Mike Bloomfield

For the astronaut, see Michael J. Bloomfield.
Mike Bloomfield

Bloomfield c. 1968
Background information
Birth name Michael Bernard Bloomfield
Born (1943-07-28)July 28, 1943
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Died February 15, 1981(1981-02-15) (aged 37)
San Francisco, United States
Genres Blues, blues rock, Chicago blues
Occupation(s) Musician, songwriter
Instruments Guitar, piano
Years active 1964–81
Associated acts The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Bob Dylan, the Electric Flag, Al Kooper, Nick Gravenites, Dr. John, John P. Hammond
Website mikebloomfield.com
Notable instruments
Gibson Les Paul
Fender Telecaster

Michael Bernard "Mike" Bloomfield (July 28, 1943 – February 15, 1981) was an American guitarist and composer, born in Chicago, Illinois, who became one of the first popular music superstars of the 1960s to earn his reputation almost entirely on his instrumental prowess, since he rarely sang before 1969 and 1970. Respected for his fluid guitar playing, Bloomfield knew and played with many of Chicago's blues legends before achieving his own fame and was one of the primary influences on the revival of classic Chicago blues and other styles of blues music in the mid- to late 1960s. He was ranked number 22 on Rolling Stone's list of "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" in 2003[1] and number 42 by the same magazine in 2011.[2] He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2012 and, as a member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015.

Early years

Bloomfield was born into a wealthy Jewish-American family on the North Side of Chicago but preferred music to the family catering equipment business. He became a blues devotee as a teenager, spending time in Chicago's South Side blues clubs and playing guitar with some black bluesmen (Sleepy John Estes, Yank Rachell, Little Brother Montgomery). His family moved to suburban Glencoe, Illinois, where he attended New Trier High School for two years, until he was expelled. He attended Cornwall Academy in Massachusetts for one year and then returned to Chicago, where he spent his last year of education at a local YMCA school.[3]

The young guitarist's talent "was instantly obvious to his mentors," wrote Al Kooper, Bloomfield's later collaborator and close friend, in a 2001 article. "They knew this was not just another white boy; this was someone who truly understood what the blues were all about."[4] Among his early supporters were B. B. King, Muddy Waters, Bob Dylan and Buddy Guy. "Michael used to say, 'It's a natural. Black people suffer externally in this country. Jewish people suffer internally. The suffering's the mutual fulcrum for the blues.'"[4]

The Butterfield Band

During those haunts, he met Paul Butterfield and Elvin Bishop, ran his own small blues club, the Fickle Pickle, and was discovered by legendary Columbia Records producer and talent scout John Hammond, who signed him to the label at a time when Columbia had had no recent association with blues.

Bloomfield recorded a few sessions for Columbia in 1964 (ureleased until after his death) but ended up joining the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, which included Bishop and Howlin' Wolf rhythm section alumni Sam Lay and Jerome Arnold. Their exuberant, electric Chicago blues inspired a generation of white bluesmen. Bloomfield's work on the band's self-titled debut and the subsequent album, East-West, brought wide acclaim to the young guitarist. Especially popular was "East-West", the thirteen-minute title track, an instrumental combining elements of blues, jazz, psychedelic rock, and classical Indian raga. Bloomfield's innovative solos were at the forefront of the groundbreaking piece. He had been inspired to create "East-West" after an all-night LSD trip, according to one legend, but a subsequent anthology of the Butterfield band included a booklet saying Bloomfield had also been influenced by John Coltrane and other blues-friendly free-style jazz musicians, along with traditional Indian and Eastern music in creating the piece. (The original title for the piece was "The Raga".)

Bloomfield was also a session musician, gaining wide recognition for his work with Bob Dylan during his first explorations into electric music. Bloomfield's sound was a major part of Dylan's change of style, especially on Highway 61 Revisited; his guitar style melded the blues influence with rock and folk. Al Kooper has since revealed – in the booklet accompanying the posthumous Don't Say That I Ain't Your Man: Essential Blues, 1964–1969 – that Dylan had invited Bloomfield to play with him permanently but that Bloomfield rejected the invitation in order to continue playing the blues with the Butterfield band. However, Bloomfield, Arnold and Lay backed Dylan in his controversial first live electric performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965.

Rock critic Dave Marsh, in Rock and Roll Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles of All Time, claimed that Bloomfield was the lead guitarist for Mitch Ryder's hit "Devil with the Blue Dress." However, Marsh's claim is disputed by Bloomfield collaborator Barry Goldberg, who played keyboards on that track. In the online bio, "The Bloomfield Notes" (#6), Goldberg stated that Bloomfield played on the recording following "Devil" and on "Sock It to Me", another track mistakenly credited to Bloomfield.

