Customer Reviews

Strawberry Jam - Live 1966-68

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

 

 

Listen..Audio eminations are magical wonderful things. They exist in time and space, reflections of events and creativity that are gone forever, that we can never again retrieve - UNLESS - someone takes the initiative, no matter how sophisticated or unsophisticated the product, to capture that audio or photographic event (reflection) and save it in a time capsule to share with the rest of us. And what is that worth, in dollars in cents? A heck of a lot more than some ill conceived studio production with millions of bucks behind it, in my opinion. This CD, Strawberry Jam, represents to me, a beautiful snapshot of the Butterfield Band in their prime, when no one else was bothering to record the band onstage and make a slick product for us to review years later. Sometimes when a person dies, or an animal that you're attached to leaves the planet, and all you have left of the loved one is a snapshot, you wouldn't trade that little picture for all the money in the world. For those of us who love this band and the amazing music they made, we'll take the "boom box in an echo chamber" and embrace the resultant product, because it's fascinating to us. And by the way, that description doesn't paint an honest picture of the sound quality on this recording. It's rough, but that's because we're used to listening to very high quality productions made with huge budgets. If you need everything you buy to be audiophile quality, this CD is definitely not going to be your cup of tea. But if you live in the real world where everything doesn't come straight from a two inch master at Doitch freakin' Grammophone, and you love to hear Paul, Michael, Elvin, Mark, Jerome and Billy making history, you'd better get this one.

One more thing. In an age where we're all so sensitive to artists getting ripped off via bootlegs, I happen to know that every effort was made by the producer of this recording to insure that all the artists got a piece of the pie. Just one more reason why this CD is a class act, and worthy of your interest.

I thought I would weigh in on the contraversy of the very high and very low ratings of this recordings. Those expecting audiophile recording quality, better take a pass. However, for those of us who like The Butterfield Blues band, this recording contains some great performances. Mike's solo on Born in Chicago is one of his best - thw whole band is really cooking. Paul shines through all the cuts, with some of his best harp and vocals. Both Bishop and Naftalin have some very tasty solos scattered throughout the disk. The fact is that the recording is rough, but it is very listenable for those who are interested (I have heard worse). If this is your introduction to the Butterfield Band, chose another disk!!!!!!!! But if you want to know how they actually sounded live - this is pretty fun stuff.

I followed the history of the Butterfield Blues Band from the 60's. This is a wonderful treat. Forget the production, this is history in the making. Paul always had superb musicians and a blues band that was second to none. With musicians like Paul, Mike Bloomfield, Elvin Bishop, Mark Naftlin, Sam Lay, Jerome Arnold, Dave Sanborn, Gene Dinwiddie and countless others how could this cookin' band ever miss. Paul was also one of the best blues harp players to ever emerge if not the best. Strawberry Jam is a true gem and I would strongly advise every lover of great blues and music in general to pick this one up.

certainly this isn't a remastered record or a jam season meant to be recorded, but still for those who are fans of paul butterfield in his diferent stages during his career are going to most likely apretiate this record. It sounds rough indeed but every track it's great. If you really liked the first three albums, this is a live performance with songs of the same fashion and with the same punch. Myself I'm an harmonica player too and Butterfield it's one of my main inspirations, so every new album that comes available it's highly apretiated wheter it's the last Butterfield records (in his 80's disco fashion; only for Butterfield hardcore fans I must say) or with this live performances. There are, by the way, some others live performances in vinyl only (probably will be CDs soon) like the ones at the Unicorn Coffee House and on the Troubadour club from 1970-1, wich have somewhat the same quality in terms of sound, and the same amazing quality in terms of the music provided.
What else can I say, if your aren't worried with everything been remastered and top notch sound, it'll be a great adition to your blues collection.

Butterfield , Bloomfield, Bishop et al were a truly innovative blues band. Unfortunately, the sound is so poor that I consider this cd a rip-off. Buy East-West instead...

It's difficult to rate the music on this release, because the sound is flat-out unacceptible for its medium. Proof that a CD is only good as its source, and in this case, the source is the equivalent of a worn-out boom box in an echo chamber.

Otherwise, for releases this unlistenable in sound quality, they should be priced as such.