Photo: Stuart Levine
by Derek Malone
Perpetually on tour for about 200 days a year for the last five years, the Tedeschi Trucks Band, a 12-member ensemble, has evolved into a near-flawless performing machine, one of the best and most successful second-generation blues and rock based, “jam bands” working today. Their newest album, “Live From The Fox Oakland” and concert film were released on March 17th, 2017.
And live is just how to experience them. Their preceding three studio releases, including the Grammy Award-winning debut (2011’s Revelator,) all featuring well-crafted original music, are a bit too polished-sounding for my taste. The stage is really their optimal milieu.
The album and accompanying concert film were recorded on September 16th, 2016 at the historic Fox Theater, an acoustically favorable, former movie palace. It’s the appropriate venue for a loud rock show but still intimate enough to accommodate the other end of the group’s dynamic range in which everything drops to a whisper.
The show is available in multiple formats: by download, a basic 2-CD set, or one with a Blu-Ray that contains the aforementioned film with extra songs, backstage footage, and an interview with Marc Maron (a former stand-up comedian who has become a kind of Dick Cavett of the podcast world.) Additionally, there’s a three-record set on vinyl for the big spenders.
It’s a long show, with lengthy tracks befitting the genre, but the ever-changing variety of song-styles keep things from growing dull for too long. It’s a very ambitious project. The repertoire touches upon just about every idiom in American music up until about 1973, with plenty of the British Invasion thrown in. Even Canadian music is represented if you count the cover of Leonard Cohen’s, “Bird On The Wire.”
Like many musicologist-performers before him, Derek Trucks has also explored Eastern music, and once studied Quawwali (a Sufi devotional music popular in Pakistan and parts of India). He showcases some of what he learned at the end of disc one in a mystical instrumental, “These Walls,” where he is joined by guest star Alam Khan, a master sarode player. Plus, it’s so 60’s.
Another highlight of the first set is a rousing rendition of Derek and the Dominos’ “Keep on Growing,” which is a great vehicle for such a large ensemble.
For blues fans, there’s Bobby Bland’s “I Pity the Fool” and the more upbeat “Leaving Trunk,” the former ideally suited to singer-guitarist Susan Tedeschi’s particular musical strengths.
Though the majority of the concert draws from their own songbook, the fact there is also a lot of cover material is understandable in that they ground the audience in a modicum of familiarity amongst a bewildering diversity of material. That said, they’ve made some interesting choices in this regard. Nothing too obvious. My guess is that their rendering of Miles Davis’ obscure, Avant-garde 1971 early jazz-fusion piece, “Ali,” (on disc two) will be recognized only by the very few, and may be easily confused as one of their own.
It’s often said that the baby boomers were “the rock n’ roll generation.” Bands like The Allman Brothers’ Band, The Grateful Dead, Santana, and others came from an era when rock music was at it’s most popular, expansive, and creative. They were great live bands, but they also made concessions to the commercial imperatives of the times to get airplay and sell records, and they subsequently benefitted from decades of FM radio exposure. One need never have become a Deadhead or have attended an Allman Brothers show to be familiar with “Truckin’,” “Casey Jones,” “Sugar Magnolia,” “Ramblin’ Man,” or “Blue Sky,” et al. These songs and many others are widely disseminated in the culture, whereas Tedeschi Trucks Band has always played to a niche audience, albeit a large one, in a post-rock era. A disadvantage that cannot be overcome.
No matter how good their own songs may be they will probably never achieve the universality of those of their forebears. That said, they do have their hardcore fans who can mouth every lyric along with Susan Tedeschi.
Especially interesting is their original composition, “Right On Time,” a duet between Tedeschi and vocalist Mike Mattison (a holdover from the Derek Trucks Band) who sings in a subdued Tom Waits style to a 2 over 2 cut time rhythm in the manner of early New Orleans jazz. The horns section employs some old-time wah-wah effects of the kind rarely used by anyone other than Wynton Marsalis these days. In concert with Trucks’ anachronistic, electrified slide guitar, the end result is an original hybrid of styles I’d not heard before. It also provides a needed dose of whimsy and levity.
TTBs’ stomping Sam and Dave-style soul number, “I Want More,” is pleasing on many levels and ends with an outro of Santana’s, “Soul Sacrifice,” which invokes one of the sweatiest and most energetic numbers from the 1970 concert film “Woodstock.” It also affords the two drummers a few bars of fills in which to shine.
A key inspiration for the formation of this group in the beginning was, “Mad Dogs and Englishmen,” the 1971 film that chronicled Joe Cocker’s US tour of the preceding year, and spawned a bestselling double-record live album of the same name. Leon Russell, his musical director at the time, hastily assembled a huge, colorful, circus-like ensemble of players including several drummers, percussionists, and backing singers to perform a repertoire of popular rock songs, along with a few of Cocker’s originals.
