Customer Reviews

Super Session

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This CD shows two things, one the brilliance of Bloomfield's playing and two, just how far he had fallen as a result of his Heroin addiction. After nine hours of recording, Bloomfield and Kooper completed Bloomfield's "Albert's Shuffle", "His Holy Modal Majesty" and "Really", Howard Tate's "Stop", and Curtis Mayfield's "Man's Temptation". At the completion of these first five tunes, Bloomfield packed up his things and abruptly left the studio. Kooper wanted to complete the recording so he picked up the phone and called Stephen Stills. Still's agreed to finish the sessions. As such you get two very different sounding recordings here. The first half--Kooper and Bloomfield which contains some very nice blues and classic Bloomfield guitar. The last half features Kooper and Stills complete with jangly guitar and Buffalo Springfield like vocals. The disc is rounded out with some added bonus material featuring remix versions of "Albert's Shuffle" and "Season of the Witch" without the horns and two others. An added bonus is "Fat Grey Clound" which is a masterpiece in itself. On the other hand, while this disc has some good tunes on it the addition of Stills and absence of Bloomfield leaves the recording with a hodgepodge quality. As an alternative or in addition to this disc, check out the "Lost Concert Tapes".

A trick some out-of-work artists used back in the '60s was to team up and record a session and come up with some name for the effort, calling themselves some sort of "supergroup" in doing so. As far as that goes, this one was not much different. Chicago blues guitarist Mike Bloomfield had just left the Electric Flag and keyboardist Al Kooper had just left Blood Sweat and Tears. The little-known Kooper has been around the music scene as much as anybody has, involved in sessions or production for everybody from Bob Dylan to Lynyrd Skynyrd and Bloomfield was noted as one of the finest blues guitarists around. They knew each other as they had both worked with Dylan on "Highway 61 Revisited", and they saw an opportunity in 1968 to record together.

Unlike some of the pretenders, though, this one is the real deal. The opening cut is a pure exercise in raw blues guitar as Bloomfield goes all out in "Albert's Shuffle", aided ably by Kooper's organ, Barry Goldberg's electric piano, Harvey Brook's bass and Eddie Hoh's drums. Kooper, who is known as a master producer, decided the track needed horns, so he overdubbed them into the recording for release. On the CD, a bonus track plays the original recording of "Albert's Shuffle" without the horns. You decide which version is better; I like the horns myself.

Bloomfield continues with Howard Tate's "Stop", another instrumental that segues well with "Albert's Shuffle". The third track is a cover of Curtis Mayfield's "Man's Temptation" that sounds more like Blood Sweat & Tears than the previous two tracks with horns dominating this cut, not Bloomfield's guitar. Al Kooper is not a particularly good singer, so this track is a little weak. The record rebounds a bit with "His Holy Modal Majesty", where Kooper plays a kind of electric organ called an ondioline and a long instrumental jam is featured. Bloomfield's contribution ends with "Really", another good blues-tinged instrumental.

Bloomfield struggled with insomnia and heroin addiction and after this side was recorded (taking about nine hours); he decided he had enough and left the studio. Kooper needed someone to replace him and got ahold of a very young Stephen Stills, who up to that point had been mostly known for his work with the Buffalo Springfield. Stills added a variety of guitar styles to the original record's Side 2, with no blues to be found.

Still's first work is seen on their cover of Dylan's "It Takes A Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry", my favorite track on the album, a countryish effort. Next is their cover of Donovan Leitch's "Season of the Witch", he goes into wah-wah mode with his guitar. Like "Albert's Shuffle", Kooper added horns later; you can hear both versions as the hornless edition is a bonus track on the CD. The next track is "You Don't Love Me", where the guitar is distorted. The original record ends with the throw-in "Harvey's Tune", supposedly a bone thrown to their bassist Harvey Brooks and kind of a strange New-Age type track. You thus get a wide range of music on the original Side 2 (Stills' work and Tracks 6-9 on the CD) which may not work for some, but does highlight the talents of Kooper and the other musicians.

The four bonus tracks include the two previously mentioned without horns, "Blues for Nothing" in which Bloomfield is back in his best blues-guitar mode and the previously unreleased "Fat Grey Cloud", recorded live at the Fillmore West.

