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The Blues Project
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The Blues Project
The Blues Project is an American band formed in New York City's Greenwich Village neighborhood in 1965. The group's original iteration broke up in 1967. Their songs drew from a wide array of musical styles: folk, blues, rhythm & blues, jazz, and the pop music of the day.
On February 14, 2023, the group, still led by Steve Katz and Roy Blumenfeld, released a new collection of songs, called Evolution.
In 1964, Elektra Records produced a compilation album of various artists entitled, The Blues Project, which featured several white musicians from the Greenwich Village area who played acoustic blues music in the style of black musicians. One of the featured artists on the album was a young guitarist named Danny Kalb, who was paid $75 for his two songs. Not long after the album's release, however, Kalb gave up his acoustic guitar for an electric one. The Beatles' arrival in the United States earlier in the year muted the folk and acoustic blues movement that had swept the US in the early 1960s.
Kalb formed the Danny Kalb Quartet in early 1965, with rhythm guitarist Artie Traum, Andy Kulberg on bass and drummer Roy Blumenfeld. When Traum went to Europe during the summer, guitarist Steve Katz (like Kalb, a former pupil of guitarist Dave Van Ronk) joined as first a temporary replacement and then a permanent member. Later in 1965, the group added singer Tommy Flanders and changed its name to the Blues Project, as an allusion to Kalb's first foray on record.
Late in the year, the band auditioned for Columbia Records. During the session for the auditions, producer Tom Wilson hired session musician Al Kooper, who had worked with him on Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone", to provide piano and organ. Kooper, who had worked with Blumenfeld and Kulberg during sessions for his contribution to the What's Shakin' compilation, was invited to join the group.
When Columbia declined to sign the band, Wilson, who by late 1965 had moved to MGM Records, signed the Blues Project to MGM's Verve/Folkways subsidiary. The band began recording their first album live at Greenwich Village's Cafe Au Go Go in late November 1965. Entitled Live at the Cafe Au Go Go, the album was finished with another week of recordings in January 1966. By that time, Flanders had left the band and, as a result, he appeared on only a few of the songs on this album. Live at the Cafe Au Go Go was a moderate success, and the band toured the U.S. to promote it.
Returning to New York, the band recorded their second album Projections in the fall of 1966, with MGM releasing it in November. Projections contained an eclectic set of songs that ran the gamut from blues, R&B, jazz, psychedelia, and folk-rock. The centerpieces of the album were an 11-and-a-half minute version of Muddy Waters's blues standard "Two Trains Running" featuring Kalb on vocals and lead guitar, and Kooper's instrumental "Flute Thing" featuring Kulberg on flute.
Soon after Projections was completed, however, the band began to fall apart. Kooper left the band in the spring of 1967, and the band completed a third album, Live At Town Hall without him. Despite the name, only one song was recorded live at Town Hall in New York; the other songs were live recordings from other venues, or studio outtakes with overdubbed applause to feign a live sound. One song in the latter category, Kooper's "No Time Like the Right Time", was the band's only charting single.
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The Blues Project
The Blues Project is an American band formed in New York City's Greenwich Village neighborhood in 1965. The group's original iteration broke up in 1967. Their songs drew from a wide array of musical styles: folk, blues, rhythm & blues, jazz, and the pop music of the day.
On February 14, 2023, the group, still led by Steve Katz and Roy Blumenfeld, released a new collection of songs, called Evolution.
In 1964, Elektra Records produced a compilation album of various artists entitled, The Blues Project, which featured several white musicians from the Greenwich Village area who played acoustic blues music in the style of black musicians. One of the featured artists on the album was a young guitarist named Danny Kalb, who was paid $75 for his two songs. Not long after the album's release, however, Kalb gave up his acoustic guitar for an electric one. The Beatles' arrival in the United States earlier in the year muted the folk and acoustic blues movement that had swept the US in the early 1960s.
Kalb formed the Danny Kalb Quartet in early 1965, with rhythm guitarist Artie Traum, Andy Kulberg on bass and drummer Roy Blumenfeld. When Traum went to Europe during the summer, guitarist Steve Katz (like Kalb, a former pupil of guitarist Dave Van Ronk) joined as first a temporary replacement and then a permanent member. Later in 1965, the group added singer Tommy Flanders and changed its name to the Blues Project, as an allusion to Kalb's first foray on record.
Late in the year, the band auditioned for Columbia Records. During the session for the auditions, producer Tom Wilson hired session musician Al Kooper, who had worked with him on Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone", to provide piano and organ. Kooper, who had worked with Blumenfeld and Kulberg during sessions for his contribution to the What's Shakin' compilation, was invited to join the group.
When Columbia declined to sign the band, Wilson, who by late 1965 had moved to MGM Records, signed the Blues Project to MGM's Verve/Folkways subsidiary. The band began recording their first album live at Greenwich Village's Cafe Au Go Go in late November 1965. Entitled Live at the Cafe Au Go Go, the album was finished with another week of recordings in January 1966. By that time, Flanders had left the band and, as a result, he appeared on only a few of the songs on this album. Live at the Cafe Au Go Go was a moderate success, and the band toured the U.S. to promote it.
Returning to New York, the band recorded their second album Projections in the fall of 1966, with MGM releasing it in November. Projections contained an eclectic set of songs that ran the gamut from blues, R&B, jazz, psychedelia, and folk-rock. The centerpieces of the album were an 11-and-a-half minute version of Muddy Waters's blues standard "Two Trains Running" featuring Kalb on vocals and lead guitar, and Kooper's instrumental "Flute Thing" featuring Kulberg on flute.
Soon after Projections was completed, however, the band began to fall apart. Kooper left the band in the spring of 1967, and the band completed a third album, Live At Town Hall without him. Despite the name, only one song was recorded live at Town Hall in New York; the other songs were live recordings from other venues, or studio outtakes with overdubbed applause to feign a live sound. One song in the latter category, Kooper's "No Time Like the Right Time", was the band's only charting single.
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