BIG BAND OF BROTHERS TOURING ENSEMBLE
Featuring Jaimoe, and starring Sammy Miller and The Congregation
with special guests Lamar Williams Jr and Drew Smithers
WHEN: Sunday, February 27, 2022, at 7:30 P.M.
WHERE: Union County Performing Arts Center, 1601 Irving St., Rahway
Get Tickets
This touring ensemble is based on and inspired by the acclaimed album Big Band of Brothers: A Jazz Celebration of the Allman Brothers Band. Released by New West Records in celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Allman Brothers Band’s debut, the album features a 10-song set of jazz interpretations of ABB favorites. Project creator and co-producer John Harvey described how it all came about: "For the Big Band of Brothers album, we began with timeless Allman Brothers Band classics, commissioned brilliant big band arrangements for them, and brought them to life through passionate performances—all sweetened by contributions from distinguished guest artists."
The album garnered massive praise from both jazz and ABB fans, and from critics in publications such as Downbeat: "Albums offering jazz renditions of rock songs are commonplace nowadays, so the element of surprise has faded. But A Jazz Celebration Of The Allman Brothers Band is an accomplishment of a higher order."
The Big Band of Brothers tour will feature special guests Jaimoe (one of two surviving original ABB members) and Lamar Williams Jr. (son of ABB bassist Lamar Williams) backed by Sammy Miller and The Congregation and Drew Smithers in a one-of-a-kind big band show.
MORE ABOUT THE BAND AND GUESTS
Born in Mississippi in 1944, Jaimoe came up, as did so many Southern musicians at the time, playing the soul music circuit. One of his first big breaks—and one of his most treasured recollections—was touring behind the legendary R&B trailblazer Otis Redding. “I learned so much from Otis,” Jaimoe says now. In 1969, a few years after his experiences with Redding, Jaimoe found himself in Macon, Georgia, where he was introduced to a young hotshot guitarist named Duane Allman by record execs Phil Walden and Jerry Wexler. “I guess they figured that a long-haired hippie and a strange-ass drummer would be good together,” Jaimoe says. Along with Duane’s younger brother Gregg on keyboards, second guitarist Dickey Betts, and an exceptional rhythm section that included bassist Berry Oakley and Jaimoe’s 40-plus-year drum partner Butch Trucks, the Allman Brothers Band was soon on its way to immortality.
Sammy Miller and The Congregation are a seven-piece band on a mission, crisscrossing the country like a revival show with evangelic fervor for music. Led by Juilliard trained and Grammy® nominated drummer, Sammy Miller and his seven-piece group are a community of adventurous and charismatic elite musicians who are conservatory-trained but who have not lost their childlike wonder and awe for playing music. Since the band’s inception, the Congregation has played nonstop all over the world including Lincoln Center, The White House, and the Newport Jazz Festival (where the group received a standing ovation).
LOVE FROM THE PRESS
"You’ve never heard these songs like this, and you’ve never heard a jazz big band play like this either." - Paste Magazine
"Listening to these jazz interpretations, Duane would likely be proud. It’s almost like hearing the band all over again, as the big band recreates that initial excitement and deep feeling of soul that this writer recalls hearing on the first ABB studio album in a dorm room 50 years ago." - Glide Magazine
"This recording is as entertaining and scintillating as Coltrane's Live at the Village Vanguard, the Brothers' own Eat A Peach or those legendary Fillmore East sets." - PopMatters
"An exciting, swinging cacophony of sound." 4 out of 5 Stars - MOJO Magazine
The Union County Performing Arts Center at Rahway is located at 1601 Irving Street, Rahway, NJ 07065. For more information, call 732-499-8226 or visit ucpac.org.
MORE ABOUT THE BAND AND GUESTS
LOVE FROM THE PRESS
"You’ve never heard these songs like this, and you’ve never heard a jazz big band play like this either." - Paste Magazine
"Listening to these jazz interpretations, Duane would likely be proud. It’s almost like hearing the band all over again, as the big band recreates that initial excitement and deep feeling of soul that this writer recalls hearing on the first ABB studio album in a dorm room 50 years ago." - Glide Magazine
"This recording is as entertaining and scintillating as Coltrane's Live at the Village Vanguard, the Brothers' own Eat A Peach or those legendary Fillmore East sets." - PopMatters
"An exciting, swinging cacophony of sound." 4 out of 5 Stars - MOJO Magazine
The Union County Performing Arts Center at Rahway is located at 1601 Irving Street, Rahway, NJ 07065. For more information, call 732-499-8226 or visit ucpac.org.
