Jimmy Vivino - Ed Palermo Review

by Martin "Moet" Brooks

In 1967, the original American white guitar god, Mike Bloomfield, left the Butterfield Blues Band to form the horn band, The Electric Flag. The band included Harvey Brooks, who played on the Bringing It All Back Home Dylan sessions as well as Richie Havens' first album, keyboardist Barry Goldberg, ex-Sam & Dave drummer Buddy Miles, vocalist Nick Gravenities and an incredibly tight horn section composing of Stemzie Hunter, Marcus Doubleday, Pete Strazza and Herbie Rich.

After Bloomfield's departure from the Butterfield Band, veterans Elvin Bishop (a.k.a. Pigboy Crabshaw) and Mark Naftalin (a.k.a. Nafty Markham) were joined by Bugsy Maugh on Bass, Phil Wilson on drums and a horn section comprised of Keith Johnson, Gene Dinwiddie and David Sanborn, in his first professional gig.

On February 13, 2001, it was 1967 again as Ed Palermo's Big Band (and guests) filled the stage (and dining floor) of the club Decades, with as many musicians as played in the Flag and Butterfield bands combined!

The recent PBS series, Jazz, featured much footage of Manhattan clubs presenting big bands. I never thought I would be able to experience a "big band sound" so soon after viewing this great series (or ever for that matter).

The Ed Palermo Big Band includes a 12-person horn section, two keyboard players, a drummer and bass player and is known for its gigs at the Bottom Line playing the music of Frank Zappa and dates at Decades performing the music of Edgar Winter. His big band was joined by Jimmy Vivino on lead guitar and vocals, Rob Papparozzi on harp and vocals and Will Lee on vocals in a competition to see who could sound the most like Buddy Miles (a very soulful, very large imposing presence, who later played with Jimi Hendrix in A Band of Gypsys).

The idea for this event was proposed by harpist Rob Papparozzi, who often played with Vivino in his sets at the now defunct Manny's Car Wash.

One of the most interesting aspects of this project is the fact that neither Butterfield nor the Electric Flag were ever hit acts, even on progressive rock radio. Only one of the Butterfield horn albums, The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw, had made it to CD (at the time this review was written.) The Electric Flag, though a hit at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, got very little airplay on commercial radio and their album is relatively obscure (though available on CD.) But what was obvious in the room that night was that the musicians (both those on the stage and the many in the audience) have a very great love and respect for this music.

The set opened, appropriately enough, with Rob Papparozzi wailing Howlin' Wolf's Killing Floor, which is the first track from the Electric Flag album, A Long Time Comin'. Rob even vocalized President LBJ stating, "I speak tonight for the dignity of man," which appears on the original recording, even though the Flag never included this in live performances.

The band, now seemingly more comfortable with their surroundings, then jumped into a rousing version of Butterfield's Walking By Myself, a song originally recorded by Jimmy Rogers, which appeared on Butterfield's Keep On Moving LP.

I thought I was totally familiar with every Butterfield and Electric Flag number, but the next song, I Got News, stumped me. As it turned out, it was actually a song recorded by Edgar Winter and Ray Charles before him. But it fit the set perfectly, which surprised me, because it sounded nothing like the Edgar Winter whose sound I thought I knew.

Next, Jimmy took his first shot at doing a Buddy Miles vocal, Over-Lovin' You, a song written by Barry Goldberg and Mike Bloomfield.

A very sartorial Will Lee, dressed in a double-breasted pinstripe suit, a red tie and derby (the kind with the little feather in the side above the brim) then joined the other musicians on the stage. Palermo announced that Will would sing the Buddy Miles blues song, Texas, which made me laugh because there was no way I could picture blonde, skinny, white boy Will Lee carrying this off. But Will reached deep down inside himself, found something special within and gave an incredibly soul-stirring performance that was quite credible even as compared with the original. It's quite amazing that the same man who can sing Paul McCartney so well can also conjure Buddy Miles. I bet Paul couldn't accomplish that. Can The Electric Faux be far behind?

Now it was time to return to the Butterfield repertoire, with Will this time aping Butterfield bass player Bugsy Maugh with a rendition of the Roosevelt Sykes song, Drivin' Wheel, originally made famous by Junior Parker. I saw Bugsy perform this song at the Cafe Au Go Go in 1967. The band paused until there was silence. Bugsy took a deep puff from his cigarette, removed it from his mouth and placed it under the strings at the neck of his guitar and then began singing the first line acapella, surrounded by smoke, with an incredibly smooth voice that sounded like syrup, before being joined by the rhythm section. Will's version was a bit sharper, but just as intense. And you haven't heard anything until you've heard this song accompanied by the power of 12 horns.

Not to be outdone by Rob or Will, it was once again Jimmy's turn to attack the Buddy Miles canon. On the original album, Bloomfield dedicated You Don't Realize to Steve Cropper and Otis Redding. Ed Palermo dedicated this performance to Bloomfield and Butterfield. You Don't Realize is a quite affecting song of soulful desperation and the band performed a quite measured and steady version, although I prefer the tempo changes in the original recording.

The first set closed with Everything's Gonna Be Alright, a song Butterfield recorded on his live album (and also available on the CD, Anthology).

I was beginning to grow impatient for the second set to begin when Rob and Jimmy jumped on stage and began playing an essentially acoustic folk blues number not recorded by either Butterfield or the Flag. Soon, each of the other musicians joined the stage, Jimmy's guitar returned to electric mode and individual horn players began to riff under the surface. The intensity slowly began to increase and soon, the entire band was blasting away. I believe this number was called The Hip Shake (and no, not the Merseybeat Hippy Hippy Shake of the early 60's.)

Rob then sang One More Heartache, a song co-written by Smokey Robinson and sung by Marvin Gaye before Butterfield recorded it for the Resurrection album. This was quickly followed by a great version of Driftin' & Driftin'. If MTV ever re-runs The Lost Monterey Performances, you can catch a segment with Paul Butterfield singing an incredible version of the song with a beaming Mike Bloomfield looking on with great joy. (It's also available as part of a DVD released in early 2003: The Complete Monterey Pop.)

Another Country was Bloomfield's precursor to the Beatles' Revolution #9. The band played the first half of Another Country (without all the special sound effects and tape loops), but by cutting the song in half, Jimmy didn't get to perform Bloomfield's climactic guitar solo at the end of the song. They segued right into Wine, but played a bit slower than the Flag's version. On The Lost Monterey Performances, there's also a short segment of the Electric Flag performing an incredibly fast and tight version ofWine, which is not to be missed.

At this point, Will Lee came back onstage for an encore of his performances of Texas and Drivin' Wheel. Figuring the band wasn't going to play any additional new numbers and because the hour was incredibly late, I left the club with the same giddiness I felt back in 1967 when I heard this music for the first time.

I have only one criticism: both the Electric Flag and the Butterfield bands were notable due to the fact that both bands were racially integrated, something relatively unique for 1967. Is it too much to ask that out of 18 musicians on stage performing soul and blues numbers, music which would not be possible if it wasn't for African-American culture, that at least one musician be black?

The Ed Palermo Big Band will return to the Bottom Line in March playing the music of Frank Zappa, but Ed told me that they're trying to also arrange for a night at the Bottom Line where they will once again play the music of Butterfield and the Flag. This music gets played rarely. Anyone who wants to experience the music that inspired Jimmy Vivino, Ed Palermo and many others who love soul and the blues should not miss this show.

MORE REVIEWS....