Photos by John DaDalt
The Bruce Katz Band’s return to Black Eyed Sally’s after an absence of many years filled the club with an enthusiastic audience.
Outstanding on both piano and organ, Katz shared the spotlight with guitarist/singer Chris Vitarello, while Ray Hangen kept the beat on drums. Katz was a member of Gregg Allman’s band, and both he and Vitarello were in Butch Truck’s band, Freight Train. This group played a variety of songs from Katz’s first record, Crescent Crawl, up through his latest release, Out From The Center, and includeda tribute to Trucks entitled “Freight Train,” as well as the Allman Brothers’ tunes “Stand Back” and a scorching “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed,” plus a couple of new tunes that they’re working on. In upcoming weeks the band will be in the studio working on a new disc.
Katz and Vitarello were both in good form throughout the night. Their solos were always interesting, never boring or too long. What a pleasure to hear highly skilled musicians who deserve a large audience in an intimate atmosphere like Black Eyed Sally’s. Hopefully it won’t be years before the return to Hartford again.
—John DaDalt
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