This album, released posthumously, captured
Otis Redding's show at the Whisky A Go Go from April of 1966 in Los Angeles. What is essential here was that it captured
Otis Redding's sound in a small club with his own touring band, as opposed to his work on stage with
Booker T. & the MG's -- an ideal band, to be sure, which is why they were sent over to Europe with him and why they were at Monterey with him a year later, but not the group that
Redding normally worked on stage with. This album is closer to how
Otis Redding sounded in the years coming up and working his way to the top, and the way that his original audience on the chitlin' circuit heard him. The singer and his band (including a pair of tenor saxes, a trombone, and four trumpets, with James Young, Ralph Stewart, and Elbert Woodson pounding out the rhythm on guitar, bass, and drums, respectively, go through roaring versions of "Respect," "I Can't Turn You Loose," "These Arms of Mine," "Pain in My Heart," "Satisfaction" and "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" and four more, in
Redding's only full-length recording in a small-scale setting. They may not have the musical elegance of
Booker T. and company, but they create this intense, hypnotic sound that is spellbinding. The set itself lasts less than 40 minutes but the singer and his band are so energetic, that it doesn't feel short or lacking. This album was, in more ways than one,
Redding's equivalent to
Sam Cooke's
Live At The Harlem Square Club, and just as essential. Reissued in 1992 on the Atco label through Rhino Records. ~ Bruce Eder