Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Tommy Bolin & Friends: Live At Ebbets Field 1974

133

Tommy Bolin & Friends: Live At Ebbets Field 1974

Tommy Bolin & Friends: Live At Ebbets Field 1974
After his stint with femme-vox driven, Zeppelinesque Zephyr and during his days with James Gang, Tommy Bolin managed to get together with some friends and jam out for two nights in June of 1974. From Denver, Colorado, Bolin and crew blasted the night skies with high-speed, ferocious, and free-spirited blues-rock. Yeah, there was even some jazz-rock fusion sprinkled liberally in each night. Sample “You Know, You Know”, “Homeward Strut”, “Stratus”, and the Santana-flavored “Crazed Fandango” for Bolin’s 70's-bred fusion.

Bolin is know by way too few guitarists and rock fans out there. His playing is simply put, phenomenally versatile and flat-out fun. It seems Bolin never took himself too seriously, easily throwing down the blues, rocking out with the best Hendrixian riffs of his day, and even playing Gomez-styled jazz rock fusion. He could also sing quite well, as evident on his Private Eyes and Teaser releases. Whether it was replacing rockers Joe Walsh in James Gang or Blackmore in Deep Purple, it was no problemo to Bolin. He played killer fusion with Billy Cobham on Spectrum , Alphonse Mouzon and Lee Ritenour on Mind Transplant , and even jammed with Jan Hammer. Did I mention his mean slide guitar technique? Bolin’s guitar history bounced all over the place style-wise and somehow this may have served to thwart his nailing down a devoted fan base. It seems Bolin was a seeker, striving to find his voice, emulating what popular styles worked during his musical journey. Tragically, it seems substance abuse and a fatal overdose, took him from us before he could reach his full potential.

This recording catches Bolin doing it all, having a blast, and laying down the jams he loved, in the raw, full of Bolin energy and his crazy way with an axe. Bolin’s Echoplex effect screamin’ into an infinity of feedback-looped, echoes before suddenly collapsing upon themselves into abrupt silence is strangely apropos — his career of ever-widening talent and looming possibilities was forever cut short by his untimely demise. We will miss you forever Tommy. Thanks for all the fine music and inspiration you gave us.

Visit the Zebra website at www.zebradisc.com and the Tommy Bolin Archives site at www.tbolin.com

Personnel

Album information

Title: Live At Ebbets Field 1974 | Year Released: 2000 | Record Label: Zebra Records

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Tramonto
John Taylor
Ki
Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii
Duality Pt: 02
Dom Franks' Strayhorn
The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.