The Band, Dec. 31, 1971, New York (Academy of Music)

For the Band's New Year's Eve concerts at New York's Academy of Music at the end of 1971, the mustached quintet who initially gained notoriety as Bob Dylan's touring band in the late 1960s asked New Orleans jazz musician Allen Toussaint to write additional horn arrangements for the ultimate end of the year blowout.

Toussaint, who had already worked with the Band on their "Cahoots" album, initially wrote the additional arrangements in New Orleans but was forced to rewrite them in Woodstock, N.Y., after his suitcase was swiped at an airport on his way to rehearsals for the four-night 1971 finale.

Despite the calamity, Toussaint prepped 11 new arrangements, including "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" and "The W.S. Walcott Medicine Show." In addition, an organ instrumental was mapped out as an extension for the intro of "Chest Fever," but on stage Garth Hudson began improvising, resulting in the seven-minute-plus "The Genetic Method." Also featured were covers of the Marvin Gaye-popularized "Don't Do It" and Chuck Willis' "(I Don't Want To) Hang Up My Rock And Roll Shoes."

Highlights from the shows were issued on the 1971 album "Rock of Ages," although Bob Dylan's performances with the group did not appear on CD until an expanded 2000 edition, which featured "Like a Rolling Stone," "Down in the Flood," "Don't Ya Tell Henry" and "When I Paint My Masterpice."