Search - Kooper/Stills, Al Kooper, Stephen Stills :: Super Session (Blu-Spec CD)

Some Excellent Bloomfield Playing.

deepbluereview | SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA USA | 05/16/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"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"."

THE genuine "Super Session"

Mark R. Van Wagenen | Elgin, Illinois USA | 01/30/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"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."

Great blues guitar jam session!

J. E FELL | Carterville, Illinois United States | 04/22/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"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."