Sing The Swaggering Blues Rogers And Buffalo, Musicians With Great Solo Capabilities, Make A Dynamic Duo

Roy Rogers and Norton Buffalo Friday, March 31, The Met

It was a blues show, not a cowboy act, that took over The Met Friday night, despite the suspicious names of the headliners.

Roy Rogers and Norton Buffalo.

Does that sound like the blues, or like a dusty ropin’ and sharp-shootin’ act? If you didn’t know better, you could be forgiven for making the mistake. But Rogers and Buffalo - yes, those are their real names - are bluesmen, not cowboys, and they lit up The Met stage with two swaggering sets of acoustic blues.

Both men are best-known for appearing with their own, electric blues bands, but in 1990 they won a Grammy nomination for an acoustic duet they performed on a record called “R&B.”

Even the prestigious Down Beat magazine, which normally concerns itself with jazz, blessed the record with four stars.

Friday, Rogers and Buffalo showed what all the hubbub was about. Astonishing musicians in their own right, they gave one of those duet performances during which the musicians seem hard-wired together.

Rogers played guitar with a ringing urgency that recalled the spirit of Robert Johnson, while Buffalo showed why many people say he’s the best harp player of his generation.

And they’re a great pair: The flamboyant showman Buffalo was always on his feet, riffing and telling tales, while Rogers, the taciturn straightman, left his stool only to grab another guitar.

Whether playing a lead on his National Steel 12-string, or supporting one of Buffalo’s soaring harp solos, Rogers is one of those players who fuses passion with the ability to play the right note at the right time.

Technique never gets in the way of feeling, and vice versa.

Meanwhile, Buffalo plays with such inventiveness and grace, and laces his genial East Bay funkiness with such a lovely melodicism, that he elevates blues harp to a level reminiscent of jazz great Toots Thielmann.

In fact, when playing the chromatic harp, he steps well into territory most commonly explored by jazz players.

Both men are growing as vocalists, too. Rogers sings the country blues he favors in a reedy but affecting voice, while Buffalo has become a full-fledged singer, with a big range and a timbre that often recalls the great Phil Alvin, formerly of the Blasters.

Friday’s concert was arranged as a kind of musical conversation, with Rogers’ pure blues offerings alternating with Buffalo’s more liberal pop inclinations, from Rogers’ “Ramblin’ On My Mind” to Buffalo’s “Nobody Wants Me.”

Perhaps the highlight of the show was a piece that fell midway between - the driving boogie of “Mercury T49,” a piece of modern, West Coast blues that Buffalo has often played with the Steve Miller Band.

And, brilliant as the parts were, the true treasures were found in the sum of the parts. Throughout the evening, the transitions were little nuggets of brilliance in which the interplay was both intricate and magical. It’s remarkable to see musicians with great solo capabilities and a deep understanding of their craft also play with such feeling for the other’s playing. It happens in the best jazz and few other places.

Rogers and Buffalo are always welcome back with their bands, but Friday night they carved out a place in our hearts as a twosome. It might be interesting to see how far they could take the form were they to commit themselves to it.

MEMO: This is a sidebar that appeared with the story: Hilight “Mercury T49.”