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Music CD - Bloomfield, Kooper, Stills: Super Session
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Music CD: Super Session
Artist: Bloomfield, Kooper, Stills
List Price: $11.98
Our Price: $6.68
Your Save: $ 5.30 ( 44% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Sony
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Tracks:
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1. Albert's Shuffle
2. Stop
3. Man's Temptation
4. His Holy Modal Majesty
5. Really
6. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry
7. Season Of The Witch
8. You Don't Love Me
9. Harvey's Tune
10. Albert's Shuffle (2002 Remix w/o Horns)
11. Season Of The Witch (2002 Remix w/o Horns)
12. Blues For Nothing
13. Fat Grey Cloud (Live)
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0074646340622
Format: Extra tracks
Label: Sony
Manufacturer: Sony
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Sony
Release Date: 2003-04-08
Studio: Sony
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Awesome!
Comment: What can I say ?
It's like getting two albums in one.
"It takes a lot to laugh..." best song. How do you get from Dylan to Steven Stills to Little Feat? Answer.. see above.
Albert's Shuffle, best blues number. Tribute to Albert King.
"His Holy Modal Majesty" best acid fade to jazz. No, it's not from "Easy Rider". Get the first Blood Sweat & Tears album for more Al Kooper.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Kooper+Bloomfield+Stills=Super Session
Comment: I first bought Super Session (and its semi-sequel "The Live Adventures") on vinyl at a garage sale for $1, primarily after reading Al Kooper's book "Backstage Passes and Backstabbing Bastards" detailing the sessions. After 1-2 plays of each I found myself saying "I bought these because...?" Don't get me wrong, each is full of well played music, but the legend of these albums seems to have overtaken the facts. So years later when I bought the CD's (for whatever reason) I was saying the same things. But a funny thing happened, Super Session seemed to grow on me. And it found a regular place in my bag of CD's (no Ipod just yet). The more you listen, the more you find yourself getting into the groove of the music within.
Super Session was the brainchild of producer Al Kooper. Having been kicked out of Blood Sweat & Tears, frustrated in his job as a staff producer at CBS Records, and without enough material for a solo album he hit upon an idea that had been a mainstay of jazz players. Gather a group of like-minded musicians together and jam on whatever songs were available for a quickie album. But this had never been tried in a rock context. And Kooper was eager to show what his friend Michael Bloomfield was capable of. Bloomfield had been kicked out of his own band Electric Flag, and was game for the idea. They added bassist Harvey Brooks and drummer Eddie Hoh to complete the band, then started recording in California. They knocked off 5 songs the first day and Kooper thought this would be easy. Until the next day when he got a phone call asking if Michael had made his plane home. Bloomfield had left, citing chronic insomnia. Kooper desperately contacted every guitarist he could think of, eventually getting a commitment from another musical orphan, Stephen Stills. Stills' band Buffalo Springfield had just split up and he was a year away from forming CSN.
Super Session was an unlikely success when first released in 1968. No hit singles came from it. Each member of the "band" remains (except for Stills) a trivia question. Its musical structure starts as hard-edged Chicago blues (courtesy of Bloomfield) then veers in country rock and psychedelics (via Stills & Kooper). And yet it hit #11 on the album charts and became a fixture on underground FM stations that year. Bloomfield turns in some stinging blues on the opener "Albert's Shuffle" and on "Really".
The 2nd half belongs to Stills and Kooper as they mix it up on covers of Dylan's "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry", Donovan's "Season of the Witch". And the blues standard "You Don't Love Me" gets the phased guitar sound here. (Compare this to the Allman Brothers version on "Live at the Fillmore"). You can clearly hear Stills' Buffalo Springfield guitar sound here as well as the beginnings of the sound he had later with CSN. In Kooper's book he says that "Stills had just gotten his first set of Marshall amps and was chompin' at the bit to blast his Les Paul through 'em".
The expanded version of this album adds 4 songs. 2 are alternate mixes of "Albert's Shuffle" and "Season of the Witch" that eliminate the horn sections. A live cut called "Fat Grey Cloud" comes from a 1968 Fillmore West show. And an unreleased instrumental "Blues for Nothing" that sounds like an alternate "Albert's".
The legend of this album continued with the "Live Adventures" album a year later (Bloomfield left again after playing on half this album too) and with the more recently released "Lost Fillmore Show" disc (which is a complete Kooper/Bloomfield show adding an then-unknown Johnny Winter as a special guest ).
Like I said, this album grows on you. It comes from a time we won't see again when musicians with nothing to lose just met to play and see what might happen.
Customer Rating:
Summary: blast from the past
Comment: Interesting album to begin with, but the remixing and additional tracks it is a must. For me anyway....
Customer Rating:
Summary: What's so super? This really seemed dated this time.
Comment: I remember when this album came out - my few guitar playing friends raved about it. Recently I was getting a Butterfield album and also picked this up. Not very impressed with it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A great blues album
Comment: This is a great blues album that transcends it's recording date: it's sound is as fantastic and pertinant as if it had been recorded last week. I don't love every song which is why I rated it a "4" but it absolutely is a "must have" album for anyone interested in the blues or trying to develop an interest. I prefer the un-orchestrated, added versions included on this re-mastered copy but everyone will have their own preference. Regardless, if you enjoy the genre you will enjoy this album.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Those familiar with the Live Adventures album these two recorded at the Fillmore West know how brilliant they could be on stage, and here's another gem, recorded at the Fillmore East this time and featuring 'One Way Out,' 'It's My Own Fault' (with Bloomfield trading licks with Johnny Winter...Johnny was signed to Columbia after this gig!). Newly remastered & now with 4 bonus tracks, 'Albert's Shuffle' (2002 Remix w/o Horns), 'Season of the Witch.' (2002 Remix w/o Horns), 'Blues For Nothing' (Studio Outtake) & 'Fat Grey Cloud' Previously Unreleased Live Track). Features 12-page booklet with unpublished photos from the recording session, new liner notes by Al Kooper & the Rolling Stone Hall Of Fame review by David Fricke. 60 scintillating minutes! 13 tracks. Colunbia/Legacy. 2003.
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