George Maurer ’88 Performs With Eric Clapton and Buddy Holly’s Crickets on the Sunset Strip

Now George Maurer ’88 knows why it was a good idea growing up worshipping jazz piano players instead of rock n’ roll guitar players -- he otherwise would have freaked out when he was asked to perform with Eric Clapton and Buddy Holly’s band, the Crickets, for an All-Star gala event at the legendary House of Blues in Los Angeles this past August.

"To me, that would have been like being asked to sit in on a gig with Wynton Marsalis ," Maurer laughed, "and me asking if it was alright that they throw Sting in for the heckof it," he joked. "I had a grin on my face from ear to ear all night long."

It turns out that the House of Blues event was star-studded from beginning to end. With the Crickets and Maurer backing the entire night, such luminaries as Eric Clapton, Nanci Griffith, Vince Neil from Motley Crue, country artists Albert Lea, Johnny Rivers, Jason Everly, J.D. Souther, Bobby Keys from the Rolling Stones on sax and Central Minnesota’s own rock legend Bobby Vee took the stage before a packed house to put "a History Class in session on the Sunset Strip --and the Crickets, one of the architects of rock-n-roll, gave a music lesson that a lot of people obviously learned." (Reuters, Aug. 6, 2004)

As to how the Crickets came to offer the gig to him, Maurer was just in the right place, and said "yes" at the right moment. For the past year, Maurer has split his time between his own jazz group, the George Maurer Group and traveling the U.S., Canada and the U.K. with Top Ten classic rock artist (and Collegeville-based) Bobby Vee. "We were in Des Moines last Valentine's Day splitting an evening on stage with the Crickets, and they showed up a little bummed because their piano player (Elvis’ former piano player, Glen Harding) couldn’t make the gig," Maurer explained. "So they asked me to sit in!"

The night proved to be a thrill for Maurer, especially finding out that the majority of Holly’s hits had been penned by the three original band members, guitarist-vocalist Sonny Curtis, drummer J.I. Allison and Joe B. Mauldin on upright bass. From "That’ll Be The Day" to "Peggy Sue" and more, the band called off keys to Maurer as the gig progressed. "It was my job to just keep up with them," he laughed. And he did.

Fate would have it that the Cricket’s piano player couldn’t make the gig at the House of Blues either, and Maurer, who was already in L.A. on a composing project, set everything aside to chart and then memorize the material from Buddy’s buddies in less than a week. "It turns out that they ended up needing some of my charts to follow during rehearsal," said Maurer. Especially when it came to Clapton, who Maurer was surprised to find out didn’t read music. So Maurer gathered the band members around and called off chords, lyrics and the structure of the song to the band. "I had Sonny on my right, Albert Lea on my left and swaying back and forth in front of me in his Adidas and guitar was Eric Clapton, singing and playing the most evocative phrases," Maurer described. "In a weird sort of way, I just felt like it was an everyday sort of thing I would do with the George Maurer Jazz Group at one of our rehearsals," he added "and that sums up how comfortable the whole evening ended up being. It was a group effort." When Clapton took the stage later that evening, the crowd gave its appreciation in a great roar. And Clapton threw Maurer his only piano solo of the otherwise rock-guitar-dominated evening.

"I have to hand it to Bobby Vee and the Vees for asking me to join them this past year," Maurer said. "Being able to see parts of the world I haven’t yet seen, being on stages with the likes of these guys and other legendary rockers like Dick Clark, and being able to interpret the music that formed the early roots of rock -- that’s like being handed a history lesson while at the helm of a piano. You get to interpret and recreate, entertain and celebrate, all on an instrument you love."

The only drawback to not playing guitar, Maurer added in retrospect, "is that I couldn’t ask Clapton for a quick lesson afterwards!"