In 2015, Tedeschi Trucks Band, joined by Leon Russell, Rita Coolidge, and others from the original tour assembled to perform much of the “Mad Dogs and Englishmen” album in tribute to the late Joe Cocker. It was one of their finest moments as a band. A singular experience that seems to inform their work to this day.
But, as a good friend of mine likes to say, (with a winking sarcasm) “Hey, the 70’s are over.” Translation– everything else is lame by comparison. The Bacchanalia of that period is gone, and even the Tedeschi Trucks Band cannot really bring it back, nor do they seem to want to entirely. They are a little like a Grateful Dead without the drugs.
Watching the concert film, Tedeschi and Trucks appear like two married parents, and judging by their interviews they both seem like thoughtful, well-adjusted, and genuinely nice people, who seem humbled by their good fortune. Many of the musical predecessors they seek to emulate came from a much different place. As Don Henley once said, “Creativity comes from the dark side.” If so, their dark side remains hidden from view.
After immersing myself fully in the aural and visual experience of the show, my conclusion was that I’d found the whole assemblage of music to be very impressive overall. The concert video filled in a lot of blanks as to how it was all accomplished.
As much as Trucks and Tedeschi kindly emphasize the familial esprit de corps in the collective contributions of the entire group, (some of their compositions credit four or more of the members for the writing,) the band is not quite as egalitarian as it may seem.
Derek Trucks is clearly the center of this musical universe, the shining sun that everything else revolves around. A more truthful name for the “band” might be, “The Derek Trucks Orchestra featuring Susan Tedeschi.”
Trucks is a conductor without a baton and all roads lead to a virtuoso guitar solo by him. Sometimes two. A guitarist’s paradise.
Seeing the whole collective in wide-shot, all wearing mismatched semi-formal black clothing, they brought to mind a recital by group of gifted students at an elite music college.
The ensemble includes a horns trio of sax, trombone, and trumpet (Kebbi Williams, Elizabeth Lea, and Ephraim Owens), and a trio of “harmony vocalists” (Mike Mattison, Mark Rivers, and Alecia Chakour.)
The concert footage captures bassist, Tim Lefebvre, who stands behind the drum riser on stage left, workman-like and unobtrusive. Keyboardist Kofi Burbridge has a slightly larger role in the overall sound, and also brings a little Jethro Tull flavor in his capacity as a flautist.
The group also retains the 70’s jam band tradition of having two drummers (Tyler “Falcon” Greenwell and J.J. Johnson) though they are kept on a relatively tight leash. They play on small, 4 and 5 piece kits respectively, use no exotic percussion, and mostly stick to groove playing. They are careful not to step on each other. Johnson plays the loud backbeats and takes most of the fills, whereas mostly Greenwell augments with a steady carpet of ghost notes on the snare and additional cymbal-work.
Overall, everything is tightly structured, each member in a well-ordered “sonic space.” There appears to be less improvisation than one might suppose, but then again the band is tight as can be. Things get highly energetic, but as fast as the train goes, it never goes off the rails. And they don’t waste time groping for improvisational group epiphanies and fail as the Dead often did.
Finally, there’s main vocalist and guitarist, Susan Tedeschi. An accomplished blues artist, she comes to the band with a fan base of her own, and takes a few decent guitar solos. Hers is a strong, mature voice. She brings a sense of gravitas to the big picture but when watching her in the concert film, I sometimes wished she’d strike a lighter tone on occasion and engage with the audience a little. On that front, she does little more than offer a sheepish “thank you” at the conclusion of a few of the songs. She’s almost as reticent as Trucks, who often turns his back to audience, stares at the floor, or closes his eyes in deep concentration.
For them, the music does all the talking.
Tedeschi Trucks Band: Live from the Oakland is available:
Tedeschi Trucks website http://tedeschitrucksband.com
Spotify https://open.spotify.com/album/5N08TYY1GFOsd8apSoIeZ0
iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/live-from-the-fox-oakland/id1204618522
The more I hear and read about the Tedeschi Trucks Band, the more I want to see them. I’ve been a fan of Susan Tedeschi’s solo work for a few years, and compare to a more rockin’ Bonnie Raitt. As a casual fan of jam bands like the Allmans, I’ve had a passing interest in Dereck Trucks. I thoroughly enjoyed Revelator and watching the band’s tribute to Mad Dog’s and Englishmen. (I’m a big Joe Cocker fan as well). Your review has put this album on my wish list. Thanks !
I look forward to seeing this concert! You’re right, they don’t put on much of a show or talk to the audience, it’s all about the music… but they are good! Thanks for the review!
Many thanks for your thoughtful comments.