The DU Lounge

He played his famous "Mr. Bojangles" accompanied by a bass player, who he introduced as "his band." I was hooked and went out and bought that first album, which I wore out over the years. I think I was 18 at the time.

I ripped off some of his guitar riffs for my version of "Delia" that I used to play in clubs when I was playing, although I was never able to do that bass and treble at the same time; I tried to make up for it with my voice.

At family parties when I was in my early 20's my Aunts used to always ask for me to play "Suffer if you want to sing the blues."

(I played both in different open tunings.)

He and Dave Van Ronk were huge influences in my musical life. I was a cheap imitation of both those guys.

I probably saw Bromberg perform more than 30 times; maybe more than 40, over the years. When he was playing in the New York area, I seldom missed seeing him at least once, including the period during which he would pretty much make his guitar talk while playing "Sharon" with a big band behind him.

He did a lot of shows at a club on Long Island in Roslyn, "My Father's Place." I'd check the Village Voice for the line up. He also did shows at the Bottom Line as I recall.

I also saw him at straight up solo performances, pure acoustic.

He was always unbelievable, his magnificent sense of humor hardly distracting from his transcendent playing and singing. The expressions he'd make were part of the act. Particularly funny were the faces he'd make when he'd play "Statesboro Blues." One would come away from one of his shows feeling incredibly high.

He probably should have been more famous than he actually was.

One had the sense that he was not merely a great musician, but a great human being as well.