Customer Reviews

Live Adventures Of Michael Bloomfield & Al Kooper

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Great music, every track is great, but I want more. Two demerits to Columbia for not remastering this masterpiece and adding the full recording of I Wonder Who and other improvements. All they did on the CD transfer was copy the LP to CD! And, for 3 full nights of playing, this is a pathetic offering, a total of only 85 minutes of music on 2 CDs. Boooo!

I simply love this music, Super Session is amazing, and this is just as good. Its bluesy, it's jazzy at times, and its just great jamming. Just something about this music is just inspiring. Every song is good. The first disc is definitely stronger than the second disk, even though there is some really great jamming on the second disk. I just find its easier to get into the first one, as a lot of the songs are classic covers (Feelin' Groovy, The Weight, Green Onions). Her Holy Modal Highness is a great sort of sped-up version of the like song on Super Session, with a great bass solo. The rest is history.

I docked this one a star a) because, considering Columbia Legacy's remarkable record of unearthing completion in resurrecting its past masterworks, this set from these performers certainly deserved it, considering the reputation the Bloomfield/Kooper "Super Session" concerts had garnered; and, b) because they STILL didn't repair the premature fadeaway of "I Wonder Who," which drops down and out of earshot right in the middle of one of Mike Bloomfield's most soulful solos of the set. But you still have to love both the shimmering highs and the chutzpah which ran through the set - and chutzpah is what you need to make an instrumental version of "The Weight" which comes across as Booker T. and the M.G.s meet the T-Bones. Not to mention, speaking of Booker T. and the M.G.s, a version of "Green Onions" which comes as close as either Bloomfield or Kooper would ever come to heavy metal without cutting the lyric guts from the blues which nourished the two - with special kudos to drummer Skip Prokop, whose wide-and-deep skin tuning and attack all but beat Carmine Appice at his own game (not that THAT was all too difficult) while cutting a very weighty groove. On the other hand, "Mary Ann" is a textbook exercise in blues without slash-and-burn - Bloomfield more or less sneaks his lines out of his guitar, even when the quartet kicks up a hot boogie midway through and in the finale, with some exquisite tonal shifting; Kooper punches out his accompaniment as though a sharp soul rhythm guitarist; Prokop and bassist John Kahn kind of urge the two along with subtle rolling rhythms. And guest Elvin Bishop (on "No More Lonely Nights", on a night when Bloomfield's insomnia had got the better of him at last) fights an exquisite battle with Kooper to keep the blues groove flowing despite the deadline, not to mention turning in one of his loveliest and most gripping guitar turns. So when can we expect the complete Bloomfield/Kooper "Live Adventures" at last, like with the full turns of Steve Miller, Carlos Santana, and Bishop?

Since the release of this album (when I was 16 years old) I have had and lost 4 copies of the LP (all stolen at parties or otherwise perloined!).
I now have the CD and this time NO-ONE even gets to touch it!

Live Adventures is probably the very best live album of it's genre ever recorded. Bloomfield, Cooper, Bishop and the rest display an almost phsycic link in the live sessions which gives the music a flow and dynamic rarely heard in the history of live music, especially considering the alleged amount of practice prior to the event.
Having heard most of Bloomfield & Coopers work since I have to say this is a defining moment in Live Music.
This album is a must for anyone with a Blues/Jazz/ liking.
Anyone who is not transfixed by tracks like "No More Lonely Nights" & "Don't Throw Your Love On Me So Strong" should be arrested immediately by the taste police!
Buy It!

From the first time I listened this album in those vinyl days, I had the presentiment we were in front a towering album. One of those successful accidents far from being planned, and conceived simply as a happy musical encounter supported by two outstanding musicians of the height of Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield.

Those inspired performers were giving the best of themselves playing what to my mind constituted the best Blues Album ever written in the last sixties and one of the most remarkable in any age. In those ages, San Francisco was a true energy explosion in constant innovation and creative frenzy, one jump ahead any other city in which Rhythm and Blues concerns.

This version of The weight is one of the standards that has nothing to envy to The Band 's Original performance. It so great the transcendence of this golden piece that by itself constituted in a holy hymn of an untamed generation and a real evidence about the creativity and musical talent that surrounded us. Notice this song (in other version) was part of the Soundtrack of Easy Rider (a mere casualty perhaps?).

Mary Ann is a groovy theme. But if you asked me about the best track I should say: Dear Mr. Fantasy. But I must insist : there is no minor track. Each them possesses its own charm; those songs were the final result of the sum of the genius, no more nor less

This is an immortal album, that will endure as a true sonorous gem, a real example of what the musical happenings meant in the "hippie era" , with the fabulous organ solos of Kooper, in search of have a good time and get some fun through the music that shook the world.

Those enraptured sessions at Bill Graham's Filmore Auditorium, San Francisco, September 26, 27, 28 1968 a fundamental chapter of the musical history was being played.

Absolutely recommended.

Bought this album when it came out and was blown away by it...epecially "That's Allright Mama" and "Green Onions". I was seventeen. I thoght it was good but I also thight that there would be better music of this level to come as I got older. It's been nearly 40 years since and there hasn't...too bad!

True, there's some really loose playing on this two disc set. Any musician knows, you'll get a lot of that when you're just jamming. But this is an important document because it presents us with Bloomfield when his influential electric blues playing was perhaps at it's peak.

His exquisite microtonal bends on the first half of "Mary Ann" are a testament to his devotion to the pure and sweet playing of B.B. King. And then BANG! His last full chorus (4:44) is monstrous. By the sixth bar (4:54), he's just stabbing his Les Paul. The notes rip out and get you in the back of the neck like an ice pick. He's stinging, singing and most of all swinging. You MUST play this loud for full effect.

