Taken from the name of a King Curtis Ousley song, the Derek Trucks Band's 2003 recording "Soul Serenade" introduced me to Trucks' guitar virtuosity in a setting outside of the Allman Brothers. Trucks and his band at the time (the Derek Trucks Band, which has now evolved into a newer group), were focused on a jazz fusion sound but with many elements of world music thrown into the mix, having influences that ranged from Indian classical to eastern music, in addition to jazz and blues. It also shows off Trucks' incredible skill as a slide player and some of the other talented band members such as keyboardist/flautist Kofi Burbridge (whose brother Oteil plays bass with the Allman Brothers and in Derek's current band, the Tedeschi/Trucks Band, of which Kofi is also a member).
The album has several covers on it but also some original numbers. Some of the really good covers are a portion of "Soul Serenade" written by King Curtis, Ray Charles' tune, "Drown In My Own Tears" with a superb vocal performance by Gregg Allman, and John Coltrane's jazz standard "Afro Blue". This album (as well as other subsequent DTB releases) illustrate how the band can move in and out of different genres. Truck's bassist Todd Smallie (who played with him on some of the earlier albums) mentions on the DTB DVD "Songlines, Live" that the band moved into music they WANTED to play rather than music they were "expected" to play, by being categorized as a blues band.
"Songlines" is another great DTB album worth checking out and will be written about here, at some point. The other cuts to round out this album are the slide guitar driven, open E jam "Elvin" (not sure if the song is a reference to either blues man/guitarist Elvin Bishop, or to the great jazz drummer, Elvin Jones). Could be the latter more than likely. But, a very nice tune, followed by two more instrumentals ("Oriental Folk Song" and "Sierra Leone"). Trucks plays "Sierra Leone" on a sarod which is an Indian classical music instrument that is similar to the sitar.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarod
Again, the track listing for "Soul Serenade"
1. Soul Serenade/Rasta Man Chant
2. Bock To Bock
3. Drown In My Own Tears (feat. Gregg Allman: vocals)
4. Afro Blue
5. Elvin
6. Oriental Folk Song
7. Sierra Leone
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