Buffalo Music: Pausa show combines skill with spontaneity

By Dale Anderson
(Image above, L-R: Stu Weissman, Mary Ramsey, Ed Croft, Marc Rosen. Photo by Dale Anderson)

We go out all the time to see musicians play, but how many times do we get to see musicians AT play?

One of those rare moments was Thursday evening in Pausa Art House with Mary Ramsey and Friends. Their two sets felt too informal to be an honest-to-god concert, but their flashes of virtuosity were too tightly rendered to be merely a jam session.

Nobody just picks up and plays the 1952 instrumental hit “Petit Fleur” or jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt’s “Nuages.” Here were four great players having fun together and it was contagious. It was fun watching them have fun.

Mary, who has a quiet sort of status as vocalist and electric viola player with 10,000 Maniacs, kept her distance from Maniacs material. Instead, she started things rolling with “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”

Shortly thereafter the four of them launched into something totally unexpected, Hal Davis and Burt Bacharach’s “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again.” Lead guitarist Stu Weissman, rhythm guitarist Marc Rosen and stand-up bassist Ed Croft set up a shambling suggestion of a bossa nova, while Mary showed an endearing passion for the song, underscored with a brief viola solo.

Weissman, who has considerable chops as a jazz guitarist, laced the music all evening long with tasty short filigree runs.

Rosen got only one brief solo, but was the group’s musical historian, prefacing a rendition of the 1964 Peter and Gordon hit “World Without Love” by explaining the relationship between Peter Asher (who produced two Maniacs albums in the 1980s) and Paul McCartney, who wrote the song for Asher’s singing duo, Peter and Gordon.

Croft, an award-winning jazz bassist, surprised us all with his powerful slapping and again with his vocals, beginning with George Jones’ “Bartender’s Blues.”

Mary was in a playful mood. She sang an a cappella verse of “Happy Days Are Here Again” and stopped, mentioning that she was just thinking of the Tuesday night elections. After doing the 1958 Peggy Lee hit, “Fever,” she confided how satisfying it was to spit out the title word. Annoyed when she flubbed a bit of the string solo in the middle of the Beatles’ “In My Life,” she picked up her instrument when it was over and played it again all by herself. This time it was note perfect.

Dale Anderson is a Buffalo Music Hall of Famer for his role as the first primary rock and pop music critic for The Buffalo News. He later became legendary for his work on the News city desk, particularly capturing the lives of the region’s characters in writing their obituaries. The Buffalo Hive is proud to have Dale sharing as a collaborator.