Edgar Winter, Iridium, NYC, 3.8.14
by Michael Sherer
Posted: Mar 2014
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- photo by Michael Sherer
Edgar Winter and his fine band delivered an exuberant and rockin’ performance in the intimate and inviting setting that the Iridium provides. Located in the Theater District in midtown, the long standing club is in the heart of the city. With fine food and drink and a friendly staff, it’s an excellent venue to attend.
With a veteran artist like Winter, who has an extensive catalog dating back to the early ‘70’s on the Columbia/Epic label, there was much material to choose from. Winter has two major hits that FM radio has played a whole lot: Frankenstein and Free Ride. The set concluded with these two respective songs. The rest were, in this order: Rebel Road, Eye On You, Hangin’ Around, Tobacco Road Short, Texas Tornado, Real Good Time, Explosion and Possitive (sik) Drinking. Winter told the crowd that he came up with that song while roaring drunk, and that he really likes it. There were also a couple Led Zeppelin songs thrown in, which the band played with much gusto.
The other musicians are Jason Carpenter on drums, Doug Rapppaport on guitar and Coco Powell on bass. Carpenter played a particularly fiery drum solo with many odd time signatures that was impressive.
Winter mainly played his primary instrument of keyboards, but he’s also a good saxophonist, and played that a few times as well. He played a portable keyboard that hung from his neck when not playing the conventional rack on its stand. Winter explained that he was the first keyboardist that he’s aware of that played it in concert via hanging it on his body this way, which he began doing early in his career. There were a couple of songs that Winter only sang for. In fine voice, Winter sounds as good as ever.
The band was very tight and funky, and gelled very well together. The acoustics in the club are quite good, so the sound is easy on the ears. It was a real treat to have this great band led by the veteran and charismatic Winter, and everyone present was in concert on that notion.