Defined by, famous session guitarist, Wah Wah Watson's Incredible Guitar fills, I was inspired to write my first live post on this 1978 performance of the soul standard, Quiet Storm; a live post, as in a review of a live rendition as opposed to writing this live because who would want to follow that?
The familiar jaunty walking bass line comes bounding in to the whoops and hollers of an excited audience while Wah Wah Watson's heavily reverbed slide guitar chirps away like a bird; Congas and Smokey's heavenly tenor add a dusky humid feel to the verses. A drawling blues figure lurks in the background, it's sacharine, lilting and thin tone reminds me of the one that opens Band on the Run by Wings, while dry, mellifluous flute swirls in; meanwhile Smokey's voice carries it's own inbuilt cascading filter; self produced of course😉. While the splintering guitar chinks of Watson are add a modern sheen as the lyrics of 'inner circuits' sound more dated, but those skewering slides down the neck are still so fresh. At the 3 minute mark a very metallic steel drum sounding organ punches in and flutters like the flute before Sonny Burke is announced on the keyboards by Smokey to the audience and starts soloing in an undefinable tone, playing a heavily delayed and echoey wrinkly clavinet that chimes in slinky tripled reverbs. Then Wah Wah Watson tosses out a few waka waka 'cracks' like their frisbies as a jazz flute soloes out of control like an exotic bird, whistling away before the performance sought've just ends there amongst the clapping for the excellent flute solo.
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