Sam Cooke: "At the Copa" or "Live at the Harlem Square"?

This consists of a smooth supper club performance (with a big band) for a (presumably) upperclass white audience at NYC's Copacabana. Pretty polished stuff with his own band mixed with the house orchestra.
While listening you get the sense that Sam is holding back but that doesn't stop it from being a grand show. It's most appropriate due to the setting. Give it a listen if you haven't. You won't be disappointed.



This consists of a rawer,grittier, more "gutbucket down home" in style performance for a (presumably) black and younger audience. Sam is in rare form on this date.
Here he was, soulful, energized, sweating up a storm, steppin' out of his "Eisenhower" threads, crooning, rasping his way through songs. Talkin', testifying, workin' the crowd, laughing & joking around.
I love how he,his band and audience are so in sync with each other.
You could hear that he was in a much more comfortable setting. Recorded only about one year before his death, this is Mr. Cooke at his peak.

 

If you'd like some live gospel era Sam....

 

At The Harlem Square. "Downhome" it is. It's like Sam's taking everyone to church. He was one of the first that understood that's what the people - regardless of skin color - really wanted to hear, and he delivered.

 

@Thom

 

I've got to vote for Harlem Square. It's so darn good! OK, Sam's voice is a bit ragged, but the energy of this show is electric, and to think it wasn't released until June of 1985! All those years in the vault, yet it finally saw the light of day.

 

Having a listen to At The Copa on Spotify as I type. Liking it.

 

It would have been nice to be at the Copacabana and I love Sam's vocals on that one and I like the smooth sound, but it's no contest: the Harlem Square Club is where it was at. Loved both, but yeah, you can tell Sam's more in his element on the latter. At The Copa is a great show; Live At The Harlem Square Club sounds like it would have been a profound experience to be present at.

 

They´re both great!!!

I prefer the rawness of At The Harlem Square though!

 

Harlem Square. Especially the drummer.

 

Once again, Copa is overshadowed by LATHS's greatness.

 

Yeah, I looked that up: the drummer is Albert 'Gentleman June' Gardner. He's the drummer on both albums. So it wasn't just Sam who stepped it up in Miami.

 

Harlem Square

 

Love both albums, but I can listen to the Harlem Square record all the way through. With the Copa album, I skip over certain tracks.

 

Thanks! I never knew who he was. But he does some great overexcited fills on Harlem. One of my favourite live albums. Speedy!

 

This is the album that opened my eyes to how wonderful live albums could be. They suck you into their atmospheric settings.
My top 4 R&B/Soul live albums:

Marvin Gaye - Live at the London Palladium
Curtis Mayfield - Curtis/Live!
Otis Redding - Live at Europe
Sam Cooke - Live at the Harlem Square Club

 

q

Harlem Square, no question !

To the above I would add

James Brown at the Apollo
Bill Withers Live at Carnegie Hall
Aretha Franklin Amazing Grace if it counts (church recoding ?) or Fillmore

Worth a separate thread ? Some of the Temps e.g. With Supremes we're decent.

I haven't played my Sly live yet...

 

Marvin's is my favourite. But I'm not really a fan of live albums (usually). I also like Curtis/Live! and EWF's Gratitude (and now Sam's Live At The Harlem Square Club).
I couldn't find a clip of 1970s Earth Wind & Fire I liked, but this 1982 performance of "Reasons" is stellar. Philip Bailey, my favourite vocalist ever:

 

Have those too but I'm not very fond of Aretha's "Amazing Grace" album because it comes off too preachy for my taste. (Not exactly the religious type.)

I have a few of the singles that were featured on "Gratitude" but never listened to the album in it's entirety.
Is it on Spotify? If so, I'll give it a listen before purchasing. I'm a fan of everything they did from Last Days and Time to Raise!

 

I bought LIVE AT THE HARLEM SQUARE CLUB many years ago on vinyl and loved it on first hearing - so gritty, you do get a sense of what it was like to be there. AT THE COPA is not as exciting, but it's not the same set and let's face it, he could sing the phone book and you wouldn't care.

 

I believe you're confusing "ragged" with RAW. Sam was in complete control that night, there was nothing ragged about his voice. A stunning performance, actually.

 

As hard as this can be to comprehend, it was probably just another night on the Chitlin' Circuit...

So many of those live R&B albums from that era are simply amazing. These are some others worth hunting down:

 

Sam Cooke is probably my favorite singer of all time. And I'd probably always rather listen to a live album than a studio album, if we're talking about the best live albums vs. the best studio albums. I mean music is a performing art and I'd rather hear performances than studio concoctions generally.

Harlem Square is better, but I think it's not nearly as great as a lot of people would tell you it is -- it's kind of a wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am get in and get out quick perfuctory set with Sam not in great voice. There's the one moment where he does the minor key rubato gospel take on "You Send Me" that's electrifying. Not that the record's bad, but nothing else on it is electrifying like that. It's a good album, but I don't think it's the best of Cooke or the best of live soul records.

If you want to hear the best live Sam Cooke @A. Scrounger is 100% correct the '55 recording of Sam with the Stirrers at the Shrine in L.A. on that Specialty multi-act concert bill is far and away the best like Sam. (Probably his studio work with the Stirrers is the best studio Sam too -- there's no recordings in his secular canon equal to his "Jesus Wash Away My Troubles" or "Were You There?")

The Copa record? eh. Sam at his most deliberative and manner working very hard to please a big spending white middlebrow audience. Because it's Sam Cooke and him singing anything is pretty much better than almost any one else singing at their best, it's worth hearing, but it's a Sam Cooke record I find myself returning to almost only has an historical curiosity and extremely rarely.

 

Personally I never liked that Marvin Gaye live album. The other three are excellent to my ears. None are better than James Brown Live at the Apollo, Live at the Apollo Vol. 2 and Live at the Apollo Vol. 3: Revolution of the Mind, which set the standard for live soul albums.

I'd also at too the list Ray Charles Live. A later archival release but JB's Love Power Peace. Areatha Live at the Fillmore West.

 

I disagree. I think he's pretty ragged that night. I think there's a reason that sat unreleased for a long time. It's a great time capsule, and there's lot of energy in the room and Sam works it, but it's not Sam at his greatest in terms of the actual performance. Have you heard the '55 Shrine recording of Sam with the Stirrers? No less raw, much less ragged.