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Thread: AAJ Review: Mike Bloomfield, From His Head to His Heart to His Hands

  1. #1

    AAJ Review: Mike Bloomfield, From His Head to His Heart to His Hands




    My review of the Mike Bloomfield box set, From His Head to His Heart to His Hands, today at All About Jazz.


    While a proliferation of box sets continue to entice with career-spanning retrospectives—sometimes entire discographies, like Legacy Recordings' recent Paul Simon: The Complete Albums Collection (2013)—few serve as aural biographies with the same degree of success as Mike Bloomfield's aptly titled From His Head to His Heart to His Hands, a three-CD/one-DVD long box produced by the only person who could truly do justice to the late bluesman, Bob Dylan compatriot, member of the seminal Paul Butterfield Blues Band and founder of the equally essential horn-heavy Electric Flag. Thirty-three years may have passed, but keyboardist/producer Al Kooper is still around to make From His Head a thoroughly revealing three-plus hour journey, from Bloomfield's previous unreleased—and staggeringly impressive—audition for Columbia Records' John Hammond Sr., through to the last concert in which Bloomfield ever participated, playing two songs with Dylan at the singer/songwriter's Warfield Theater on November 15, 1980, exactly three months before he was found dead in his car on February 15, 1981, of a drug overdose that remains unexplained to this day.


    "Let me do, just for my own self-satisfaction...just to show...I'll play...you know who Merle Travis is, Mr. Hammond?," asks a 21 year-old Bloomfield, after already impressing Hammond Sr. with the traditional "I'm a Country Boy," and Bessie Smith's "Judge, Judge," already proving that this young, Chicago-born Jew was not just capable of playing the blues with absolute credibility, he played it with the kind of truth rare amongst white blues players—then and now. "I know him well," says Hammond. "Alright, I'll play a Merle Travis piece for ya, a nice ragtime guitar piece...let me tune up again." "'16 Tons,'" asks Hammond, "referring to Travis' 1946 song made into a huge hit in 1955 by Tennessee Ernie Ford. "Not that," replies Bloomfield, "something a little cheekier than that." And with that he heads into "Hammond's Rag," taken at a bright clip and suggesting that Bloomfield's main passion might be the blues, but he was far broader in scope—and already a remarkable virtuoso, as he demonstrates a mastery of Travis' picking style so complete that, when it comes to an end, Hammond simply says, "That was great; I think we've exploited you enough. I just want you to know I'm signing you."


    Continue reading here....

  2. #2
    Wow...I MUST get this. Bloomfield/Electric Flag is/are SO underrated........looking forward to seeing what is on the DVD.

    Thanks for posting jkelman!

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    Bloomfield was a damn good player.

    When you listen to some of those lines on the long East-west track and compare it to what the likes of Clapton, Beck were doing at the time....

    Even if some of it was a bit rough around the edges, he was way ahead of those guys imo.

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    Mike Bloomfield on Son House, Paul Butterfield and blues music in general. Start at 4:36...

    Last edited by Banquo; 02-01-2014 at 04:27 PM.

  5. #5
    ^^^ Man, that is soooo right! ^^^

    Butterfield was great! As was Bloomfield. But, he knew the difference between playing the blues and having it ooze from your pores.
    "The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by ronmac View Post
    ^^^ Man, that is soooo right! ^^^

    Butterfield was great! As was Bloomfield. But, he knew the difference between playing the blues and having it ooze from your pores.
    I tried to get my brother to listen to Butterfield. "I dunno, I'm just not into harmonica." What a dumbass. It's surely his loss.
    "The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"

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    Member chalkpie's Avatar
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    Any Bloomfield fans here? He is my wife's cousins favorite guitarist (who is an excellent professional bluegrass guitarist himself), so I was encouraged to pick up Live at the Old Waldorf years ago on disc. Every once in a pink moon, I bust it out and give 'er a fresh spin. Always great, and I've been meaning to check out more Bloomfield. Any ideas?
    If it isn't Krautrock, it's krap.

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  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by chalkpie View Post
    Any Bloomfield fans here? He is my wife's cousins favorite guitarist (who is an excellent professional bluegrass guitarist himself), so I was encouraged to pick up Live at the Old Waldorf years ago on disc. Every once in a pink moon, I bust it out and give 'er a fresh spin. Always great, and I've been meaning to check out more Bloomfield. Any ideas?
    Well, the box set that I reviewed and was the start of this thread is a good place to sample Bloomfield in a variety of contexts, including some other solo albums, Paul Butterfield, etc. Three CDs worth of material.

    There's also a lovely documentary, Sweet Blues: A Film About Mike Bloomfield, included as a DVD in the box.

    You can buy the box off as little as $22 (plus shipping) from Amazon Marketplace resellers at Amazon.com, or similarly priced editions on other Amazons of choice.


    Three CDs
    John Kelman
    Senior Contributor, All About Jazz since 2004
    Freelance writer/photographer

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by chalkpie View Post
    I've been meaning to check out more Bloomfield. Any ideas?
    Frankie, you might enjoy If You Love These Blues... re-issued on Kicking Mule. It features various blues styles acoustic and electric. Originally released on vinyl by Guitar Player Magazine back in the mid 70s. Also East-West by the Butterfield Blues Band.

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    He's on only one side, but Super Session is worth it for "Albert's Shuffle" alone.
    Hell, they ain't even old-timey ! - Homer Stokes

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