Despite its deceptive title, Live At The Garden was actually recorded at the Latin Casino, a relatively upscale New Jersey nightclub venue in January 1967. For James Brown, it was a significant step towards mainstream acceptance and an opportunity to escape the chitlin’ circuit and break into the lucrative supper club milieu. The album captured Brown at a transitional phase in his musical evolution – with the enterprising Pee Wee Ellis recently installed as band leader, JB’s music was perceptively getting funkier, but it would be another few months before he released funk’s equivalent to the Big Bang, Cold Sweat.
The 1967 LP version of the concert reduced Brown’s two-hour show down to around 40 minutes, resulting in some unsatisfactory edits and truncated versions of key tunes. Thankfully, though, this new expanded 2-CD set augments a freshly remastered version of the original King LP, with the complete, unedited, concert, which has been remixed and sounds fabulous. Brown and his band are in combustible form and the highlights include a lengthy gospel-fuelled version of Ain’t That A Groove. An added bonus comes in the shape of three appended studio cuts at the end of the second CD – different takes of the single Let Yourself Go. Pure dynamite.
