Perched loftily at No. 2 in Rolling Stone magazine's 50 Greatest Live Albums of All Time (No. 1 is James Brown Live at The Apollo, with John Coltrane at No. 15 with Live at The Village Vanguard – make of that what you will, Bill), and part of the permanent collection of the Library of Congress, the Allman Brothers Band's 1971 double set, Live At Fillmore East, is an extraordinary edge-of-the-seat roller-coaster ride through cranked-up earthy blues standards and three lengthy mind-melt jazz-rock instrumental improvisations, ‘In Memory of Elizabeth Reed’, ‘Hot ‘Lanta’ and the colossal 11/8 ‘Whipping Post’. The greatly expanded box set of these concerts, released in 2014, (reviewed Jazzwise 189 ) deepened further their sonic adventures with multiple takes on their expansive improvisations, including a guest saxophonist. And now comes this latest archive find, recorded live six weeks prior at sister venue, San Francisco's iconic Fillmore West. Tracked over their three-night stay, this quality soundboard recording is a work in progress towards the peaks of the Fillmore East album, with a set list that on paper changes little but on the stand pushes out down new pathways each night. Duane Allman's highly-charged Coltrane and Clapton influenced guitar explorations, brother Greg's Jack McDuff fuelled Hammond B3 grease, Bett's blues/latin fret fire, Oakley's probing, contrapuntal bass and the polyrhythmic jazz thrust and swing of their two drummers never fails to grab attention immediately. Willie Cobb's evergreen blues, ‘You Don't Love Me’, is stretched into a broader canvas of high pressure guitar trade-offs and chugging Hammond while ‘Dreams’ makes two rare appearances, each showcasing Duane's thick, creamy Gibson Les Paul tone and edgy bottleneck textures. But it's the three aforementioned instrumental pieces that form the bedrock here, and you get three versions each of ‘Elizabeth Reed’ and Whipping Post’ and one of ‘Hot Lanta’ from the final night. Each improvisation strives to better the previous one, with order of solos switched about and the dynamic increasingly ramped-up until the last show where the band burst through into a new level of power and intensity, each solo building from dark ruminative moods to blistering peaks.