Elvin Bishop - guitar, vocals; Stephen Miller - piano, organ, vocals; David Brown - bass; Michael Shrieve - drums; Jo Baker - vocals; Bonnie Pointer - vocals; June Pointer - vocals; Anita Pointer - vocals; Ruth Pointer - vocals
As many may already know, on the final night (July 4th) of the closing week festivities at Fillmore West a lengthy jam session occurred, featuring many great musicians and singers. What few remember is that a similar event occurred earlier in the week (on the first night, June 30); it was this jam session, in fact, that provided the two tracks that made it onto the Fillmore: The Last Days live release.
The core band includes Elvin Bishop on lead guitar, Stephen Miller (from Elvin's band) on organ, David Brown (from Boz Scaggs' band) on bass and Michael Shrieve (from Santana) on drums. The session followed a lengthy Boz Scaggs set (also here at Wolfgang's), in the wee hours of the morning.
This was one of the few sets not broadcast locally, and until these preproduction reels were recently discovered in the Bill Graham Archive, nobody was aware that most of this jam session existed on tape.
This part of the session features The Pointer Sisters, still two years away from their first album. At the time they had been singing backup vocals for Elvin Bishop. The only step to the front of the stage for one song, the Sam & Dave classic "You Got Me Hummin." The song was surely familiar to the Fillmore faithful, as it was a staple of Cold Blood's at the time. Here The Pointer Sisters add their distinctive stylings to the song, giving it a flavor all their own.