April 6, 1978 review: David Bromberg Band and Maria Muldaur at the Century Theater

 

Another night to remember at the Century Theater. 

April 6, 1978 

Bromberg, Muldaur

Stir Up Audience

In Long, Lively Gig 

          The Century Theater saw three approaches to the problem of making folk-rock relevant Wednesday night. The scheme that went over best was laced with a heavy dose of rhythm and blues.

          That was the formula for the David Bromberg Band, headliner for an evening that lasted well past midnight. It would have lasted even longer if they’d taken a third encore.

          Bromberg, a folk music wizard who shines on fiddle, guitar and mandolin, headed up a seedy, sensational seven-man unit – fiddles and mandolins on one side, trombone and saxophone on the other.

          In essence it was two bands – one a small folk ensemble for doing jigs and fiddle or mandolin trios, the other a boisterous R&B band, pushed along by the horns.

          Bromberg, bearded again and wearing a three-piece black suit, clearly preferred the bold, full-blown sound. He played plenty of slide guitar and signaled punchy downbeats with his elbow, transforming his striptease saga, “Sharon,” into a brassy showpiece. The 2,000 fans went wild.

          Singer Maria Muldaur, headliner on some of the dates in this two-month tour with Bromberg, remarked at how lively the folks in the audience were, but couldn’t consistently stir them up.

          What held her back was her group. Muldaur’s sidemen, which included a pregnant female harmony singer, haven’t learned to work well with her yet. Buffalo was only the third date on the tour. The saving graces were hot guitarist Rick Vito and saxman John Furman, borrowed from Bromberg.

          Muldaur herself was a changed woman. No longer wispy and skinny, she was round in her green velvet pants and dipped heartily into the throaty, brazen part of her range in Louisiana blues like “Cajun Moon” and gospel numbers like the closing Staples Singers tune.

          Opening was Fat Chance, an agreeable Boston, Mass., quintet in the process of stepping from its folk music past to a future that will include its own original tunes, like their Fleetwood Mac-flavored “Both Sides of the Fence.”

          The band, under management of the Harvey and Corky organization, did best with the Bromberg crowd when it reverted to good old-fashioned guitar picking in “Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arms” and “Rock Island Line.”

          Unfortunately, these rustic asides made slender, attractive singer Anna Pepper, the group’s biggest potential asset, come off too much like a miniature Mary Tyler Moore. What she should aim for is something more like Maria Muldaur.

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IN THE PHOTO: The David Bromberg Band on the back cover of the "Bandit in a Bathing Suit" album. 

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FOOTNOTE: Robbie Robertson and The Band planted the seeds  for what’s now known as Americana music and cultivating right behind them was David Bromberg.

          During this moment in time, Bromberg the solo performer had evolved into the David Bromberg Band and had switched record companies, moving from Columbia to Fantasy for a pair of albums, “Reckless Abandon” in 1977 and “Bandit in a Bathing Suit” in 1978. He and the band stopped touring in 1980 and he took a break from making studio albums from 1990 to 2007. He announced earlier this year that, although he would play some occasional solo gigs, he would stop touring with his Big Band. They played a farewell concert in the Beacon Theater in New York City in June.

          Maria Muldaur was evolving too, from the saucy ingénue of “Midnight at the Oasis” into the blues mama she became later on. She’s released more than half a dozen albums on Canada’s rootsy Stony Plains label since 1993 and is playing a dozen dates in clubs, concert halls and festivals around the Northeast in September.

          Bromberg’s Century Theater show has only three entries on setlist.fm. A fuller account of what he was playing in those days comes from his Aug. 26 date at the Calderone Concert Hall in Hempstead, Long Island:

          Love, Please Come Home (Bill Monroe cover)

          I Want to Go Home

          Traveling Man

          Helpless Blues

          Old Brown Jug

          Nobody’s Fault But Mine (Blind Willie Johnson cover)

          Danger Man

          Summer Wages (Ian Tyson cover)

          Girl From France

          Dying Crapshooter’s Blues (Blind Willie McTell cover)

          Forever Is a Long Time

          Battle of Bull Run

          Send Me to the ‘Lectric Chair (Bessie Smith cover)

          Yankee’s Revenge (traditional medley)

          Will Not Be Your Fool

          (encore)

          Sweet Home Chicago (Robert Johnson cover)

         (second encore)

          Texas Gold

          There are no records on setlist.fm of what Maria Muldaur was playing in 1978 with the exception of one number at the Century Theater – “Cajun Moon,” the J. J. Cale song.

          As for Anna Pepper, she kept up a professional relationship with Harvey Weinstein on his movie projects. She wrote at least one song with Rick Wakeman for one of Harvey’s early Miramax films and another for a 1986 clunker of a teen flick called “Playing for Keeps.”