All in all, a solid, if somewhat disjointed, effort. Recommended for Kooper fans and blues fans of any kind.

This album represents the rock equivalent of a jazz "blowing session". Bloomfield and Kooper met while playing on Bob Dylan's "Highway 61 Revisited" and had both left their current bands. Bloomfield quit Electric Flag while Kooper exited Blood, Sweat & Tears. This jam session with some of their friends like Barry Goldberg, Harvey Brooks and Eddie Hoh contains some of the best playing of Bloomfield's career. The opening cut "Albert's Shuffle" illustrates the influences of blues greats like Albert King, Freddie King, B.B. King and Albert Collins on Bloomfield's style. His playing while not fast and flashy like Stevie Ray Vaughan or Johnny Winter relies on string bending, dynamics and emotion. His instrumental cover of "Stop" is catchy and it may be more than coincidence that Jimi Hendrix and Joe Walsh with the James Gang both featured versions of song in their sets after "Super Session" was released. "His Holy Modal Majesty" sort of picks up where the epic "East-West" left off during his tenure with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. It features Bloomfield's eastern influenced modal playing. "Really" is another slow burner. Much to the chagrin of Kooper, Bloomfield abruptly split the session after only half of the album was recorded due to his insomnia and heroin addiction. Kooper quickly recruited Stephen Stills from Buffalo Springfield and later CSN&Y to record the rest of the album. Stills plays fairly well especially of the long jam of Donovan's "Season of the Witch". The cover of "You Don't Love Me" later covered by the Allman Brothers Band on "At Fillmore East" is given a treatment with some phasing and flanging effects. Stills also covers Dylan's "It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry". The remastered set also features 4 bonus tracks and great sound. The extra tracks include alternate versions of "Albert's Shuffle" and "Season of the Witch" sans the sometimes obtrusive horn overdubs. Welcome additions are the unissued slow blues "Blues For Nothing" from these sessions featuring Bloomfield and an unissued live cut "Fat Grey Cloud" recorded live with Bloomfield and Kooper. It would have been interesting to hear Bloomfield's takes on the songs Stills played in his portion of the set. Ironically Bloomfield's take on "Season of the Witch" can be heard on the new vault release "Fillmore East: The Lost Concert Tapes 12/13/1968". The sixties feeling of flying by the seat of your pants pervades the session but the playing by Stills and especially Bloomfield makes the album worthwhile. Another great example of Mike Bloomfield's fluid and clean guitar style can be found on "My Labors" by Nick Gravenites much of which is recorded live in concert.

I think the real reason behind writing reviews like this lies in the hope that you will be able to convince some person(s) out there that something is missing form their life unless they get to hear this music. I don't think I can get any more eloquent on the brilliance of these musicians than any other reviewer here; the only words of praise in addition are for Harvey Brook's bass playing which is both beautiful, inventive and absolutely essential in tying together the Bloomfield and the Stills parts. It feels like they are somehow sailing along on the same river of bass, although they have very different playing styles. (Must mention too Stills' wah-wah playing at the end of "Season of the witch", the most "lyrical" use of this effect I have heard to this day).
So as you may understand, I have always loved this record (although I must say it took some spinnings back in -68 for it to grow on me). Those who love it, will know, and for those who haven't heard it, let it grow on you too, and it could be one of those pieces of music that will follow you through the years, make your hard times easier to endure and the good times even more enjoyable.

A classic. Just got it recently and it sounded as good as the 60's when I first heard it. Kooper can produce, Bloomfield can sing and play like he really has the blues (died a heroin addict overdose in SF), and Stills can play guitar and sing like he's happy - a predecessor to CSNY days to come. Someone here made that fuzzy sound, sound good. Could have been two different albums, so no complaints about some of the best lead performances by great prock/blues aetists of the 60's.

