Customer Reviews

Triumvirate

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

 

 

You know the saying. So when you get a New Orleans/piano legend, a delta blues revivalist, and the leading white American blues guitarist of his today together you would expect a dynamite jam session. What this album feels more like though is that everyone waited back for the "magic" to happen. And it never did. There isn't much here to celebrate. That's not to say it's bad. It just doesn't live up to expectations.

For someone who bought this to hear Bloomfield's guitar it's too far back in the mix and there's too little of it. I also like Dr. John but there isn't enough of his New Orleans funk here either. It's just sort of 'eh'. At the same time if a young blues/r&b outfit put this out today we'd probably talk about the promise they displayed and admire their restraint. It just doesn't do the individual artists justice. The liner notes, once you've got the CD, give you a warning as they cover the failed first attempt for these guys to find some chemistry in playing together. Not terrible, just unremarkable.

The year was 1973, an era when super groups were the vogue a la Blind Faith. The idea was to take a piano player whose style was New Orleans Cajun- Dr. John, a guitar icon with roots in Chicago Blues - Mike Bloomfield and a vocalist who reverently performed delta blues classics - John Hammond. It could have worked and made a huge impact on the music of the day and brought more people to the way of the blues - it didn't. Instead it was a blip in all of these great musicians careers - few people took note of it then or now.

While none of the artists on the album seem to be spotlighted to show the degree of talent that they possessed, it is an interesting cd with some good numbers on it. Such numbers as Cha dooky-doo and I yi yi seem silly and dated - others as Sho Bout to Drive me Wild, It Hurts Me Too and Rock Me Baby are noteworthy and a good listen.

All in all, the cd is worth the price, especially for fans of Dr. John, Mike Bloomfield or John Hammond. For those not familiar with their work or blues in general another cd would be a better choice.

For three great performers this is a suprisingly mediocre album. Hammond commands the band, but he should have let DR John and Bloomfield shine a little more. It says right in the liner notes that the chemistry was never there for this band. Dr John actually quit in the middle of recording sessions. For some great stuff by these guys pick up instead:Bluesiana Triangle, or The Sun The Moon and Herbs, or Gris-Gris for Dr JOhn. The live adventures of Mike and Al Kooper,super session, or any of Mike's Butterfield Blues Stuff. Hammond had some killer solo albums in the 60s with Robbie Robertson and Duane Allman on guitar.

This is the blues equivalent of Blind Faith, a supergroup that never took off. The reason is on the record, a lackluster, tepid effort from three guys who each waited for the other to take the reins and run. No one did. While it's not awful, and some tracks are quite enjoyable ("Cha-Dooky-Doo," "I Yi-Yi"), the overall experience leaves you a bit wanting. Personally, I would have liked a lot more Dr. John and Bloomfield, and a lot less Hammond. At least on this recording, he strikes me as out of his depth and simply not in the same league as his band mates.

I did notice the inestimable Thomas Jefferson Kaye sat in on these recordings, no doubt supplying the chemical support needed to keep these guys happy and in the studio. Apparently, according to the liner notes, that was not an easy job. This is a curio, for hard-core fans of these musicians only.

I have been relistening to this album in the last few days and suddenly thought to look at the Amazon reviews.

For the first time in a long time, I find myself disagreeing with some clearly serious reviewers.

I rate this as a five star album precisely _because_ it is a laid-back display of the genius of three very different bluesmen who have made a superb album in which not one of them tries to steal the show and in which all contribute their particular skill to form a magnificent whole.

True, you won't find a firework display of Bloomfield guitar playing, but you will hear Bloomfield's guitar in its place, as you will Dr. John's piano and swampy rhythms, and John Hammond's smoky voice and blues delivery. It's a weird and wonderful three-way crossroads where Lousiana meets Chicago meets East Coast.

The material is excellent and track selection is sensitive, with each artist getting at least one showcase item: e.g. Dr. John (Sho Bout to Drive Me Wild); Bloomfield (Rock Me Baby), John Hammond just about everywhere since he does the vocals...

Add to this the fact that it is a superior production, beautifully recorded in LA and San Francisco and I rate this album as one of the best I own.

