Today marks two years since Kofi Burbridge died from complications surrounding treatment for a cardiac condition. The Grammy-winning multi-instrumentalist got his start in Atlanta in the late 1980s playing with Knee Deep, which included his younger brother, bassist Oteil Burbridge, and drummer Jeff Sipe. While Knee Deep would disband, the trio of musicians teamed back up when Kofi joined Aquarium Rescue Unit in 1994 shortly after the departure of Col. Bruce Hampton. Kofi would go on to join The Derek Trucks Band in 1999, the same year Trucks joined Oteil in the Allman Brothers Band. Kofi would often sit-in with ABB as well.
Burbridge was a highly sought after musician. Oteil stated that he had perfect pitch, a rare, innate skill that allows the player to pick up just about anything and play it. But Kofi was famed for his keyboards, especially the Hammond organ, and was also a master flutist. He brought this skill set to the Tedeschi Trucks Band — a combination of The Derek Trucks Band and Susan Tedeschi’s solo group — as a founding member along with Oteil in 2010 (Oteil would leave TTB in 2012). Tedeschi Trucks Band released their Grammy-winning debut album, Revelator, in 2011, clocking Kofi his second Grammy after winning one for the 2009 Derek Trucks Band album, Already Free.
Tedeschi Trucks Band followed up Revelator with Everybody’s Talkin’ in 2012 and Made Up Mind in 2013. On March 28, 2015, TTB was touring around Made Up Mind and stopped at the Orpheum Theatre in Madison, Wisconsin. The band kicked off the concert with a trio of tunes from Made Up Mind: “All That I Need,” Do I Look Worried” and the title track.
After “In Every Heart” (which would appear on the band’s 2016 album, Let Me Get By), Kofi and Derek returned to Derek Trucks Band material with “Don’t Miss Me,” sung by Mike Mattison. The set also included the band’s classic cover of Derek And The Dominoes’ “Keep On Growin’” as well as vintage TTB like “Midnight In Harlem” and set closer “Bound For Glory,” the latter of which featured Kofi’s Hammond organ stylings as well as a jazzy solo before he hopped on an overdriven, wah-soaked clav for a rowdy romp to lead back into the tune. Tedeschi Trucks Band kicked off the three song encore with two covers, The Beatles’ “I Got A Feeling” and Led Zeppelin’s “What Is And What Should Never Be” before bringing the evening to a close with their own, “The Storm.”
To remember Kofi Burbridge, watch the celebrated multi-instrumentalist perform with Tedeschi Trucks Band in 2015 below via the JamBase Live Video Archive:
Setlist
Tedeschi Trucks Band at Orpheum Theatre
- All That I Need
- Do I Look Worried
- Made Up Mind
- In Every Heart
- Don’t Miss Me
- Let Me Get By
- Keep On Growing
- Midnight in Harlem
- There’s a Break in the Road
- Idle Wind
- I Pity the Fool
- Bound for Glory
Encore
- I’ve Got a Feeling
- What Is and What Should Never Be
- The Storm
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