Max Weinberg pushes E Street Band to the background
Published: 10/ 23/ 2000
by Bob Grossweiner and Jane Cohen

NEW YORK - Max Weinberg, the drummer in Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and the musical director of television's "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," has managed to juggle both jobs admirably in recent years. But for now, his television band is taking center stage. Seven years after joining O'Brien's show, the Max Weinberg 7 has released its self-titled debut CD (M&K Sound/ Hip-0 Records), which includes 17 instrumental and vocal tracks - one of which features Dr. John.

"We don't play contemporary music," the 49-year old Weinberg said following a recent taping of "Late Night" at NBC Studios in Manhattan. "We're a combination of bluesy rock swing. We have a progressive sound. It's not a jazz record. Everything we do has a backbeat. It's a danceable record, high energy. Our music goes back to the '30s." Although television viewers can hear only a few bars of the songs played by the septet, the band performs three full selections before O'Brien greets the crowd for his nightly pre-show warm up. And during commercial breaks, the band heats up the audience again, in part so the audience does not hear what O'Brien's associates are saying to him. "We know several hundred full length songs, and probably several thousand 36-bar walk-on tunes," Weinberg said. So why did it take Weinberg so long to release his first solo album? "I wanted to change my style of playing and hone my style before I committed to a record," the New Jerseyite said. "I never had the burning desire to make a record until two years ago, when I felt the band had developed to where we could make a record. "My style of drumming has changed dramatically through the experience of working on the show," he said. "First, it's not wanting to be a rock band, and second, to be primarily an instrumental band that also does vocals. "It took awhile because I've been basically a rock drummer all my life and still am. I did a personal amount of woodshedding listening to music I never listened to in my life, part from my research, part from the recommendations of the guys in the band, like Count Basie, who I'd never listened to."

Weinberg maintained that his band (Scott Healy, piano and B-3 organ; Michael Merritt, acoustic and electric bass; Mark Pender, trumpet and vocals; Richie La Bamba, trombone and vocals; Jerry Vivino, saxes, clarinet and vocals; and Jimmy Vivino, guitar and vocals) features "the best players in New York City, bar none. Nobody has a wider range of versatility than the guys in this band. It took me a while to catch up."

The Max Weinberg 7 plays for the "Late Night" audience every weekday night, but does not tour. "We play in the city everyday here in the studio," he said of the 189-seat studio. "We play every night for millions of people. We have very dedicated fans of the show."

After answering an ad in the New York weekly Village Voice, Weinberg joined the E Street Band for Springsteen's 1975 album, "Born to Run," playing on every song except the title track. When Springsteen reassembled the E Street Band for the 1999-2000 world tour, Weinberg initially wasn't sure if he could rejoin the band. His loyalty at that time was to O'Brien and NBC. However, NBC cooperated with the reunion by granting Weinberg an 18-month leave of absence. "They saw the obvious good in me doing the tour," he said. When the Springsteen and band took a hiatus from November through February, Weinberg returned to "Late Night" for those three months. And when the tour, initially scheduled to end in early May, was extended through July, Weinberg's "Late Night" commitments restricted him to weekend shows. In deference to Weinberg, Springsteen generally restricted the tour to weekend dates. The exception was the tour-concluding, 10-night engagement at New York's Madison Square Garden, when Weinberg, who puts in a 40-hour week at NBC, hightailed it downtown after the show's 5:30-6:30 p.m. taping. The Springsteen tour ended on July 1, and Weinberg was back full time at "Late Night" on July 5.

Weinberg said his most memorable Springsteen concerts were the opening of New Jersey's Meadowlands in 1981 and the recent Madison Square Garden concerts. "The deal with Bruce is that every time you step on the stage, it's like the first time with him," Weinberg said. "That's the energy and intensity we bring to the shows." At the Garden, he added, "it was such a privilege to look into the faces of the fans. And we see some of the same faces all the time. I remember the fans, the intense joy they feel hearing the music played by the musicians. We hadn't played together for 10 [or] 11 years. It wasn't that I forgot it, but it wasn't foremost in my mind."

Weinberg, who is also a noted session drummer (Meat Loaf's "Bat Out of Hell") and author (Max Weinberg: Let There Be Drums), is firmly ensconced in "Late Night." Any questions about the future of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street band - even the possibility of a live album - were cleverly deflected. When Springsteen dismantled the E Street Band in 1989, Weinberg had an inkling of its demise. "But it was a shock when he called and said he was going to do something else. It also became a wonderful opportunity for all of us; I would never have done 'Late Night.' Being with Bruce was wonderful on every level - spiritual, financial, certainly, and musical."