April 5, 1975 review: Leon Redbone at UB's UUAB Coffeehouse

 


An April snowstorm did not prevent from Buffalo News review crew from making its appointed rounds. Three of us reported for duty that night and came back to tell about it. 

April 5, 1975 

Personality Not Enough for Redbone 

          There’s never any doubt that Leon Redbone would make it to the biggest show of the semester for UB’s UUAB Coffeehouse Friday night. Probably blew in with the storm. He’s that kind of guy.

          Redbone has perpetrated one of the great mysteries of our time. Dressed as he is in pearl-grey trousers, old high-lace shoes, sunglasses, a black velvet coat and hat, his concealment is complete.

          Nobody knows who he is or where he came from. Rolling Stone said he grew up in Toronto, but that’s not so. All you know is what he shows you – the mannerisms of Groucho Marx and the raspy, wispy Al Jolson voice singing ‘30s jazz tunes.

          Four students near me during the second show in Norton Hall’s Fillmore Room wondered if he was wearing a false nose. He wasn’t.

          Redbone plays his secret identity for laughs, but always in character. He removes his gloves slowly, baby-powders his fingers, raises his bottle: “I’ll drink to that.”

          He beguiles for a while with his fractured chording, old-timey scat singing and impersonations of muted trumpets and clarinets.

          But eventually the music sags despite the force of personality. “Miss the Mississippi and You” becomes a sleepwalk.

          The force of music had succeeded during the opening set – an excellent UB trio called Broadway Bruce’s Band, which does local club dates. Their songs are in a cheerful, upbeat, ragtime vein and they’ve written a few themselves.

          Singer-guitarist Bruce Sinder has an affable shyness. Bassist Carl Cedar is a laid-back, head-bobbing hippie. And lead guitarist Joel Perry plays like he’s dedicated four years to staying in his room and getting good.

          Redbone, meanwhile, takes no encore. Two jug-band players from Niagara Falls, who tried to throw some washboard and jug playing on his last tunes, say he’s the same offstage as onstage.

          “We’re in the dressing room,” they report, “and he offers us a martini. ‘It’s gonna be a dry martini,’ he says, ‘no olive, no vermouth.’ Know what he gives us? A bottle of straight gin.”

* * * * *

IN THE PHOTOS: Leon Redbone and the April 5, 1975, entertainment page with reviews by John Dwyer and Jeff Simon. 

* * * * *

FOOTNOTE: I always got a kick out of Leon Redbone’s retro persona, especially since he lived it so completely. When he died in 2019 and his original name was revealed to be Dickran Gobalian and that he was born in Cyprus, of Armenian heritage, it didn’t diminish his luster. After he came to Toronto from England in 1965, he had his name legally changed.

          And, of course, he had a tie to Buffalo. He appeared at the UB Folk Festival in the early 1970s and the student who was running it, Beryl Handler, became his manager and his wife.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Feb. 2, 1974: The Blue Ox Band

Image
  One of the major local rock bands of the day and predecessor to some equally wonderful aggregations down the line.   Feb. 2, 1974 Blue Ox Wants Aggressive, Bitey Sound   AS BLUE OX themselves will tell you, a lot depends on the crowd.                    One night they’ll be sitting there in the Bona Vista on Hertel Avenue like good old boys and girls on the bayou, bobbing in their private dreams to the Grateful Dead’s “Truckin.’”           A few nights later, at an even more tender hour, the tiny dance floor is full of folks boogieing their heads off to the very same tune. * * * “IF YOU LISTEN for a whole night,” guitarist-organist Charlie O’Neill says, “we go through all kinds of styles. But sometimes the slower stuff is rough when you’ve got a bunch that wants to bounce around.”        ...
Read more

August 9, 1976 review: Elton John at Rich Stadium, with Boz Scaggs and John Miles

Image
  Now that all the organizational issues for Rich Stadium concerts were ironed out, Mother Nature decided to throw a curve. August 9, 1976 Elton John Pours It On For Rain-Soaked Fans Elton John was amazed. “I thank you for standing out in the rain and sitting out in the rain,” he remarked as he strode out in a Stars & Stripes Uncle Sam outfit in Rich Stadium Saturday afternoon for the first of three encores. “You deserve a medal of honor.” Instead of medals, the drizzle-soaked, wind-chilled crowd of 52,560 got a whale of a concert from the supermost superstar of the ‘70s. In fact, such was the energy of that first encore – everybody shouting along to the chorus of “Saturday Night’s All Right for Fighting” – that the rain faltered and it seemed like the sun would awaken for a guest appearance. But it didn’t. It was miraculous enough that Superfest 10 beat the deluge. The promoters rushed to fit it all in, forestalling an epidemic of rockin’ pneumonia and the boog...
Read more

July 6, 1974 Review: The first Summerfest concert at Rich Stadium -- Eric Clapton and The Band

Image
  This was the summer that rock ‘n roll came to the brand new Buffalo Bills stadium in Orchard Park . There was a lot of official nervousness about this kickoff event.   July 6, 1974   Hassle-Free Clapton Concert Scores a Pleasant Success             Rich Stadium got its baptism in rock ‘n roll Saturday evening and it all went off so well that the home of the Buffalo Bills football team should be bouncing to the big beat for many summer nights to come.           It was a star-studded event – stars above and stars on the stage. The Band, honed to near perfection as a live act, cranked out a happy, raucous set. And guitar idol Eric Clapton, who announced that he was drunk (indeed, he was very drunk), took a laid-back set that left many of his worshippers perplexed.           But the real heroes of this show – the first of ...
Read more