Norton Buffalo

Started by DocJon · 5 posts · 1,187 views

  1. #1
    Norton Buffalo, best known as the harmonica player for the Steve Miller Band, died yesterday from cancer. He was 58.

    http://jukejointsoul.blogspot.com/2009/10/...on-buffalo.html

    Geez, he was just diagnosed in September. He didn't suffer long at least.

    He was a little dude with seemingly boundless energy, and the couple times I saw him live, it looked like he was just having the best time EVER. He loved to be on stage playing his harps. Besides his SMB gig, Norton performed with many others. He performed on Bonnie Raitt's "Runaway", which was her biggest hit prior to her "Nick of Time" album.


    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPzcZNgVfpA

    Youtube is down for maintenance, but I'll see if I can find another vid or two when it's back up.
  2. #2
    On the Bonnie Raitt video above, you can see the difficulty of that solo. I don't know how many different harps he uses, but I think he changes them out six times in the ~30-second solo. Bonnie was recording the song in the studio, and couldn't come up with anything there. They tried guitar, sax, nothing sounded right. They called Norton in, he tried a few things they wanted him to do, and they didn't like that either. Finally, he said, "This is what I would do if it were up to me". He did what you see in the video, and they went with that. Personally, I don't much care for that version, except for the harp part, which is notable for the juggling act if nothing else 😀


    Here's Norton with the Steve Miller Band. Paladin and I have seen the SMB twice, and Norton was his usual energetic, awesome self both times.


    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxj14ynrSKw
  3. #3
    Way too young. Damn big C takes a lot of good people way too early. 🙁
  5. #5
    You've been eating at Wendy's too much...... 😛