Howard Duane Allman (November 20, 1946 - October 29, 1971) was an American guitarist, session musician, and co-founder and leader of the Allman Brothers Band until his death following a motorcycle crash in 1971, at the age of 24. The Allman Brothers Band was formed in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1969. The band had great success in the early 1970s. Allman is best remembered for his brief but influential tenure in the band and in particular for his expressive slide guitar playing and inventive improvisational skills.

The limits of full-time session playing frustrated Allman. The few months in Muscle Shoals were by no means a waste, however; besides meeting the great artists and other industry professionals with whom he was working, Allman had rented a small, secluded cabin on a lake and spent many solitary hours there refining his playing. Perhaps most significantly, Allman got together with R&B and jazz drummer Jaimoe Johanson, who came to meet Allman at the urging of Otis Redding's manager, Phil Walden, who by then was managing Allman and wanted to build a three-piece band around him. Allman and Jaimoe got Chicago-born bassist Berry Oakley to come up from Florida and jam as a trio, but Oakley was committed to his rock band with guitarist Dickey Betts, the Second Coming, and returned south.  When asked how the band came together Duane responded with an astounding answer. "Very slowly, I was in Muscle Shoals and I went down to Jacksonville and was jamming with Berry and Dicky. Jaimoe came with me from Muscle Shoals, he's originally from Macon. Greg was in California and Butch was in Jacksonville where we all got together and jammed for a couple of months putting together songs and stuff. After that we went up to New York and recorded there. We never played a gig before we cut our first album."  While living in Macon, Allman met Donna Roosman, who bore his second child, Galadrielle. The couple's relationship soon ended. He had an earlier relationship with Patti Chandlee which resulted in the birth of a daughter who was born deaf.

Ask a question about this article.
Anything else interesting?