A Black & White gallery of soundcheck images
On Wednesday, November 20th, 2019 Scott Sharrard led a cast of musicians in a tribute the late great Duane Allman on his birthday. The evening focused on Duane’s work in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, particularly at Fame Studios as a sideman before he became truly famous for the band he formed with his brother Gregg.
I ran out to Brooklyn Bowl for the soundcheck hoping to make some portraits of the players. But with so many musicians and so much music to rehearse in just one soundcheck, that never came to be. Instead, what I was treated to was an intimate “concert” while they worked through the songs. What I’ve put together below is a set of images capturing everyone during the “work in progress” phase of the day. All the images were made with my Fuji X-Pro2 camera and either my trusty 35mm f/1.4 or the 56mm f/1.2 lenses. Also included are links for two videos showing a little bit of what happens “behind the curtain” at a soundcheck/rehearsal.
Vaneese Thomas & Scott Sharrard sing “The Weight”
“The Weight”
Peter Levin on the Hammond organ
Vernon Reid “Wild Horses”
Lisa Fischer & Brett Bass “Wild Horses”
Vernon & Lisa “Wild Horses”
[first of two highlights of the evening]
Scott Vernon & Tash Neal “Blind Bats and Swamp Rats”
Tash “Blind Bats and Swamp Rats”
Junior Mack “Loan Me A Dime”
Scott & Junior “Loan Me A Dime”
Scott “Mean Old World” from the Acoustic Set
Scott, Tassh & Duane Betts “Please Be With Me” from the Acoustic Set
Duane “Please Be With Me” from the Acoustic Set
Scott & Robert Randolph discuss covering Herbie Mann’s “Push Push”
[second of two highlights of the evening]
As promised, here are two videos shot on my iPhone XR during the soundcheck:
anyonecanbearockstar 