Geoff Muldaur to play the Minstrel Sept. 18
Geoff Muldaur counts himself as a fortunate man in many ways, not the least of which is the fact that he was born in 1943.
As a teen, Muldaur joined Jim Kweskin’s Jug Band in the early 1960s. They had the chance to meet the veteran blues and folk musicians who were still alive performing at the time, such as Bukka White, Mississippi John Hurt, and the like.
“Jim Kweskin and I were lucky enough to be able to hang out with the guys who invented this music,” Muldaur says. “That was a great opportunity.”
But despite having firsthand contact with those musical pioneers, Muldaur never felt the need to slavishly mimic them.
“We were less interested in copying what people did,” Muldaur says. “We took that music and put our own thing on it.”
More than 50 years later, he is still “Muldaur-izing” (as he puts it) songs by artists. Most recently, he developed original arrangements of compositions by Bix Beiderbecke, the jazz trumpeter from the 1920s.
Muldaur will perform at the Minstrel acoustic music series at the Morristown Unitarian Fellowship tonight. Besides playing his arrangements of vintage materials, as well as originals, he will swap stories about the songs and artists.
A native of Pelham, New York, Muldaur lived for a time in New Orleans before moving to Cambridge. Being in locations with vital music scenes confirmed his early interest in become a musician himself.
“I made hints of doing something legitimate when I was young,” he jokes. “But music was always my escape, my passion, starting when I was very young.”
Connecting with Jim Kweskin in Cambridge, Muldaur became the principal arranger for the Jug Band. The group drew from a wide variety of styles, including ragtime, early jazz, folk, country, and the blues.
“We came up with an interesting arrangement of Duke Ellington’s ‘Mood Indigo,’ ” Muldaur recalls. “One time, Duke came to see us, but we didn’t have the courage to do ‘Mood Indigo.’ I’ve always regretted that.”
In the Jug Band, Muldaur also met vocalist Maria D’Amato. They married and recorded two albums that continued to explore roots music. (Their version of the song “Brazil” was prominently featured in the 1984 movie directed by Terry Gilliam.)
After the two divorced, Muldaur worked with a number of artists, including Jerry Garcia and Amos Garrett. For a time, he was part of Paul Butterfield’s Better Days.
In the early 1980s, Muldaur stepped back from music.
“I crashed and burned,” he admits. “I took time off. I got a job as a suit.”
“I’m lucky I bailed out when I did,” he adds. “I saw what it was doing to some of my friends, who didn’t make it.”
However, music continued to call to him. In 1998, he came back with an acclaimed album, “The Secret Handshake,” followed by “Password.”
Those albums reflected his continued love of roots music, which was becoming known as Americana.
Those CDs also allowed him to record with friends and relations, including his daughter Jenni.
Over the years, he has also crossed paths with such artists as Bonnie Raitt, John Sebastian, Van Dyke Parks, and John Cale.
Though Americana has become a recognized musical genre, Muldaur is not sure that younger musicians have learned the right lessons from his example.
“I hear a lot of people who are technically proficient,” he says. “But I don’t get in the groove with it.”
“Music is all about the feeling,” Muldaur says. “It doesn’t matter the idiom. There’s this mysterious thing that happens between the artist and the audience. It’s there, or it’s not. What I hear today doesn’t have as much of the funk.”
For his own part, he plans to continue “Muldaur-izing” other artists.
He also feels that he has the confidence to write his own songs.
“I think maybe I can write real stuff, and not just arrange other people,” he says.
GEOFF MULDAUR
WHEN: 8 tonight
WHERE: Morristown Unitarian Fellowship,
21 Normandy Heights Rd., Morristown TICKETS: $9 admission, plus a free-will
offering after the performance.
INFORMATION: 973-335-9489 or
www.folkproject.org