The Electric Flag

Bloomfield tired of the Butterfield Band's rigorous touring schedule and, relocating to San Francisco, sought to create his own group. He formed the short-lived Electric Flag in 1967 with two longtime Chicago collaborators, organist Barry Goldberg and vocalist Nick Gravenites. The band was intended to feature "American music," a hybrid of blues, soul music, country, rock, and folk, and incorporated an expanded lineup complete with a horn section. The inclusion of drummer Buddy Miles, whom he hired away from Wilson Pickett's touring band, gave Bloomfield license to explore soul and R&B. The Electric Flag debuted at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival and issued an album, A Long Time Comin', in April 1968 on Columbia Records. Critics complimented the group's distinctive, intriguing sound but found the record itself somewhat uneven. By that time, however, the band was already disintegrating; rivalries between members, shortsighted management, and heroin abuse all took their toll. Shortly after the release of that album, Bloomfield left his own band, with Gravenites, Goldberg, and bassist Harvey Brooks following.

Released in 2002, "Groovin' Is Easy", contains the following 9 songs; "Spotlight", "I Was Robbed Last Night", "I Found Out", "Never Be Lonely Again","Losing Game", "My Baby Wants to Test Me","I Should Have Left Her","You Don't Realize" and "Groovin' Is Easy".

Work with Al Kooper

Bloomfield also made an impact through his work with Al Kooper, with whom he had played, along with Stephen Stills, on the album Super Session in 1968. The direct impetus for the record, according to Kooper, was the twosome's having been part of Grape Jam, an improvisational addendum to Moby Grape's Wow earlier in the year.

"Why not do an entire jam album together?" Kooper remembered in 1998, writing the booklet notes for the Bloomfield anthology Don't Say That I Ain't Your Man: Essential Blues, 1964–1969. "At the time, most jazz albums were made using this modus operandi: pick a leader or two co-leaders, hire appropriate sidemen, pick some tunes, make some up and record an entire album on the fly in one or two days. Why not try and legitimize rock by adhering to these standards? In addition, as a fan, I was dissatisfied with Bloomfield's recorded studio output up until then. It seemed that his studio work was inhibited and reined in, compared to his incendiary live performances. Could I put him in a studio setting where he could feel free to just burn like he did in live performances?"

The result was Super Session, a jam album that spotlighted Bloomfield's guitar skills on one side. Bloomfield's chronic insomnia caused him to repair to his San Francisco home, prompting Kooper to invite Stephen Stills to complete the album. It received excellent reviews and became the best-selling album of Bloomfield's career. Its success led to a live sequel, The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper, recorded over three nights at Fillmore West in September 1968.

Solo work

Bloomfield continued with solo, session and back-up work from 1969 to 1980, releasing his first solo album, It's Not Killing Me, in 1969. The following year he recorded an album, Try It Before You Buy It, which Columbia declined to release. Bloomfield also helped Janis Joplin assemble her Kozmic Blues Band (for the album I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama) in 1969, co-wrote "Work Me, Lord" for the album, and played the guitar solo on Joplin's blues composition "One Good Man." Columbia also released another 1969 album, a live concert jam, Live at Bill Graham's Fillmore West, including former Butterfield bandmate Mark Naftalin, former Electric Flag bandmates Marcus Doubleday and Snooky Flowers, and a guest appearance by Taj Mahal. In the same year he reuniting with former bandmates Paul Butterfield and Sam Lay for the Chess Records all-star set, Fathers and Sons, featuring Muddy Waters and Otis Spann. Bloomfield also composed and recorded the soundtrack for the film Medium Cool, by his cousin, Haskell Wexler, set during the Democratic Convention in Chicago in 1968.

For a time, however, Bloomfield gave up playing because of his heroin addiction:

“ ..and I put the guitar down – didn't touch it.. Shooting junk made everything else unimportant, null and void, nolo contendre. My playing fell apart. I just didn't want to play.[5] ”

During the late 1970s, Bloomfield recorded for several smaller labels, including Takoma Records. Through Guitar Player magazine he also put out an instructional album, If You Love These Blues, Play 'Em as You Please, illustrating an array of blues guitar styles. He also performed with John Cale on Cale's soundtrack for the film Caged Heat in 1975.

In 1973, Bloomfield teamed with Dr. John and John Hammond, Jr. for the album Triumvirate, his final album under his Columbia contract. In 1974 he recorded an album with the group KGB, the name of which was derived from the initials of Ray Kennedy (co-writer of "Sail On, Sailor"), Barry Goldberg on keyboards and Bloomfield on guitar, with Ric Grech on bass and Carmine Appice on drums. Grech and Bloomfield immediately quit after its release, stating they never had faith in the project. The album was not well received, but it did contain the standout track "Sail On, Sailor". Its authorship was credited to "Wilson-Kennedy", and had a bluesy, darker feel, along with Ray Kennedy's original cocaine-related lyrics. Through the 1970s, Bloomfield seemed satisfied to play in local San Francisco Bay area clubs, sitting in with other bands. In 1977, Bloomfield was selected by Andy Warhol to do the soundtrack for the pop artist’s last film, Andy Warhol's Bad[6] (also known as BAD). An unreleased single, Andy’s Bad,[7] was also produced for the project. During 1979–1981 he performed often with the King Perkoff Band, sometimes introducing them as "Michael Bloomfield and Friends" outfit. Bloomfield recorded "Hustlin' Queen", written by John Isabeau and Perkoff in 1979. He planned a tour in Sweden to complete an album of his favorites, including "Hustlin' Queen". Aside from a triumphant return to the stage when he sat in with Bob Dylan at the Warfield in 1980, his rock star days were behind him.

