Mike Bloomfield, Al Kooper, Steve Stills SUPER SESSION - MFSL 1-178, 1984
£
46
$
61
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Description
Mike Bloomfield, Al Kooper, Steve Stills SUPER SESSION DECCA MFSL 1-178 1984
This is a Limited Edition White Label that has been Half Speed Mastered by Original Masteringworks. Specially plated and pressed on HD Vinyl.
Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield had worked together on the sessions for Bob Dylan's ground-breaking classic Highway 61 Revisited, and played in the backing band for his controversial performance with electric instruments at the Newport Folk Festival in July 1965. Kooper had recently left Blood, Sweat & Tears after they recorded their debut album, and was now working as an A&R man for Columbia Records. Bloomfield was about to leave the Electric Flag, and at a loose end. Kooper telephoned Bloomfield to see if he was free to come down to the studio and jam; Bloomfield agreed, leaving Kooper to handle the arrangements.
Kooper booked two days of studio time at CBS Columbia Square in Los Angeles in May 1968, and recruited keyboardist Barry Goldberg and bassist Harvey Brooks, both members of the Electric Flag, along with well-known session drummer "Fast" Eddie Hoh. On the first day, the quintet recorded a group of mostly blues-based instrumental tracks. It included the modal excursion "His Holy Modal Majesty", which was a tribute to modal jazz musician John Coltrane, who had died the previous year, and was also reminiscent of "East-West" from the second Butterfield Blues Band album. On the second day, with the tapes ready to roll, Bloomfield returned to his home in Mill Valley in the San Francisco Bay Area, saying he had been unable to sleep.
Needing to have something to show for the second day of booked studio time, Kooper hastily called upon Stephen Stills, who was in the process of leaving his band, Buffalo Springfield, to replace Bloomfield. Regrouping behind Stills, Kooper's session men cut mostly vocal tracks, including "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" from Highway 61 and a lengthy and atmospheric take of "Season of the Witch" by Donovan. Although Harvey Brooks's closing "Harvey's Tune" includes overdubbed horns added in New York City while the album was being mixed, the album only cost $13,000 to complete.
The success of the album opened the door for the "supergroup" concept of the late 1960s and 1970s, as exemplified by the likes of Blind Faith and Crosby, Stills & Nash. Despite the fact that Bloomfield left the recording session after the first day, he and Kooper made several concert appearances after the album was released. The results of one of those became the album The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper.
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