971–March 13, 1971, the album showcased the band’s mixture of blues, southern rock, and jazz.
~Wikipedia

[it] remains the pinnacle of the Allmans and Southern rock at its most elastic, bluesy, and jazzy.
~Stephen Thomas Erlewine (allmusic.com)

Statesboro Blues (+ Duane Allman tribute video)

I’m pretty sure this album will rank top15 on Hallgeir’s 30 best live album’s countdown..

Released July 1971
Recorded March 12, 1971–March 13, 1971
Fillmore East, New York
Genre Blues-rock, southern rock
Length 76:26
Label Capricorn
Producer Tom Dowd

At Fillmore East is a double live album by The Allman Brothers Band. The band’s breakthrough success, At Fillmore East was released in July 1971. It ranks Number 49 among Rolling Stone magazine’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and remains among the top-selling albums in the band’s catalogue. The original album was released in both conventional two-channel stereo and four-channel quadraphonic mixes. This album has been certified as platinum by the RIAA as of August 25, 1992.

Allman Brother At Fillmore East

Recorded at the Fillmore East concert hall, the storied rock venue in New York City, on Friday and Saturday March 12, 1971–March 13, 1971, the album showcased the band’s mixture of blues, southern rock, and jazz. The cover of Blind Willie McTell’s “Statesboro Blues” which opens the set showcases Duane Allman’s slide guitar work in open E Tuning. “Whipping Post” became the standard for a long, epic jam that never lost interest (opening in 11/4 time, unusual territory for a rock band), while the ethereal-to-furious “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed”, with its harmonized melody, Latin feel, and burning drive invited comparisons with John Coltrane (especially Duane’s solo-ending pull-offs, a direct nod to the jazz saxophonist).

Wikipedia

allman brothers fillmore east

In Memory of Elizabeth Reed:

..these shows — recorded in New York on March 12th and 13th, 1971 — remain the finest live rock performance ever committed to vinyl.  .. At Fillmore East captures America’s best blues-rock band at its peak.
~Mark Kemp (rollingstone.com)

Tracks

Side one

  1. “Statesboro Blues” (Will McTell) – 4:17
  2. “Done Somebody Wrong” (Clarence L. Lewis, Bobby Robinson, Elmore James) – 4:33
  3. “Stormy Monday” (T. Bone Walker) – 8:44

Side two

  1. “You Don’t Love Me” (Willie Cobbs) – 19:15 (“Joy to the World” medley in the ending portions)

Side three

  1. “Hot ‘Lanta” (Gregg Allman, Duane Allman, Dickey Betts, Butch Trucks, Berry Oakley, Jai Johanny Johanson) – 5:17
  2. “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed” (Dickey Betts) – 13:04

Side four

  1. “Whipping Post” (Gregg Allman) – 23:03

allman brothers fillmore east back

Band

  • Duane Allman – lead guitar, slide guitar
  • Gregg Allman – organ, piano, Vocals
  • Dickey Betts – lead guitar
  • Berry Oakley – bass guitar
  • Jai Johanny Johanson – drums, congas, timbales
  • Butch Trucks – drums, tympani

JWandAllmanBros

Spotify:

Other March 13:

Continue reading Today: The Allman Brothers played Fillmore East in 1971 – 42 years ago

30 Best live albums countdown: 24 – Live at the Apollo by James Brown

“When I’m on stage, I’m trying to do one thing: bring people joy. Just like church does. People don’t go to church to find trouble, they go there to lose it.”
– James Brown

“Our whole thing was based on James Brown. We listened to Live at the Apollo endlessly on acid. We would listen to that in the van in the early days of 8-tracks on the way to the gigs to get us up for the gig. If you played in a band in Detroit in the days before The MC5, everybody did ‘Please, Please, Please’ and ‘I Go Crazy.’ These were standards. We modeled The MC5’s performance on those records. Everything we did was on a gut level about sweat and energy. It was anti-refinement. That’s what we were consciously going for.” 
– Wayne Cramer, MC5

One of the best live albums in music history, James Brown – Live at the Apollo was recorded october 24 in 1962.

My favourite moment: The whole horn infused “Think” that borrows heavily from jazz legend Charlie Parker in the way Brown scats over the band with the crowd participating enthusiastically. Not remotely like the studio versions and terribly good!

