Approximately 60 brave blues fans braved the sleet and snow to pack into a Jogues hall classroom Monday night. Their reward was an hour set of blues music.
Mark Naftalin, an original member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, played the piano and Jaimoe, a member of the Allman Brothers Band, played drums at the event sponsored by the Jamie A. Hulley Arts Foundation.
Both the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and the Allman Brothers Band were among the most successful blues bands in the sixties and seventies, according to Fairfield University professor Brian Torff who accompanied them on the bass.
The crowded makeshift concert hall did not bother the audience who applauded after every solo and clapped their hands with the beat during the finale.
“Brian Torff is always great,” said Dan Baily ’08. “I had a class with him over the break, but seeing him jam with these guys was amazing.”
The audience were not the only enthusiastic participants, the musicians also got very serious while playing, breaking off into solos and really feeding off each other’s emotions.
Naftalin played with so much intensity that shook as he played the piano.
In addition to a concert, Torff asked the musicians about how they got into blues and what blues meant to them. The musicians shared their experience as well as including a few stories from their touring days.
“Blues is in the mind of the individual, it always expresses the individual,” said Naftalin. “You can’t learn it in school or any other way besides hearing it, feeling it and reaching out for it.”
Although the music was passionately played, the musicians joked with each other and the audience creating a relaxed atmosphere. Torff asked Jaimoe if he knew that something was special when the Allman Brothers Band recorded the live record at Filmore East, which is one of their most critically acclaimed albums.
“That was just the night that the finally decided to record. We played like that every night,” Jaimoe said with a laugh.
The Jaimoe Shuffle, a song written by Torff a few years ago, was the final song of the night and although the song only lasted a few minutes, the musicians took turns playing solos before wrapping up the show shortly after eight p.m.
“(The show) was fantastic,” said audience member Roger Rink. “It was really nice to come out here and see something like that on a Monday night.”
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