Southern Jazz Music

I am a fan of The Allman Brothers, but not one of the "die-hard" fans who follow them like people follow the Dead, yet without a doubt this record is an essential must have in any collection.

I have seen the band a couple of times live (without Duane) and each concert has been superb in musicianship and performance. And this record captures it all perfectly in one of the best live recordings ever.

Each player shines on this record and the jams take you along with them for a fabulous ride through rock and improvisation that thrills and enthralls every step of the way without ever feeling long, tedious or self indulgent. Though all players shine, Allman and Betts on guitar is simply amazing.

As I said, a must have in any collection.

The Allman Brothers will receive Billboards Legends Of Live Award. This Award is Given for Contributions to Live performing. The Allman Brothers have gotten into Politics during the 2008 Presidential Race - Interestingly, In the 2008 Presidential Primary race, Hillary Clinton earned more Votes than any Presidential Primary candidate in the history of America (hillaryclintonforum, The Denver Group)

Wow, I have the task to try to convince you of the greatness of The Allman Brothers at Fillmore East. Many folks have already given great reviews of this album, so I'll try to give my take on this one.

First, some background. This album includes selections from two nights worth of performances at the "Fillmore East" music club in 1971 with the band's original lineup, including the incomparable Duane Allman on lead/slide guitar (he would die in a motorcycle accident later in the year). The band had recorded and produced two studio albums in their previous couple of years together, and this was their first live album. There is another version available of this album that has additional recordings from these concerts (simply called "At Fillmore East" by Amazon), but I personally don't have that album, so I'll let others discuss the virtues of it.

Now, onto the music. At face value, this album mixes a couple of their previous hits ("Whipping Post" and "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed"), some blues classics ("Statesboro Blues", "Done Somebody Wrong", "Stormy Monday", and "You Don't Love Me"), along with an original instrumental ("Hot 'Lanta"). The band mixes their own style of blues, Southern rock and even a bit of jazz, throws in the slide guitar and adds harmonica on one track, and uses their own improvisational skills to turn out a memorable performance that all of us who weren't in attendance (or in my case, not even born yet) are now fortunate enough to experience through the joy of this album.

I won't describe all of the tracks in great detail, but I'll cover my personal favorites. The album starts off with a jolt with an infectious and upbeat "Statesboro Blues", where Gregg Allman shines with his strong vocals. The album mellows out with the third track, "Stormy Monday". This song is even-keeled throughout, with an extended guitar solo backed up by solid bass, organ, and percussion, giving us a taste of what's to come. "You Don't Love Me" follows that with another catchy number for almost 7 minutes (with the aforementioned harmonica), when Duane starts taking over the song. Before too long, the other band members join in the fun. While this isn't my favorite track, it is fun to listen to the musicians go to work. For my money, the album climaxes with the sixth track, "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed". The song may be a touch over 13 minutes long, but it never seems to be that long when I listen to it as it never feels dull. The band takes a previously-recorded instrumental of theirs and nearly doubles the length with searing guitar sections (with some nice organ stretches thrown in), building to a crescendo around the 10 1/2 minute mark and again at the 12 minute mark. In general, I'm a big fan of rock instrumentals, and this may be my very favorite. The finale of the album is simply the longest song I (currently) have in my music collection. At just over 23 minutes, "Whipping Post" takes a trip starting with the familiar opening of the studio version of this song (in an unusual 11/8 meter for parts), goes through some nice guitar stretches, then nearly grinds to a halt after 10 minutes. It then goes through some "less organized" stretches where the musicians are able to add their own flavor to the song. It peaks near the 17 minute mark, where the conclusion of the studio version is inserted in this live version. From there the song slowly peters out. For me, this song does kind of drag in sections, as I feel about the middle stretch of "You Don't Love Me".

When you put it all together, you have one of the strongest live albums available, especially if you favor the blues/Southern rock style of The Allman Brothers Band. You get a good listen to the greatness and originality of the individual band members, especially Duane Allman. And yet, the sounds come together to form some fantastic music. You may argue whether you prefer some of the more improvisational stretches in the songs, but it's hard to argue the quality of the individual and collective performances that this band put together in those fateful concerts in 1971.

