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In 2000, a band called Transatlantic released an album featuring (among many other moments of musical transcendence) an extended piano solo, performed by Neal Morse.

The band was channeling the Allman Brothers, specifically Chuck Leavell’s extended piano solo on the song Jessica, from the 1973 release Brothers and Sisters. The Allman Brothers was not a progressive rock band, but the members had this in common with the guys in Transatlantic: they could play.

I hear stylistic similarities when I compare the two solos. Listen to this figure, used by Leavell, and then by Morse. Now listen to the way the drummer and pianist play off one another, first in Jessica and then All of the Above. There’s an organic energy to these solos that appeals to me — an energy that says, “this might be magical, or it might get taped over in 60 seconds.” They were right the first time.

Here are the solos in their entirety:

• Jessica, The Allman Brothers Band, Brothers and Sisters
• All of the Above, Transatlantic, SMTP:e

I’d like to write that the piano solo in Jessica is one of the finest musical passages released in 1973, but that was too good a year — Camel released their eponymous debut then, and Genesis released perhaps the most wondrous progressive rock album of all time, Selling England by the Pound. And the ink was still drying on Jethro Tull’s 1972 release, Thick As A Brick, also the most wondrous progressive rock album of all time.

As far as Transatlantic goes, I have to say that the entire discography kicks a whole lot of ass. Buy them all, like right now.