I bought this on vinyl when it first came out. At the time you could still go to hear the blues greats regularly performing in Chicago because they were still alive; John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf, Magic Sam, Junior Wells, and lots of others. Maxwell Street was still goin strong and the early Sunday morning jams were a blues lover's paradise. I had been enjoying Dr. John's music already, and was very curious as to how he would sound in a blues trio. I knew Bloomfield's music from Electric Flag and the Super Sessions with Al Kooper, but hadn't yet heard John Hammond. The recording was a pleasant surprise. At first, the tracks that stood out were Cha Dooky Doo and Baby Let Me Kiss You. BLMKY has a snakey groove that I hadn't heard before. But with repeated listenings I began to hear the rich tapestry of other instruments and the thick atmosphere of each track. It became my favorite "blues" album for many years. My favorite tracks are Groundhog Blues and Just to Be With You. Groundhog Blues is a smoker...total scene....not your typical blues track by any means....kinda sits in the swamp at night smoldering. The harp playing on Just to Be With You combined with the powerful vocals is outstanding. This LP has so much diversity that I can't see how someone wouldn't like it. I suppose blues purists might want to hear something more predictably in line with the classics. And if you're looking for the style that each of these artists is immediately known for, you won't find much of it here. Sure, Rock Me is reminiscent of Bloomfield's other work, and Cha Dooky Doo is kinda like Dr. John's flavor, but not really. Instead, you get a rare chance to listen to vastly different musical styles as they coalesce into a unique blues form.
The liner notes are fun to read on the LP cover about how they almost killed each other in the studio before the sound finally merged.
If ya pick this up, give some serious listening to all the background instrumentation...some amazing stuff.

I wanted to first respond to BluesDuke's initial review of Triumvirate...He characterized John Hammond, Michael Bloomfield and Dr. John as performers who had sumpreme control of themselves. I disagree. Hammond, Bloomfield and Renneback are three of the most erratic performers around. I have seen Hammond on good and bad nights and on bad nights he drinks too much beer and makes you wonder if he's going to fall off his stool. Dr. John is probably the most gifted player of the piano around, (listen to some of his stride piano playing) but if the vibe is not right, he sleepwalks his way through a set. Michael Bloomfield was a heroin casualty. The saddest set of music I ever saw was Bloomfield playing with his brillant Electric Flag ensemble in Chicago in the late 60's. Michael's playing was technically impecible and loaded with passion but he had to play the entire set laying on the floor of the hall because he was "rushing" from a near overdose of heroin. I would advise each consumer to select the CDs which reflect the strengths of each of these artist's careers, rather than this insipid "supergroup" album which only underscores the problematic nature of each artist's brilliance.

The real trouble with this one-off union is that on paper it looked like a stairway to the stars: You're talking about three musicians who had superlative command of themselves and, in the case of Bloomfield and Rebennack especially, musicians who transcended what they did - Bloomfield with his lyric blues guitar virtuosity, Rebennack with his sinewy, swampy southeastern funk - who seemed lost for finding where they might come together without crossing each other's wires. (Hammond, who had to that point made a career of reverent but uncliched revisiting of the vintage Delta blues, wasn't exactly of the minor leagues himself.)

There may be a creeping sense in the overall sound that they had to be tied down to play it as it laid - but once they dug in, the result was better than you had a right to expect. Hammond doesn't sound as out of place warbling in front of a full-blooded funk blues group as you might expect, if familiar with his reputation as a reverent acoustic bluesman; Rebennack, of course, thrives in the hot band concept, even if he is as restrained as you could imagine a Dr. John to be in a few wrong places; and Bloomfield actually shows the side of him which isn't always appreciated - an excellent accompanist and rhythmic improvisor when feeding a front man or other soloist.

Surprisingly enough, the standout track is the one re-interpretation of "Rock Me, Baby" which won't make you feel as though you've heard that B.B. King chestnut a million times before and who cares - and it's largely thanks to Bloomfield, who runs a sinewy thread from opening to finish through his intriguingly set-back guitar (from intro to fills to solo, he sounds as though he laid just so behind the front of the band - but given his standard style, the effect is exquisite) without bumping into a single cliche from all the other versions (including his idol B.B. King, for that matter). Hammond's vocal lead is unpushy and very subtle, and Rebennack pumps the piano firmly on the backbeat with his usual exuberance, but here's where this band sounds as near-great as they looked on paper.

They almost get there as well with the leadoff track, "Cha-Dooky-Doo," and with "Just To Be With You" and "Baby Let Me Kiss You." This album isn't as bad as its reputation by any means, even if it ended up demolishing forever the concept (a tenuous one at best - think Blind Faith; think Humble Pie; think, even, Bad Company) - of uniting name players from name or semi-name situations and producing "supergroups". Taken on their own extremely temporary terms, this Triumvirate was a pleasant diversion, even if the three catalysts couldn't wait to put it behind them forever.

This album is one of the biggest disappointment in the history of blues music. Imagine three great musicians joining forces to create a garbage music like this is a serious crime on the part of the producer. not a single track was worth a centavo in your pocket.I still cannot imagine mike bloomfield doing a thrash like this.My serious recommendation is for the public to avoid this album.

As a fan of all three performers, I was surprised I'd never heard of this. While I agree with many reviewers that this isn't the best work of any of the performers involved, it's still a solid album, and perfect for a summer evening on the porch with a few cold ones. I know it was supposed to be a group effort, but the record could have used a little more Dr. John (but then, so could a lot of records, I guess).