David Bromberg Quintet became a Sextet on the evening of Friday, January 6, 2017 at Denver’s Oriental Theater as the group welcomed Railroad Earth’s multi-instrumentalist Andy Goessling as a special guest. Goessling was already in Colorado to play a solo show at the Chautauqua Community House on January 7. After opening with “Walking Blues” which is on Bromberg’s fantastic new album, The Blues, The Whole Blues and Nothing But the Blues, and an homage to Colorado’s cannabis-friendly status with “You’re a Viper (The Reefer Song)” best known from Fats Waller’s 1947 version, David welcomed Goessling to the stage for an extended, slinky version of his own classic, “Sharon”. Goessling remained on stage to play most of the two-hour show except when the quintet broke down mid-set to play solo, duet and trio numbers. Over the course of the night, Goessling switched off between saxophones, guitar and mandolin and traded licks with Bromberg himself, guitarist/mandolinist Mark Cosgrove, and fiddle player, Nate Grower. Bromberg’s quintet was rounded out by the rhythm section of Josh Kanusky on drums and Suavek Zaniesienko on bass guitar.
The show featured tunes spanning Bromberg’s long career from newly released songs like “Why Are People Like That?”and “You’ve Been a Good Ole Wagon” to “You’ve Got to Mean It Too” off 2013’s Only Slightly Mad to classics like “Kaatskill Serenade”and “New Lee Highway Blues”. “Kaatskill Serenade” proved especially poignant as David reflected not only on its origins but on its meaning to him both when he wrote it and in today’s socially and politically-turbulent world. The show closed with a sweetly-played encore of Bromberg’s classic cover of Jerry Jeff Walker’s “Mr. Bojangles”.
Below watch videos from the show by Re:Create Magazine and YouTube user Arloki272:
Kaatskill Serenade:
New Lee Highway Blues:
The encore, Mr. Bojangles:
Re:Create Magazine 