The first time I heard this record back in 1971 when it was first released
my ears were opened. I was into the blues and was blown away with the duel lead guitars that Dickie Betts and Duane Allman played so well.
When I look back and evaluate who the great guitar players in Rock history are I have to include Duanne Allman among the very best.
It is as Eric Clapton once said "We were coming at the same thing from a different direction, I was bending strings and Duanne was playing slide.
Duanne Allman to this day is still possibly the best slide player I have ever heard. Ironically Derek Trucks is probably the best I have heard recently, ironically both from the Allman Brothers.
This Album is an abbreviated version of the classic live CD. If you want the entire CD you can get it now.
This version is missing One way out for instance and Mountain Jam and a few others. My advice is get the longer version and pay a few more dollars.
This CD does inclued Whipping Post, Stormy Monday, Statesboro Blues, Done somebody wrong, You dont love me, Hot 'Lanta and Momory of Elizabeth Reed.
You are in for some outstanding guitar. This is a classic any way you slice it..........................

I was very disappointed with this CD. It is not the album I remember. Some of the material has been left off to allow the double album set to fit onto one CD. Too bad.

Few bands have released live albums of such as high calibre as this one. When it comes to slide guitar mastery and virtuoso old style jamming, the Allman Brothers Band had on peer in their prime and this album is a showcase of what they were like at their prime. No weak tracks on this 7 track live album with "Statesboro Blues" and "Whipping Post" the stand outs."

This mlps version of the album though is a vast disappointment as the sound quality is very poor and is certainly not remastered. The old adage of judging the book by its cover certainly holds true here and therein lies the great waste. As far as mlps designs go, the packaging is first class as the gatefold design and workmanship plus the super quality cardboard used makes this one of the best mlps' that I've ever seen. An inner sleeve with all the lyrics in English and Japanese is included however, the most important part of the whole package, the cd sound quality, has been left unchanged making this version of the classic album a huge disappointment for the audiophile. Such a well done mlps design surely deserves a much better remastered sound quality to accompany it. The powers that be have let a great opportunity to produce a high-class reissue version of the album go by. Unless you are a great mlps design fan alone, I don't know why you would want to pay serious bucks for great-looking cardboard when there is no improvement sound-wise to the cd that you already own.

If you consider that Duane Allman together with Eric Clapton were probably the greatest blues guitarists of their time when Duane died (just hear their work together on Derek and the Dominoes' "Layla")the loss is truly great and one cannot but wonder at what might have been.

Alas, we'll never know but get this and "Brothers and Sisters" if you want to get the best of the Allman Brothers' work. If you are a guitarist and want to learn what great blues and slide work sounds like, get these two as well as the "Eat a Peach" albums as essential listening material.

Just don't get these mlps versions which sound exactly the same sound quality-wise as the versions you already have and hence waste a lot of money for good mlps design alone.

I am a long time fan of this band, but I'm disappointed with quality of this Japanese 2007 Reissue. Other Universal titles as Lynyrd Skynyrd for example the sound is very superior than ABB 2007 reissue.
The Package is excellent, lyrics both English and Japanese, but the quality of sound could be better. 2 Stars.

Bummin' out. No preview/pre-listen set up for this one. I love inspired melodies, as many of these standards are; and I love inspired interpretations, as much of King Curtis's work is. Clean, tight on the beat, though often with a dated sound, seems to be his recorded solo legacy. Too broke right now to buy this without a preview to know where it hits the mark. Come on, Amazon, put up some preview samples, please.

This is DEFINATELY a must-have for the Gospel music collector. I really love this CD. All the songs are great, but one in particular is so moving and makes the CD even more lovable; "Elijah Rock." Along with Mahalia Jackson, Clara Ward, Dorothy Love Coates, Roberta Martin, James Cleveland, and the many, many others, Rev. Cleophus Robinon contributed much to Gospel music- preaching the word and singing God's praises...

You will not be dissatisfied...

KING CURTIS WAS AT THE HEIGHT OF HIS MUSICAL CAREER IN THE 1960S WHEN MOST OF THESE GREAT TUNES WERE PERFORMED AND RECORDED BY HIM AND HIS BAND. EVEN BUDDY HOLLY SAW THE GREAT TALENT KING CURTIS POSSESSED AND HIRED KING TO PLAY HIS BEAUTIFUL SOUND ON SOME OF BUDDY'S TUNES JUST PRIOR TO BUDDY DYING IN THAT PLANE CRASH IN 1959. YOU CAN NEVER GO WRONG WITH KING CURTIS.