KING CURTIS Live at Fillmore West

KING CURTIS Live at Fillmore West

King Curtis is another great jazz/soulman who died young but left a legacy. He is famous for playing jazz, rock, soul, recorded with Jimi Hendrix and backed Aretha Franklin. This appearance at the Fillmore West followed a night backing Aretha. It’s funny how some records catch your attention. I knew of King Curtis but it was a debate on Bosch Legacy– between Titus Welliver and his computer hacker accomplice “Maurice”– over which rendition of “Memphis Soul Stew” was better, that led me to buy a couple copies.

The band is stellar and reflects the artist’s ability to “crossover” between rock, soul and jazz:

Side one

Memphis Soul Stew is followed by a killer cover of A Whiter Shade of Pale—man, this thing just wails, full of soul, it’s worth playing twice and easily worth the price of admission.

Whole Lotta Love follows. Yep, Zep. It doesn’t have the heaviness of the Zep but the arrangement (by King Curtis) makes it a different song. Horns dominate. To me, this doesn’t hold up like the rest of the material, but it was timely then.

I Stand Accused finishes the first side—a slow, soulful ballad. Wah-wah pedal on the lead horn-yeah, it works and glissando on the keys (thanks, Billy Preston!) does an echo. When the changes come, the band reaches that level of power that only a big horn section can deliver.

Side two

Changes, by Buddy Miles opens the side, horns all lined up, great bass line, King Curtis can play a mean excursion and the horns back him up as tightly as you can imagine. Preston knows how to milk a Hammond B-3 like nobody’s business.

Ode To Billy Joe- another classic cover, this time from country-pop artist Bobbie Gentry (I’m old enough to remember this as a radio hit back in the day- it got a lot of play). Curtis’ horn takes the vocal part and it literally weeps at times; the band is restrained, Preston’s organ work is interwoven between the lead and rhythm parts in such a way that everyone is pulling together. An impressive piece of work.

Mr. Bojangles-softer, more mellow, but just right for this warhorse. It’s a stunning instrumental rendition that I would take over many other versions—Cornell Dupree’s guitar work here is note perfect.

Signed Sealed Delivered -another classic, horns aflare, pretty fast beat, the cascading horn refrains make this a cooker.

Soul Serenade- co-written by Curtis (real name, Curtis Ousley) brings the album to a close. Guitar and bass lead us in, Curtis breaks the soft intro with a series of horn trills and opens it up to a bluesy lead against a repetitive riff from the band. I don’t think it gets much better than this for old school soul/ jazz/blues.

I purposely didn’t mention pressings yet. First, I played the recent VMP reissue cut by Ryan Smith at Sterling. I then listened to a very clean original, https://www.discogs.com/release/902859-King-Curtis-Live-At-Fillmore-West

The OG is cut hotter, is louder and has more “juice.” I bought the copy from Todd Whitmer on Discogs- with no accommodation, just thanks. I’m not going to make any conclusive pronouncement about this: it could be compression on the OG, age of tapes when recut or any number of other factors, including the decisions made by the folks that recut the record.  I checked SPLs on a decent handheld meter and was surprised at how quiet and how much lower in nominal volume the VMP reissue seemed, but it also had a lot of dynamics and headroom.(That may be one benefit of modern cutting, but we’d have to ask).  I guess you just goose the volume on the VMP a tad more because the dynamic range is there. 

The VMP was pressed at Quality and is a nice piece of wax on the heavy side, quiet surfaces and well made. The OG was as clean as it gets—if you can find one for reasonable money, I’d go for that but the VMP is a really good listen. Either way, you are gonna get a great soul record that will make you wish you were there that night back in March, 1971. This is probably as close as most of us will come and it’s a good one. There’s something special about live recordings and this one just shines. Buy it!

Bill Hart

Austin, Tx.

March, 2024