Tag Archives: Fillmore West

Michael Bloomfield Documentary Film Project

Posted on by Musicofourheart

One of the aspects about Facebook that I relish are the connections we make with the passions we enjoy. I was recently asked to “Like” the Michael Bloomfield Documentary Film Project Facebook Page. I loved the invitation and what I have learned about Michael Bloomfield’s legacy ever since ;)

I am thankful that Bob Sarles and the team at Ravin’ Films are focused on delivering this very important documentary. They have produced some of my most favorite music videos that I have in my music library.  The film will be available later this year as a DVD in the Mike Bloomfield box set being produced by Al Kooper for Legacy Recordings, a division of Sony Music.

Micheal Bloomfield was an exceptional blues cat. I play Super Session just so Michael Bloomfield can happily sting me with his guitar lead on “Albert Shuffle” as well as the other tracks he plays on. The Super Session recording may be 45 years old but it’s truly alive every time I spin it.

When I read the documentary description it gets my juices flowing. B.B. King felt Michael Bloomfield was like a son to him. I can only imagine the reciprocal feelings from Michael. Michael Bloomfield convinced Bill Graham to book B.B. King at the Fillmore West and it became the cross the chasm for the King of the Blues.

Documentary Description

A biographical documentary about the life and music of the late, great blues guitarist Michael Bloomfield. This film features never before seen on camera interviews with artists including Carlos Santana, BB King, Charlie Musselwhite, Elvin Bishop, Bob Weir, Al Kooper, John Hammond, Barry Goldberg, Sam Lay, Yank Rachel, Mark Naftalin, Nick Gravenites music promoters Bill Graham and Chet Helms and many others.

If you want to know more about Michael Bloomfield I urge you to get a copy of the book, Michael Bloomfield, If You Love These Blues, An Oral History by Jan Mark Wolkin and Bill Keenom. I’ve read it twice. It is an extended series of interviews with family, friends and colleagues. It forms the basis of the documentary.

About these ads

Fillmore East Poster and Handbill Art

Posted on by Musicofourheart

Bill Graham had east coast poster artists who he commissioned to design posters and handbills for The Fillmore East concerts. The most notable poster artists were Helen Hersh and David Byrd.

 

The poster and handbill for the  first concert at The Fillmore East, March 8, 1968, Big Brother with Janis Joplin, Tim Buckley and Albert King.

Helen Hersh

David Byrd

I was living on a multi-media commune outside Manhattan when several of my schoolmates from Carnegie-Mellon were opening the Fillmore East at the old 2nd Avenue Theatre in the East Village with Bill Graham from San Francisco. Manager Kip Cohen called to say they needed a poster artist and they all thought to call me, as I was the one visual artist amongst a group of theater graduates. At the time I was interested in crystal matrices and used a hex grid to create the hair as a mass of psychedelic photons in orange, yellow-green, magenta and black. Unlike the San Francisco Fillmore, we did not do a poster every week, but only for major stars like Hendrix. Film positive painted from behind in acrylic.

Super Session – Mike Bloomfield, Al Kooper, Steve Stills, Daily Post 2011 #2

Posted on by Musicofourheart
Super Session

Image via Wikipedia

It was my last day of public school, June 1969, I was hanging out in the gymnasium, loving the freedom before me yet dealing with the ambiguity of where was my life going?  I really had a case of the blues. All around me various members of my senior class were putting up the decorations for our senior prom, which we were attending the following night.

In the middle of the gym floor was a record player, I walked over with my copy of Super Session, placed it on the platter, dropped the needle and shuffled back over to the bleachers to sit and listen. The sound of Mike Bloomfield‘s guitar and Al Kooper‘s organ filled the gym with the stinging sound of “Albert’s Shuffle” which filled my void masterfully. My angst about the future slipped away as the intensity of the music appeased my concerns. It was then I knew that music would carry me through the next phase of my existence.

Ratchet ahead 41 years to when I purchase the remastered edition of  Super Session. What a tour de force to hear a cleaner, enhanced edition of this historic work. It all comes flooding back in waves of sound that envelops the listener and finds me at another major fork in the road.

Al Kooper had left Blood, Sweat and Tears, after making a monumental recording with them Child is the Father to the Man (Al Kooper signed this album for me a few years back at Stage One in Fairfield!).

Mike Bloomfield had just left The Electric Flag. Another recording that helped define the music of the 60s in terms of Texas blues mixed with R&B. Mike brought with him to the Super Session recording session two ex-Flag band mates Harvey Brooks on bass and Barry Goldberg on electric piano (Barry contributed to tracks 1 & 2).

The Super Session recording was rounded out admirably by “Fast” Eddie Hoh on drums and Steve Stills on guitar who filled in for Mike Bloomfield who left after one day’s recording to deal with his insomnia. Steve Stills was in the process of leaving Buffalo Springfield and he turned out to be the perfect complement to completing Super Session. It ended up fitting that Super Session would usher in the era of the super groups, representing a transitional portal for Kooper, Bloomfield and Stills in their respective careers.

Al Kooper in the liner notes states about Super Session, “…amazingly found itself timeless….making this one of the most rewarding projects I have ever worked on.”

Super Session Tracks

Al Kooper/Mike Bloomfield Side

1. Albert’s Shuffle

2. Stop

3. Man’s Temptation

4. His Holy Modal Majesty

5. Really

Al Kooper/Steve Stills Side

6. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, IT Takes A Train To Cry

7. Season of the Witch

8. You Don’t Love Me

9. Harvey’s Tune

Bonus Tracks

10. Albert’s Shuffle – without horns

I like the edginess of this song without the horns, but I can perfectly understand why Al Kooper had arranger Joe Scott add them.

11. Season of the Witch – without horns

The sound of this recording without the horns is echo ridden and almost hollow at points (dynamically impaired Al Kooper called this, rightfully so).

12. Blues for Nothing – outtake with Mike Bloomfield

13. Fat Grey Cloud (Live), (Previously Unreleased) – Recorded 1968 at the Fillmore West (probably from The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper sessions)

There were two live recordings of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper that took place, the first was at the Fillmore West in San Francisco, September 26-28th 1968, featuring the first live recording of Carlos Santana released when he was 22 years old* This live performance also stars Elvin Bishop. It was released by Columbia Records in 1969.

Then later in the year at the Fillmore East in New York City they recorded, Fillmore East: Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield. The Lost Concert Tapes 12/13/68 (featuring Johnny Winter)

* Carlos Santana was recorded in 1967 on Santana Live at the Fillmore in 1967 but it was not released commercially until January 1, 1997