Two Cups of Joe

Joe Cocker made a name for himself at Woodstock in the summer of 1969, and toured the next year with a humongous back-up band assembled by piano player Leon Russell.  Russell, a LA recording studio session player, assembled the cream of the crop of fellow session players and back-up singers, such as Jim Keltner (drums), Bobby Keyes (saxophone) and Rita Coolidge (back-up singer).  The delight these musicians display, on stage after so many years entombed in anonymity on endless recordings, is infectious.  Watching Cocker & his band reinvent 'Cry Me a River' & 'The Letter', it's difficult to discern between the audience and the band -- they're all equally joyful.