Max Weinberg talks jazz, family and E Street Band

No, Max Weinberg did not take the bus to 82nd Street.

Instead, the future drummer of the E Street Band did take the bus from his South Orange childhood home to 50th Street, where jazz greats used to talk shop at Frank Ippolito's Professional Percussion Center.

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Weinberg's jazzy side will be explored during the Max Weinberg Quintet concert Saturday, Nov. 1, at the Axelrod Performing Arts Center in Deal.

"On any given Saturday, you'd see Philly Joe Jones, or Sonny Greer, Duke Ellington's drummer, just hanging out at the counter with a line of drum pads, and all the while, they're bull(blanking), they'd be playing on the drum pads, and I'd be watching this as a little kid," said Weinberg of his trips to midtown Manhattan. "I didn't know who they were, I only kind of knew they were really good at what they were doing on the drum pads, and they were friends with Frank Ippolito, and I admired him."

"So it was all jazz, not rock 'n' roll. Had the Beatles not happened, had I not met Bruce 10 years later, maybe I would have gone into a different direction."

Yet, in the ever expansive sound of the E Street Band, the beat will syncopate from time to time.

"I wouldn't put us up against Miles Davis' 'Bitches Brew' band, but at the time, if you listen to the influence of David Sancious and Boom Carter, there was a serious jazz thing going on there," said Weinberg of the former E Street Band pianist and drummer, respectively. "In fact, the original version of 'Jungleland,' which we learned when Roy Bittan and I joined (in 1975), the middle part was not a sax solo. It went into a jazz piano solo. It was much more like 'New York City Serenade' or one of those earlier tunes in its original form. Then it got much more rock and big."

Listen closely to the music of the E Street Band, and you'll discover all kinds of undercurrents, even on a classic like "Twist and Shout."

"The beat is the Beatles' version but the horn line, now that we have a horn section, is the Isley Brothers version, written by Bert Burns (who also wrote 'Piece of My Heart,' and 'Hang on Sloopy'). Even the guitar line is not technically 'Twist and Shout,' it's 'La Bamba,' so it's kind of mixtures of things. But when you have Bruce on the vocal of 'Twist and Shout,' it's 'Twist and Shout.' "

Rock 'n' roll is like that. It's a spirited foundation that takes varied styles on a ride. Early on, jazz drummers delivered the back beat for rock.

"The rock records we grew up on all swung," Weinberg said. "They were people like Hal Blaine, Earl Palmer and the great studio drummers of the '50 and '60s who grew up playing jazz. When I was a kid, you were just a drummer, and the repertoire that we're going to be playing on Nov. 1 is composed of stuff that I grew up with.

"I may not have gone in that direction specifically, but you had to know a little bit about playing everything, which actually is the reason I got with Bruce and the E Street Band. Rock 'n' roll was my first love, but you had to know a little jazz, you had to know a little show music — what they used to call quote, unquote, legitimate music, which is a funny expression. The first beat I learned was not a twist beat, a rock beat, but it was jazz ride-cymbal swinging beat."

The road to E Street

In 1975, Weinberg answered an ad in the Village Voice looking for a drummer, and music history changed. Mighty Max became the rock solid foundation of the E Street Band, combining an explosive ferocity with an expert touch of style and finesse. He's now a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and his jazzy side, along with a comedic flare, later became exposed during his turns on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" and "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien."

Weinberg, 63, lives in Atlantic Highlands. Last year, there were reports that he and Atlantic Highlands' municipal judge Peter Locascio intended to sue Monmouth County, claiming that previous work to remove vegetation and detritus on the Henry Hudson Trail, which is near their properties, created erosion that compromised their homes and safety. Since then, a May 2014 landslide in the area has underscored his claim, Weinberg said."Fortunately, nobody was on the trail because they would have been buried by an avalanche," said Weinberg, who cited a 1977 Rutgers University study by John Rehm on the dangers of landslides in the area. "Everybody's in favor of public access, I don't know why not, but you got a situation where it's not monitored by the controlling county authorities."

Heroes at home

Even closer to the home front, the Weinberg brood — Ali Weinberg, 27, and Jay Weinberg, 24 — are each outstanding in their fields. Jay famously manned the drum set of the E Street Band for the 2009 "Working on a Dream" tour when dad had TV commitments. He's drummed for several national bands since and has a burgeoning career as a visual artist, too.

Ali, an accordionist, actually beat Jay — and all other E Street Band offspring — into the group. She's now an ABC news digital journalist covering the State Department. In 2010, while at NBC news, she wrote of her decision at 21 to get double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery when she learned that she had the breast cancer gene.

"When Angelina Jolie made this decision and underwent this surgery (in 2013), this sort of procedure became known as the Angelina Jolie operation," Weinberg said. "So people started researching this and Ali's name, my daughter's name, kept coming up because she had written about it so much.

"She felt very strongly about the issue then and she continues to, so she did quite a bit of media work telling her experience, which is an incredibly courageous thing to face."

The home fires are strong.

"I give all the credit in the world to their mom (Rebecca Weinberg) because I was working all the time, going on the road with Bruce and playing the TV shows," Weinberg said.

Jazzing up the Jersey Shore

In Deal, David Kikoski on piano, Cameron Brown on bass, John Bailey on trumpet and David Mann, saxophone, will accompany Weinberg, who also will engage the audience in a talk about his career and influences, and hold a question and answer session, too.

The evening will benefit the Axelrod's programming, senior ticket pricing and youth programming. "It's a fantastic place to play," said Weinberg of the Axelrod. "It's a state-of-the-art theater and probably the best kept secret in Monmouth County. They do a fantastic job of programming there. And one of the things I find cool is they not only present people but they actually produce all this stuff."

Now, get set for something a little different.

"All jazz players like to have a drummer play all night so they can solo and that basically is what goes on here," Weinberg said. "I got some of the greatest musicians in modern jazz playing with me, and I give them huge credit — these guys are amazing, the four of them. I'm lucky to have them playing with me."

Chris Jordan: 732-643- 4060; cjordan@app.com

The Max Weinberg Quintet

WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 1

WHERE: Axelrod Performing Arts Center, 100 Grant Ave.,

Deal Park section of Ocean Township

INFO: $30 to $100 ($100 tickets includes VIP seating, a dessert reception and autographs); wwww.axelrodartscenter.com.