Guest Book

I think this guys liked the show... HEADLINE: Tedeschi Trucks impressive By Jeff Miers Buffalo News pop music critic For a decade now, Derek Trucks has been the most innovative and soulful electric guitarist in his age group. As a member of the Allman Brothers Band, and out front with his own Derek Trucks Band, the guitarist has created a niche of his own, one where blues, jazz, Indian classical music, rock and funk intermingle beneath the jam-band umbrella. Trucks could have ridden those two gigs into the sunset without a problem, but his marriage to soul-blues singer and guitarist Susan Tedeschi a few years back has yielded more than children. That bond became the impetus for what is perhaps the most exciting blues-based band extant, the Tedeschi Trucks Band. When the 11-piece ensemble showed up for a sold-out show in UB's Center for the Arts on Sunday, it did so with a fine album, "Revelator," under its belt and a burgeoning reputation in both blues and jam-band communities. That reputation could only have been bolstered by Sunday's show. It was a simply brilliant, consistently high-level display of musicianship, musicality and soulfulness. Even if Trucks is a jaw-droppingly brilliant soloist, he was far from the only virtuoso on the stage during the band's two-hour set. All members of the group proved themselves to be seriously gifted players. Tedeschi fronted the group with her full-throated, Bonnie Raitt-esque, soul-drenched singing, and she kicked out some seriously swanky guitar solos to boot. Bassist Oteil Burbridge and his keyboardist brother, Kofi, seemed to be locked into a wholly simpatico musical exchange throughout the gig. Twin drummers J.J. Johnson and Tyler Greenwell performed in a lockstep that never failed to burn when the burning needed to be done. The lengthy, intermission-free set blended tunes from "Revelator" with well-chosen and boldly rearranged covers, among them an absolutely torrid funk-fest in the form of Stevie Wonder's "Uptight (Everything's Alright)." When Tedeschi tore into a take on Bobby Blue Bland's "That Did It," punctuating the rendition with a gorgeously understated guitar solo, she brought down the house. Trucks was his usual flawless self, blending sublime slide playing -- particularly during an interlude that found him teasing out Miles Davis' "In a Silent Way," leading into the Zeppelin-esque stomp of "Nobody's Free" -- with blues, funk and jazz lines that by night's end had coalesced into something unique and deeply affecting. What a wonderful occurrence, the formation of this band, and the manner in which it has elevated classic R&B into a thoroughly modern and relevant art form. Yes, the Tedeschi Trucks Band comprises serious virtuosos, but what will continue to resonate is the soulfulness, the emotional commitment to the moment and the manner in which these musicians spoke so directly to and from the heart. email: jmiers@buffnews.com