ABB Live at Filmore East

Distinguished as one of the best live albums ever, Live At The Fillmore East captures the Allman Brothers Band in their prime as one of the tightest musical ensembles to ever emerge from the south, much less anywhere else in the world. A tour de force of the richest kind, the Allman’s third album documents a series of shows the band played in March of 1971 at the famed Fillmore East in New York City. Issued the following summer as a double record, Live At The Fillmore East effectively encapsulates the six-piece unit, becoming an underground classic and setting a standard for free-for-all blues/jam rock that remains unrivaled to this day. Sadly, it would be the last ABB album guitarist Duane Allman would live to see before his untimely death in a tragic motorcycle accident on October 29, 1971.

Re-released in a number of forms and configurations, Live At The Fillmore East is held together by a rigid cohesiveness that certainly jerks and jells amidst an onslaught of spontaneity and experimentation. The way the frontline of Duane and Gregg Allman and Dickie Betts locks in during the opening notes of “Statsboro Blues” is enough to confirm that this particular entity of inspired musicians was nothing short of brilliant. Duane Allman’s sizzling slide work weaves in and out of the tune while the rest of the band faithfully follows. Produced by famed Cream engineer Tom Dowd, the Allmans’ assault is swiftly straddled down by bassist Berry Oakley – another early casualty whose fatal end occurred nearly a year after Allman, a few short miles from the same locale, in the same manner – and the drumming duo of Butch Trucks and Jaimoe Johanny Johanson.

But there was something beyond the intricate guitar work and tight rhythm section. Unlike many of their contemporaries, the Allman Brothers Band evoked a unique brand of modern soul and old-school righteousness. The instrumental magna opus “In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed” is just a slice of the pie when comes to the jazz-like emotion and sway that easily oozes and flows like a slimy serpent. “Stormy Monday” and “Whipping Post” exhibit the raw, yet commanding voice of Gregg Allman, whose cool spirit and sure-footed toughness held a fire of its own in the midst of intense improvisation and straight shootin’ jamming. While the ABB continue to this day, sounding as stimulated as they did in 1971, Live At The Fillmore East will always be immortalized as a live record that truly lives up to its name.

—Shawn Perry, Vintage Rock ~ Timeless Rock n’ Roll
http://www.vintagerock.com

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