Live: Madison Square Garden Center

AMG Review of Live: Madison Square Garden Center

Sean Carruthers
All Music Guide

With his tenure at Warner over, Cosby shifted direction on this one somewhat, spending more time than ever on family matters, including the birth of his first child and the trials of young, unreasonable children trying to pull things over on adults. The entirety of the album was ad-libbed on-stage, and it's evident that there was a bit of wandering in the original material, because there are quite a few evident edits, especially on the second half. Not quite up to the standards of the earlier classic material, but there are some moments of excellence, like "A Handball Game at the Y."