Al Kooper Rocks New York City on His 66th Birthday

 

Al Kooper has made rock history a hundred times over and had absolutely nothing to lose by telling noisy fans behind him to “shut the fuck up.” It was a vintage, endearing Kooper moment from a man who has been around so long he remembers the time when audiences actually kept their mouths shut and listened to the songs.

Now, at 66, Kooper celebrated his birthday at B.B. Kings Club in New York City on Friday night with some old friends and great music. The weather forecasters had predicted a huge snowstorm and Kooper figured no more than a couple of hundred people would attend. He was wrong—the 500-seat club was sold out (and the snow didn’t come.)

 

Danny Kalb, the founder of the Blues Project, was the first guest. Kooper, a member of that seminal group, played the vintage blues with Kalb, whose singing and guitar playing were first rate.  Kooper and Kalb still make a great fit after all these years.

 

Then came a Kooper discovery—a woman he had met when he interviewed her for a newspaper on the day she opened for Keb’ Mo.’ Kristina Train, he said, reminded him of the 60s-era British singer Dusty Springfield, and he invited her to sing at his birthday show. After Kooper’s big build-up, she came on stage and quickly won over the audience. 

Raised in Savannah, Georgia and schooled in church choirs growing up, Train, 28, has a powerful, soulful voice and plays a mean violin. Her first album, for Blue Note Records, is called Spilt Milk. Kooper spread it around to his friends, anointing her a real comer. I can't help but agree.

 

Then came Jimmy Vivino, the ace guitarist who moved to Los Angeles to play in the Tonight Show band with Conan O’Brien. An old collaborator with Kooper, Vivino said he had just arrived from a cross country flight and “my ass hurts.” But that didn't keep him from taking a slap at Jeff Zucker, the NBC president who fired Conan O'Brien and is taking much heat for destroying a network.

Vivino did a vicious set with Kooper, highlighted by Bob Dylan’s Like a Rolling Stone, the legendary song where Kooper sneaked in one of the most famous Hammond B3 organ rifts in history. Kooper said it’s what you do when you’re confronted by “Bob fucking Dylan.” Vivino sang the vocals and Kooper played the organ part that made him famous. Kooper later played with Dylan when he went electric at the Newport Folk Festival.

Jimmy Vivino sings Like a Rolling Stone. All photos by Frank Beacham

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The show closed with Kooper playing with his “Funky Faculty” band made up of music teachers from the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where Kooper once taught himself. 

Kooper wrote one of the most entertaining books on the history of rock. The new revised edition of Backstage Passes & Backstabbing Bastards: Memoirs of a Rock 'N' Roll Survivor is a classic and a must read for anyone who loves rock music.