Allman Brothers Band - Manley Field House - Music Review

 

Happy to report this two disc set featuring the five man band does not disappoint. I damn near rowed my water rower out of the front room and into the street. Sonicallly Berry's bass sounds a little hot from the show - sort of a wonky amp or a pinned needles affect. But this get's sorted out after the first few songs and there he is in all his talent. The show sounds great through my bookshelf Polks kudos to Jason NeSmith. Gregg gets lost in the mix so often it's always nice to easily hear him and his keyboard work.

Six months after Duane catapults into the next realm the band is fierce. Ain't wasting time no more and playing with determination and fire. I wasn't sure what to expect with this release. How much is there of the legacy of the ABB in unreleased material? Was this going to be a sourly sourced release? But I've always loved Berry's playing and voice (more Hoochie Coochie like numbers is what I would have said) and championed him over the air so I jumped on the release. Happy new year indeed!

A real unsung member of the band Berry comes to the fore and sounds drivingly inventive. All five of the boys are thundering through this live broadcast. Gregg sounds great and extends his solos, the freight train and Jaimoe are enormous. And Dickey wasn't messing around. I mean honestly this whole review could have been about Dickey's tenacity, and melody.

Thanks to the team of Bert, Kirk, John and Bill for getting this out to the public.

Long live the Allman Brothers Band.

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Brothers and Sisters Review - Alan Paul

 

Just a quick shout out on Alan’s Book “Brothers and Sisters.” It’s a quick three hundred page tight compact read. Meaning every line is filled with information, quotes, history, stories, names it’s just over brimming with information and as a fan and/or history buff you will devour it with ease.

While the original six coalesced into a musical ecstasy of infinite cascading thunder and bliss that deserves every second of your indulgence and passion. The Brothers and Sisters branch bloomed in a profound way from that mighty tree of music. Give me more Chuck Leavell and Lamar Williams any day of the week. If it’s in the vaults somewhere it deserves to be shared with the music lovers. Until then have fun devouring the pages of the inside story of the album that defined the ’70s. I know I did then and now.

 Alan Paul

Allman Brothers Band

 Kirk West

 

Playing Live The Allman Brothers Band

I want you to take a good look at these musicians and how they are all concentrating and looking at each other. This is how its done. It's Dickey's turn a guitar god in his own right to lead but the ensemble playing behind him including Duane is playing "with" him and working, concentrating, and listening in order to weave in and out of the magic.

Each musician is propelling the other and informing the other as the music takes direction. It is an amazing amount of good fortune that this sextet with these specific musicians was captured live by such a renowned and skilled producer Tom Dowd.

Fillmore East as I have just been re-listening to it only recently is a freaking stunning collection of musicianship,and fire. It is an outrageously groove driven pallet of sound, an avalanche of intricacy and composition with halting pinnacles of contemplation and I haven't even gotten to the second disc yet.

I'm listening to "The Fillmore Concerts" a 1992 remaster of the original release just as the ABB were emerging again off the heals of the Dream Box set and Seven Turns. I'm ecstatic to have it in my collection and truth be told haven't listened to it in decades as I was all in on the later day sextet with Warren Haynes, Derek Trucks and Oteil Burbridge.

Berry Oakley's bass work while never receiving as much press as Duane's guitar skill, drive and vision possess the same amount of finesse, brilliance, heart, drive and fire. It is something to behold listening to the original six working together and it is a miracle that this moment in time was captured. Imagine if this recording suffered the fate of the Layla sessions ohhh my what a tragedy that would have been. Instead we have this prodigious amalgamation of the pinnacle of music that is certainly the Mount Everest of music here on Earth and quite possibly a sliver of what it must sound like in heaven - effortlessly dancing and commingling each note, chord and beat thundering through its woven path, barreling through passages of time momentarily settling like a light rain upon your soul and then exploding like a volcano. You better believe it was all about the music and if you bring any other attitude to the stage you suck.

Contemplating Gregg Allman

Contemplating filling up another music hall and the people who he doesn't know or may ever see again who absolutely love him. It would make me wonder as well as to the gift that was larger than myself yet so very much a part of who I am and the universality of it all and yet here I stand just a man but then again all this has evolved before my eyes and so it informs me and I inform it and it being the music and if it ever becomes more than the music I lose my way, my frequency, my channel, the signal, the muse with the confusion, cloudiness and static of the ego and yet my soul, my journey, my life informs the art and distills the creativity so much bigger than who I am but still entwined and coalesced around my very soul and being and the love and the passion and the energy and the enthusiasm from so many strangers and their life's trajectory and myself with friends, family and lovers swirling through the score and yet alone here leaning on my Hammond informed by the vision, reminded by the words as I play and sing, and contemplate and listen and listen and listen some more digging deeper into the moment ....so I can hear it, so I can feel it so I can share it and help to try and bring it forward with all of you and everyone about to arrive, who set the stage and play along and this is what I imagine Gregg Allman is here/there thinking.