Dec. 11, 1971: J. R. Weitz
We meet another refugee from Raven, guitarist John Weitz, this time with a power trio on a mission of mercy:
Dec. 11,
1971
Rock and
Classical Stars
Together for
UB Benefit
The aging Volkswagen on blocks in front of the West Side
Buffalo backyard cottage looks like a sculpture that’s been dipped in
fruit-flavored ice cream. Blueberry on top, bits of lime around the bottom and
double raspberry for the engine lid.
John Weitz, guitarist with the rock band Raven until it broke
up 14 months ago, gave the car to bass guitarist Gary White when he got a new
one last summer and White has been fixing it up in his spare time.
“Yeah, I patched up some of the body panels with fiberglass –
a friend got me some from where he works – and then I tore the stuff out and
put it back again, just for something to do.”
* * *
WHITE HAS
had jobs, at a grain mill and rendering plant (“I took five showers a day and
still nobody would come near me on the bus”), but now he’s into some good
music, a fine group, and he doesn’t want to take chances with his hands or tie
up practice time.
“I built those speaker cabinets in there,” he points to a
quartet of business-like boxes in the practice room, “and I took one of my
basses and put in a new fingerboard to make it fretless. I could build speakers
for people, friends, but … money, you know?”
Weitz and drummer John Opat return with the amp they’d gone
for – a Twin Reverb with “Raven” on the back.
“This guy tell you about the chocolate?” Weitz asks.
“
Weitz has the amp plugged in. “We’ll show you how we can
rock, how we can jazz, how we can blues and how we can boogie,” he says.
* * *
FIRST TIME
they’ve played all week – not that they’ve gotten tired of practicing from 11
a.m. to 4 the next morning the way they used to, five days a week. It’s just
that things have been so busy, what with Weitz back working evenings in the
camera shop for the Christmas season and Opat charging all over the city
setting up a benefit concert.
The show will be Monday at 8 p.m. in the Fillmore Room of
UB’s Norton Union and it promises to be a unique four or five hours, bringing
together some of the city’s top rock, night club and classical musicians.
All proceeds will go to help run a dialysis machine for
Robert Stocum Jr., the 22-year-old
The music starts and Weitz proves again he’s one of the
city’s most inspired guitarists, riding the music with his body while his
fingers skitter like adrenalin angels pulling a flood of miracles from the
strings. It’s a joy to witness.
* * *
OPAT THROWS easy drumbeats and White throbs out bass notes with help from his forehead muscles. Both work subtle wonders behind Weitz, pushing emphasis here, reinforcing a riff there, always right.
Next a 5/4 number which Weitz says “isn’t like Dave Brubeck,
it feels just like straight-ahead 4/4.” The lyrics are sung 6/4.
Opat pops the five beat and even the walls seem to jump.
Weitz sings through a mike plugged into his amp and you can make out words like
“Would you believe in this short time we’ve learned to open our hearts” while
his fingers go from tremolos to a frenzy of damped notes.
* * *
WEITZ TALKS
about going to
So he came back to play with Gary Mallaber, the Raven
drummer, and organist Dick Kermode, veteran of Janis Joplin’s nameless big
band.
“We played the Main Street Beef & Ale,” Weitz says.
“First night, people couldn’t leave fast enough. By the third night, we were
packing them in.
“We’re trying to play the music we want to play, rather than
survival music, like you have to do for the clubs.
“We want to make a contribution. We’re not defying people.
It’s just that they don’t know beforehand what they’re going to like. After they
hear us, they like us.”
* * *
WHITE, 20, a
veteran of The Tears, The Rogues and their offshoot, Magna Coustic, and Opat,
27, back in Blasdell after a couple years playing in
The big problem has been finding jobs. Before vocalist Jimmy
Fazzolari quit last month, all they had lately was a couple nights at the
Wa-Ha-Kie in
They hope the benefit will help – bring a few club dates or
whatever. And they’re looking for a singer. The man they really wanted said he
wasn’t into loud music any more.
“After that,” Weitz says, “we just wanta make a record and
get out. We’re 75 percent ready.”
Music stops on WPHD and everyone’s quiet as Robin Thomas ad
libs a thing for the benefit. One name catches Weitz.
“Hey, he hasn’t said he’ll play yet,” he tells Opat. Opat grimaces: “He wasn’t on the list. We were only talking about him. I’ll have to go back down there and straighten it out. I hope he didn’t hear it.”
The box/sidebar:
A Musical Spirit
“For every thousand selfish people, there’s at least one
who’ll help out,” John Opat says.
To prove it, he’s lined up a bunch of helpers, including some
of
Proceeds will go to help
Helping will be Tony Galla, ex-Raven vocalist and flutist;
John Landis, Buffalo Philharmonic assistant conductor; pianist Joe Azarello;
vocalists Barbara St. Clair, Toni Castellani, Sue Rizzuto, Pat Flagherty and
Sherry Hackett; the group J. R. Weitz – that’s John Opat, Gary White and former
Raven guitarist John Weitz – and a few other notables.
* * *
J. R. WEITZ
will have the first 45 minutes or so, then will accompany solos by the others.
The female vocalists will do some fancy harmony numbers (including “Hitchcock
Railway”) and everyone will get up for a jam session to end it all. “We’re
going to satisfy people,” Opat says. “I know for a fact we’re going to rock ‘n
roll.”
To set it up, Opat went first to WPHD, which referred him to
UB, where he got a “hold” on the Fillmore Room from a woman who also read about
Bob Stocum in The News. Offerman Printing agreed to donate posters. Seneca
Sound is donating the sound set-up. And Opat even registered with the Better
Business Bureau.
“When I got it all set,” he says, “I called Jamestown General
Hospital and they said, ‘Oh, that’s awfully nice of you,’ and I told them I
didn’t want them to say that because if Bob was in the same position I’m in,
he’d probably do the same thing.”
There’ll almost certainly be a sound tape of the show. And
it’ll catch the song John Weitz has written for Bob Stocum. It’s all about rock
‘n roll and the Grace of God getting together to help run that kidney machine.
* * * * *
THE PHOTOS:
At the top – assistant Buffalo Philharmonic conductor John Landis, left, and
singer Toni Castellani, right. Down at the bottom, the J. R. Weitz group – bass
guitarist Gary White, guitarist John Weitz and drummer John Opat.
* * * * *
FOOTNOTE: This power trio didn’t stick around for
long. The band departed for
The February 1976 issue of the
Weitz returned again in 1993, not with the trio, but for a
reunion with all the members of Raven at the Tralf. Reviewer Jim Santella noted
that he hadn’t performed in public in almost 13 years. His last appearance in a
Raven reunion came in 2011.
How good was he? When he died in 2012, his obituary in The Buffalo News (which I wrote) included an observation from none other than Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page after Raven opened for them on their debut American date in Boston in 1969: "John Weitz is one of the best guitar players in the world."
He was inducted twice into the
Meanwhile, John Opat is still alive and well in
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