Lost Someone (audio):

Before the release of the classical and hugely influential ‘Live At The Apollo’ in 1962, James Brown was something of an unknown quantity outside of the R&B charts of the US south. Staying on the pop charts for 14 months, and peaking at #2, it’s a demonstration of Brown’s self-belief that he (himself!) had financed and released the recording when his label saw no sense in releasing a live album that featured no new material. Brown went on to record several more albums at the Apollo over the course of his career, including 1968’s Live at the Apollo, Vol. II (King), 1971’s Revolution of the Mind: Recorded Live at the Apollo, Vol. III(Polydor) and Live at the Apollo 1995 (Scotti Bros.).

Night Train (not the Apollo show but a great video clip from The T.A.M.I. Tv-show!):

Continue reading 30 Best live albums countdown: 24 – Live at the Apollo by James Brown

Today: James Taylor is 65

james taylor

I believe musicians have a duty, a responsibility to reach out, to share your love or pain with others.
~James Taylor

That’s the motivation of an artist – to seek attention of some kind.
~James Taylor

When people use the term “singer/songwriter” (often modified by the word “sensitive”) in praise or in criticism, they’re thinking of James Taylor.
~William Ruhlmann (allmusic.com)

Fire & Rain – Live

Birth name James Vernon Taylor
Born March 12, 1948 (age 65)
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Origin Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Genres Folk rock, rock, pop, soft rock, country
Occupations Singer-songwriter, musician
Instruments Vocals, guitar, harmonica
Years active 1966–present
Labels Apple, Capitol, EMI, Warner Bros., Columbia, SME, Hear Music
Associated acts Carole King, Carly Simon, Eric Clapton, Joe Walsh, Joni Mitchell, J.D. Souther, Stevie Wonder, Art Garfunkel, Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt, David Crosby, Don Henley
Website www.jamestaylor.com

James Vernon Taylor (born March 12, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A five-time Grammy Award winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.

Taylor achieved his breakthrough in 1970 with the No. 3 single “Fire and Rain” and had his first No. 1 hit the following year with “You’ve Got a Friend”, a recording of Carole King’s classic song. His 1976 Greatest Hits album was certified Diamond and has sold 12 million US copies. Following his 1977 album, JT, he has retained a large audience over the decades. His commercial achievements declined slightly until a resurgence during the late 1990s and 2000s, when some of his best-selling and most-awarded albums (including HourglassOctober Road and Covers) were released.

Wikipedia

James+Taylor

We all have to face pain, and pain makes us grow.
~James Taylor

You’ve Got A Friend (Live on North Sea Jazz Festival 2009)

Album of the day

Sweet Baby James (1970)

James-Taylor-Sweet-Baby-James

Other March 12

Continue reading Today: James Taylor is 65

30 Best live albums countdown: 25 – Band of Gypsys – Jimi Hendrix

Band Of Gypsys Cover

Baby Child as a man
as a living grain of sand…
Sitting on the ever changing shore,
Greeting the sunrise…
Picked up upon the Gypsy woman,
Hair Flaming Night as ravens even sleep…rainbow cloth
Tambourine complimenting her chant and choice of graces,
And Love Her God…

– Jimi Hendrix

Band of Gypsys is a live album and a band, but it isn’t any kind of band. It is the band that was formed by Jimi Hendrix after The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Band of Gypsys (the band) is Jimi Hendrix backed by Billy Cox (bass) and Buddy Miles (drums). They made one album before Jimi Hendrix died, but what an album!

Band of Gypsies poster

The Songs were recorded at the Fillmore East on two nights, New Years eve 69 and New Years day 70. The Band of Gypsys played  four concerts on these dates, but only songs from the final two shows was included on Band of Gypsys (the album). These shows were the live debut of Band of Gypsys.

Machine Gun:

Continue reading 30 Best live albums countdown: 25 – Band of Gypsys – Jimi Hendrix

30 Best live albums countdown: 26 – The Köln Concert by Keith Jarret

Keith Jarret 1

1432 people in the audience, one piano player. A huge stage and a tiny piano.

When the first notes came running through his hands, everyone knew they witnessed something special, magic. Jarret was completely immersed in his music, it was more than improvisation, it was total unity between performer and music. Jarrett’s improvisation was hypnotically rhythmic, bordering on a mantra.

He doesn’t know where he is going, he has a sense of shape, but he really makes it up as he goes along. He can not play the same concert again, even if he wanted, isn’t that amazing!

He moans, he stands, he sits, he is very much giving a performance, maybe the performance of his lifetime!

Sometimes the hype is justified and The Köln Concert is one of these times. It is the best selling solo album in jazz history and the best selling piano album of all times. And it is so deserved.

Keith jarret 2

Continue reading 30 Best live albums countdown: 26 – The Köln Concert by Keith Jarret