The rock/blues genre has long been filled with players who, for better or worse, use gunslinger speed to "wow" the average listener. And it's for this reason that one of the boldest things a guitarist can do is try to let only one or two notes express gut level passion. Check out Bloomfield's wailing on "Don't Throw Your Love On Me So Strong." It's so fat and so REAL -- and light years beyond the thinner stuff he did with a Telecaster just a few years before with Paul Butterfield.

One of the nice things about this session is the players' own enthusiasm. At (2:17) during "That's All Right", Bloomfield calls out to the other musicians, "Stay there! Stay there!" He's not ready to finish the song. Then he playfully teases the crowd for another chorus, alternating his guitar licks with the question, "Is that all right?"

Yes, Mike, it is.

Before I bought this disc, I used to wonder just why Mike Bloomfield is cited by so many contemporary guitar players as a huge influence (see Robben Ford). Now, I know. While the group playing on the disc can be ragged at times, Mike makes it all worthwhile with his chops and his TONE.

So yes, you'll have to sift through some loose playing to get at the gems, but they're definitely in there. And, though I love the playing here, I do have to say I'm disgusted by some of the editing on the CD. Al Kooper put an terribly bad fade out on "I Wonder Who" -- right in the middle of a Bloomfield solo! What was he thinking? Was this because of the restrictions of the original release's album format? Maybe it's time to revisit those tapes and restore the integrity of the perfomance for CD.

I like this album; got it when it came out, just like I got the Butterfield albums with Michael when they came out. Same with Electric Flag and Blues Project and Super Session. I'm a fan, especially a big fan of Michael's. But come on! Greatest album ever? Greatest live album ever? To my ears, old and tired as they may be, but ears that have been listening to these guys as well as Harvey Mandel, Charlie Musselwhite, the Heat, Muddy, Wolf and all the rest for all these years, I always thought and still do that this album was a clear step down from Super Session and Butter and the Flag, at least for Michael's sake. Kooper is much more consistent than Bloomer but to my ears Michael sounds pretty tired here, lacking the energy of his best playing. My favorite here is probably Don't Throw Your Love...; sounds like he's breaking down at that one point where there's a pause in the playing as he shakes that note. I'd have to put this album behind the live Allman Brothers for tightness, excitement, quality of solos, sound quality, so I'd at least put that album ahead of this one for this genre.

I still don't own this one yet because I keep hoping they will redo it with some bonus material and I don't want to buy it twice. In the meantime I got that other live one that came out a few years ago that included Johnny Winter, another hero of mine, on one track. I don't see how so many of you guys can put the playing here on the same plane with Shake Your Moneymaker and Two Trains Running or I Got A Mind To Give Up Living (as examples) from the Butterfield albums.

Just trying to throw a little perspective into this group of reviews without slamming it like the one 2-star guy does.

Fyi, for you who like this or Allman Bros at the Fillmore, try the live Allmans from a few years ago, One Way Out, with Derek Trucks and Warren Haynes on leads. Derek Trucks has as a tone as sweet as Duane's and that is one band that can smoke as well as they ever did. Not trying to overshadow Live Adventures, but you people are here because you love great Blues Rock and so many of us are stuck in the early 70s when we look for albums. When I came across One Way Out, I wanted to spread the word, but most people my age, 62, have given up listening to music with the intensity and interest that they did way back when.

Recorded over three nights in 1968, this is one of those great rock 'n' roll jam albums. The relationship between Kooper and Bloomfield is intuitive and symbiotic- the two of them know how to share a song, playing with and off of one another with finesse and warmth. It's wonderful to hear them tossing ideas back and forth- one of the album's coolest moments occurs during a cover of "Dear Mr. Fantasy," when, during the instrumental break, Kooper plays a quote from "Hey Jude," and Bloomfield echoes it during his solo. It's a pretty good indicator of the loose, playful feel that permeates this album. Of course, it doesn't hurt that these are two of the best players in the business, capable of melding blues and jazz into an expertly crafted rock 'n' roll framework. They also know how to jam, settling into loose grooves and letting loose with the best that they got. As a result, we get to hear Bloomfield's stinging lead guitar erupting beautifully over Kooper's lush organ constructions. It's not exactly earth-shattering, but it's still a wonderful listen. Perhaps it does occasionally slip into overindulgence (such as on the cover of Sonny Boy Williamson's "No More Lonely Nights," which features guitarist Elvin Bishop substituting for a temporarily absent Bloomfield. He isn't bad, but the song ambles its way past the twelve-minute mark without much in the way of innovative or inspiring playing. Still, it's got some great eruptions from Kooper), and it does start to lose a bit of energy towards the end, but it's still a great listen for any fan of blues or jam oriented rock.

super session was one of the mainstays of my late-60's record collection - the days when all we needed instead of viagra was a decent stereo, some combustible leaves and the music. kooper and bloomfield, paul butterfield, clapton, alvin lee, phill simmonds et.al....where do we find talent like this in today's music world, or have i just gotten too old to look?
this cd of live performances by al and mike brings a lot of the memories back...including the limitations of the recording equipment used to bring us the great live jam sessions that were integral to the times. the only reason to give this cd 4 stars is because of the faithful reproduction of the hiss...something that now annoys my middle-aged sensibilities!
as for the music....i have not had too much opportunity to listen, as my 17 year old son has monopolised the cd since i received it last week....albeit to say that 5 stars is not enough to describe my reaction to the music when i heard it again after nearly 30 years!