Customer Reviews

The Blues Project Anthology

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I first heard the Blues Project about ten years ago. While intrigued by their unique, very-60s, psychedelic meets jazz-blues sound, I was always a bit put-off by the horrible recording quality. Well, rest assured that 'they finally got it right'. On ANTHOLOGY, we finally get to hear the Blues Project as they were meant to be heard. The first disc, primarily of outtakes and tracks from the Live at the Au Go Go set are fresh and rocking. You can actually HEAR the bass and bass drum, and the stereo image is much more 'in the club' feeling..Occasionally, the vocals are kinda buried, but hey, this was 1965! As far as disc 2, the PROJECTIONS tracks will astound you. Granted, certain tracks are stilled marred by some VERY bad recording & distortion from way back when (primarily the first track) but Steve's Song, Flute Thing and especially Two Trains Running sound fresh and allow you to experience a whole new level of stereo separation that was NEVER there before. A true gem, and a VERY welcomed remastered collection...IT'S ABOUT TIME!

`The Blues Project Anthology' gives us a virtually complete picture of the best work of that very seminal band, `The Blues Project' which flourished for but two years in the very heart of the sixtys, that cauldron in which virtually every new strand of popular music, especially every strand of Rock was born and brought to a rapid maturity.

The group, `The Blues Project' was formed by Danny Kalb and named after a famous Elektra vinyl album done in 1964 of `A Compendium of the Very Best on the Urban Blues Scene'. On this album, Kalb appears with Dave Van Ronk, John Koerner, Geoff Muldaur, Dave Ray, Ian Buchanan, Mark Spoelstra, and Eric Von Schmidt, most of whom were `household names' among budding hippy homes.

The tie between this album and the very name of the group itself gives a very misleading impression of the group's music. Of the thirty-six tracks on the two CD's in this album, a minority are what one can properly call blues. On the other hand, the band did perform a very similar function to the `John Mayall Bluesbreakers' in England, where this band itself never made a big impression, yet a whole pantheon of great future rock performers performed under Mayall's wing for some time. Similarly, `The Blues Project' was the spawning ground for Al Kooper, Roy Blumenfeld, Tommy Flanders, and Steve Katz. While none of these may raise an eyebrow today, in the 1960s and the early 1970s, most of these performers had great cachet, especially Kooper who went on to do `Super Session' albums and form the original `Blood, Sweat, and Tears'.

Musically, `The Blues Project' seems to have a lot more in common musically with contemporaries `Buffalo Springfield', `The Byrds', and `The Velvet Underground' than they do to the leading American blues performer of the time, the `Paul Butterfield Band' or the new English Import, `Cream' with blues guitarist extraordinaire, Eric Clapton.

The value of this album exceeds its inherent musical qualities, even though those qualities are not to be taken lightly. The performers and the pieces form an important node in the path of American popular music, especially for the numbers written by Kooper, such as `I Can't Keep From Crying Sometimes' have graduated to the rock legend locker.

For anyone reading this review who do not know `The Blues Project', but are interested in music of the 1960s, I suggest you turn in half your early Beach Boys albums for this one. (I take that back about the Beach Boys).

Highly recommended.

They're generally considered a few pegs below the likes of the Butterfield Blues Band and John Mayall's Blues Breakers for helping to kick start the 1960s blues revival. But the Blues Project (they took the name of an earlier Elektra sampler on which three had played) at their best had their own substance and ethic. "Live at Cafe Au Go Go" was the best of their original albums; "Projections" the best of their studio work. ("Planned Obsolescence," billed as the fourth Blues Project album, was actually the test flight of what became Seatrain - bassist/flutist Andy Kulberg had assembled a new band to fill out their Verve Forecast contract and threw forth a new style, a hybrid of folk, rock, and jazz completely distinct from the Project's style. For that matter, Seatrain themselves deserve a hearing today.) Though plagued by musical indecision and personality conflicts in the end, at their best the Blues Project - particularly guitarist Danny Kalb, keyboard ace Al Kooper, and Kulberg - lived up to their legend. And for the most part you get their best here, though "Live at Cafe Au Go Go" deserves a complete, remastered reissue.

The Blues Project was a joyful spike in sixties rock. They were raw and energetic and had their flashes of brilliance. Their covers of the blues standards do not hold up as well in comparison to parallel covers by Cream and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Nevertheless, the Blues Project were accomplished musicians who made discoveries when they were on stage trading off one another. Some of that breaks through on Disc One. The jams featuring the cutting high registers of Paul Kalb's lead guitar and the gargantuan tube-type organ licks of Al Kooper seem as fresh today as they did back then. However, my favorite is Disc Two: The box set is worth the price for its perfect reproduction of the Projections album, a jewel that will have your friends asking "Wow, who is this?"

This is as strong a box set of 60's jazz/blues/psych as you can come across. These guys are out of NYC and can play the pants off of their instruments. Al Kooper, Danny Kalb, Roy Blumenfeld and Andy Kulberg were very creative and inventive instrumentalist's and composers. I very strongly recommend this set for all music lovers. A wonderful representation of mid/late 60's blues/jazz/psych fusion from one of the very best. This is a must for all collectors.

I was fortunate enough to hear the band perform several times both in New York and Philadelphia. I was very pleased with the audio quality, the presentation was nice. Most important to me is it is an accurate testament to a group I loved. This gives me the essentials I wanted without spending an absurd price.

I don't want to sound like some fossil from the 60's, but this sounds much better on vinyl. Remastering this stuff is such an injustice to the band, and I did have some reservations when I bought it. Rather that the live songs sounding live, they sound tinny, as appealing as scissors on aluminum foil. I loved these guys, and if this was my introduction to them, I'd ask for a refund.
For anyone who wants to hear a good recording with Al Kooper, get "Child is the Father to the Man", the original Blood, Sweat and Tears (not the David Clayton-Thomas subsequent incarnation). Not being a live performance, the remastering of this recording is less intrusive.

Brilliant double cd all of their songs and album tracks.Psych jazz and blues at its finest a must buy.

The Blues Project was one of the most influential groups of their time, brief though it was. Upon seeing them in San Francisco, Grace Slick, then with the Great Society, was amazed at how professional and accomplished they were, in contrast to to the nascent psychedelic music scene then developing. They brought the various strains of blues, folk, jazz and r&B together, which was a powerful eclectic approach for the year 1966.

The band is 5 stars, this collection while very good is not the best possible representation of the group. They left off some of the Cafe AuGo Go tracks( they did use alternative versions) and the live tracks from Town Hall, like Electric Flute Thing, and included some later material that is far from the bands best. Overall, it is the best collection currently available, has all of the monumental Projections album, improved sound on many of the songs from their first cd issues and a nice booklet/history of the band. The tragedy of the Blues Project is that they could not benefit from the pioneering music they had made or their influence on the music scene, as their classic lineup broke apart before the Monterey Pop Festival, and they missed the opportunity to become as well known as they deserved.

I remember The Blues Project when they gave free outdoor concerts in Washington Square Park in The Village. I was a huge Blues Project fan. They were New York City's hippie music, along with The Lovin' Spoonful. You might think of them as NY's answer to Jefferson Airplane and The Doors in Cali.

Projections was one of my favorite albums. Wake Me Shake Me and I Can't Keep From Crying are, in retrospect 35 years later, just as great as I thought they were back then.

I was disappointed in the earlier material on this box set. I can see why it didn't become popular. The whole first cd is pretty lame.