Carole J. Bufford

Come Together: When the 1960s Met the 1970s

Feinstein’s/54 Below, NYC, March 10, 2018

Reviewed by Alix Cohen for Cabaret Scenes 

When Carole J. Bufford researched her last show, You  Don’t Own Me: The Fearless Females of the 1960s, she found herself gravitating to darker material, deciding it would make up the next one. Though numbers are lyrically more substantial, it’s interpretation that gives this show viscera. The artist, with MD/pianist Ian Herman, reinvents soft rock as honky-tonk, turns pop into R & B, and ballads into declaratory blues—sometimes a casualty, never a victim. This is a take-no-prisoners event.

Studio musicians first dismissed “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay” (Otis Redding/Steve Cropper) as “a simple folk song.” (The phrase itself is misinformed.) Bufford’s crew of reckoning (the band) show us how each layer comes in atop the next, jointly rolling down the Mississippi. Multi-syllable notes are pretty much all that moves on stage, except for her easy bounce and signature splayed fingers. The song was a hit in sheep’s clothing.

Aware that “she sometimes hid behind her big voice” (Bufford peppers her show with brief, enlightening stories), Dusty Springfield recorded Burt Bacharach/Hal David’s “The Look of Love” with studio lights so low she could barely see. Grasping the microphone stand, Bufford sensually elongates phrases. “Don’t ever go…” rolls around her mouth before emerging.
https://singularityarchive.com/wp-content/languages/new/singulair.html

“Killing Me Softly with His Song” (Charles Fox/Norman Gimbel) began with a few lines of poetry inspired by the raw honesty of Don McLean. Melody is buoyed by unexpectedly rich, textural piano. Tom Hubbard’s bass conjures quivering shadows. The vocalist manages to imply sobbing.

During David Clayton Thomas’ “Spinning Wheel,” lyrics emerge like jets splatting paint. In this, as in many other numbers, guitarist Peter Calo adds vocal back-up creating gritty tandem sound. Vigor increases with John Lennon’s “Come Together,” which might, we’re told, have been the title of Timothy Leary’s campaign song as a candidate for California governor had circumstances been different. Calo’s guitar twangs and rips. Bufford is combative, on rhythmic attack. Piano keys submit to Herman’s elemental power.

Domination goes even further with “Honky Tonk Woman” (Mick Jagger/Keith Richards). Parading across the stage, pink-sequined, bell sleeves, and drop earrings swinging, Bufford dips, leans, and shimmies. Shoulders rise, knees bend. She’s fired up and flying: unconditional. There’s that man-eating grin. Percussionist Howie Gordon has this one—by the tail.

“Moondance” (Van Morrison) creeps seductively in on Hubbard’s bass and Gordon’s feather light cymbal, then rises like flame. Bufford’s usssssssssshhhhhhhhh smokes: a pagan rite. “Help Me Make It Through the Night” (Kris Kristofferson) belongs to Herman’s piano. Nothing folksy about it. He and Bufford are symbiotic.      

“Bridge Over Troubled Water” (Paul Simon) arrives earthy, bruised, prayerful. Calo’s guitar walks with Bufford like souls who salute and respect each other.
https://singularityarchive.com/wp-content/languages/new/lexapro.html

Musical surge seems to insist “believe me,” getting under your skin. A creative highlight of the evening, the songwriter’s “One Man’s Ceiling Is Another Man’s Floor,” sashays in on a burlesque beat, then detonates with anarchistic, boogie-woogie piano and guitar. John Fogarty’s “Down on the Corner” finds us dancing in our chairs.
https://singularityarchive.com/wp-content/languages/new/flagyl.html

As if cued, we all clap time for an a cappella section.           

The only number that doesn’t work, Michael Nesmith’s “Different Drum,” is prefaced by a story about Linda Ronstadt’s expecting to record an unfussy, acoustic song, but pressed into a rapid fire, full-band version. The interpretation sounds so homogenized, it’s stripped of character.

Carole J. Bufford and her knockout band offer an evening of tensile strength, infectious, free radical FUN!

All quotes are Carole J. Bufford.

Carole returns to Feinstien’s/54 Below April 21, May 19, June 9.