This is probably the finest recorded document of Bloomfield's guitar work and of the communal spirit among musicians of the era...a session of friends jamming together in the studio with a top class engineer to capture it all on tape- That, and Alan Tucker's excellent remastering make this the best sounding album Bloomfield ever made...which is'nt to say it's a sonic blockbuster, but it sounds very good for '68 and better than electric flag or Butterfield..you can really hear what Bloomfield is doing on guitar. Of course it doesn't hurt that his playing is amazing (as is Steven Stills'). Kooper produced and provides some fine keyboard work and competent vocals. They don't make records like this anymore...this album focused on the musical caliber of the artists and turned out to be a big seller in it's day. It's also nice to be able to hear some of these tunes as they were- without the horn overdubs. The bonus tracks more than make up for a couple of the weaker tunes from the original Lp... the live tune is a treat. Bloomfield was among the elite few, a "top five" guitarist if ever I heard one...this is clearly established within the first few notes of a solo. The spontaneous and inspired playing make this among the best albums of 1968. For more great Bloomfield check out "My Labors" and "Lost Fillmore tapes".

This is one of my favorite albums from the 60s. Hats off to Al Kooper for putting this project together. great remastering job...the sound is perfect. The two bonus tracks alone (Blues For Nothing & Fat Grey Cloud) are worth the price of the cd ,featuring some of the best playing in Bloomfield's career. Also of note are some tracks minus the horns from the original release.If you like electric blues guitar, Chicago style, Side 1 is as good as it gets. Has 3 of the best blues tunes EVER RECORDED, one jazz-rock exploration and one Mayfield cover.It took me several years of listening to other blues players to realize just how good Bloomfield is. His phrasing and tone are just unbeatable here. Stills fills in admirably on side 2, note his wah-wah workout on Season of the Witch. Rhythm section of Brooks/Hoh is fantastic. Al Kooper's B-3 Hammond work tasty as usual.

The amazing thing about this album is that it have held up over the last 38 years. This originally was planned as Bloomfield/Kooper album. However when Bloomfield was unable to show up and finish it due to drug issues, they went out and had Steven Stills fill in. It is for all intent and purpose a great blue album by three white guys that was largely unknown at the time. This was recorded three years before Stills made a name for himself at Woodstock. No I have not forgotten the Buffalo Springfield. It was also shortly after Kooper left the Blood Sweet and Tears. Bloomfield was fresh out of the shadows of Paul Butterfield and Elvin Bishops.

The album started off fast and hard with Albet Shuffle and keep up the pace for 8 more tracks, including a remix of Donavon "Season of the Witch".

There are four "Bonus"tracks that neither added or subtracted anything to the overall experience.

This album is a gem.

I can't give this album a full 5 stars, but it's close, and certainly a classic of its type. Not many artists could pull off a rather loose "jam" session and have it hold up as well as this has. It just shows how much class and talent Al Kooper has. Tough enough, but how about when Mike Bloomfield fails to show on the 2nd day of the sessions, and Al has to recruit Steve Stills at literally the last minute. All things considered, it's amazing that this album even saw the light of day, much less that it is considered a sort of classic of its type.

But let's explore that. Among jazz musicians, jam sessions are quite normal, but it's usually a bit different for rock musicians. In this case, Al was as much of a jazz afficiando as he was blues, soul and rock, so he probably relished the idea to get Bloomfield and a good rhythm section, a couple of tunes he and Mike wanted to cover, and see what would happen. They did exactly that (at least for one day) and the results are pretty impressive. There are a few miscues: The phasing on "You Don't Love Me" is very dated and gets annoying quickly.

But still, if you can overlook the quirks and the obvious holes that are inevitably going to be there, there is a great spirit to this set. Sometimes living dangerously brings out what playing it safe could never get you, and I think that's what happens here. The adventure outweighs the lack of preparation, and the results are a truly unique listening experience.

I bought the original LP in 1968, still own it, and think it holds up well to the test of time. BUT, this "24-bit remastered CD" sounds like somebody took sandpaper to the audio - All the dynamics and life of the original mix on the original LP are missing here! A quick extract of this CD and comparison to a 24-bit capture of the LP on my PC shows why! Heavy compression of about 6db (making it twice as loud for you non-techies) was applied to the final mix used for this "rematered" CD. Yes it plays LOUD, but every single dynamic has been squashed - sax wails, guitar note bending, drum rims shots! Go find somone with a copy of the LP and rip a NOT-REMASTERED CD copy of the original mix, then, and only then, may you pass judgement on the "original" - Peace!