Death

The exact events and circumstances that led to Bloomfield's death are not clear. What is known is that he was found dead of a drug overdose in his car on February 15, 1981.[8] He was seated behind the wheel of his Mercedes, with all four doors locked.[9] The only details (from unnamed sources) relate that Bloomfield died at a San Francisco party and was driven to another location in the city by two men who were present at the party. His tombstone is in the Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery, in Culver City, near Los Angeles.

Style

Bloomfield's musical influences include Scotty Moore, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, B.B. King, Big Joe Williams, Otis Rush, Albert King, Freddie King and Ray Charles.[10]

Bloomfield originally used a Fender Telecaster, though he had also used a Fender Duo-Sonic while recording for Columbia following his 1964 signing to the label. During his tenure with the Butterfield Blues Band he switched to a 1954 Gibson Les Paul model, which he used for some of the East-West sessions and which he was said to have found in Boston. In due course, according to biographers Jan Mark Wolkin and Bill Keenom, Bloomfield swapped that guitar for a 1959 Les Paul Standard and $100. This was the guitar he used as a member of the Electric Flag and on the Super Session album and concerts. He later switched between the Les Paul and the Telecaster, but his use of the Les Paul—like Keith Richards's with the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton's with John Mayall—influenced many others to use that model, helping prod Gibson into reintroducing the line (which it had discontinued in 1960) by mid-1968. Bloomfield eventually lost the guitar in Canada; Wolkin and Keenom's biography revealed that a club owner kept the guitar as partial compensation after Bloomfield cut short a round of appearances. Its location today is unknown. Bloomfield's original Telecaster was featured in a series of online videos by the Stewart-MacDonald company, a guitar parts and tool merchant, in 2015 and 2016.

Unlike contemporaries such as Jimi Hendrix and Jeff Beck, Bloomfield rarely experimented with feedback and distortion, preferring a loud but clean, almost chiming sound with a healthy amount of reverb. One of his amplifiers of choice was a 1965 Fender Twin Reverb. His solos, like most blues guitarists', were based primarily on the minor pentatonic scale and the blues scale. However, his liberal use of chromatic notes within the pentatonic framework and his periodic lines based on Indian and Eastern modes allowed a considerable degree of fluidity in his solos. He was also renowned for his use of vibrato.

Gibson has since released a Michael Bloomfield Les Paul—replicating his 1959 Standard—in recognition of his influence on the blues genre, his role in the revived production of the guitar, and his incluence on many other guitarists.[11] Because the actual guitar had been unaccounted for so many years, Gibson relied on hundreds of photographs provided by Bloomfield's family to reproduce the guitar. The model comes in two configurations—a clean Vintage Original Specifications (VOS) version, with only Bloomfield's mismatched volume and control knobs, missing toggle switch cover, and kidney-shaped tuners replacing the Gibson originals indicating its inspiration and a faithful, process-aged reproduction of the guitar as it was when Bloomfield played it last, complete with the finish smudge below the bridge and various nicks and smudges elsewhere around the body.

His influence among contemporary guitarists continues to be widely felt, primarily in the techniques of vibrato, natural sustain, and economy of notes. Guitarists such as Joe Bonamassa, Arlen Roth, Carlos Santana, Slash, Jimmy Vivino, Chuck Hammer, Eric Johnson, Elliot Easton, Robben Ford, John Scofield, Jimmy Herring, Phil Keaggy remain essentially influenced by Bloomfield's early recorded work.

Selected discography

The Paul Butterfield Blues Band

The Electric Flag

Solo

Collaborations

Selected session work

Posthumous releases

References

  1. ↑ "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". August 27, 2003. Archived from the original on July 1, 2008. Retrieved 2008-07-02.
  2. ↑ "100 Greatest Guitarists: Mike Bloomfield". Rolling Stone. Retrieved January 1, 2015.
  3. ↑ "Michael Bloomfield's Early Days, Part II". Retrieved 2014-06-03.
  4. 1 2 "Bloomfield's Doomed Field". Retrieved 2008-03-20.
  5. ↑ Wolkin, Jan Mark; Keenom, Bill (2000). Michael Bloomfield: If You Love These Blues. San Francisco: Miller Freeman Books. ISBN 0-87930-617-3. OCLC 237403183.
  6. ↑ "Andy Warhol's BAD". Retrieved 2016-04-11.
  7. ↑ "Unreleased title soundtrack for Andy's BAD". Retrieved 2016-04-11.
  8. ↑ "Michael Bloomfield Biography". Mikebloomfieldamericanmusic.com. Retrieved 2011-12-30.
  9. ↑ Simmonds, Jeremy (2008). The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars: Heroin, Handguns, and Ham Sandwiches. Chicago: Chicago Review Press. pp. 149–150. ISBN 978-1-55652-754-8. Retrieved 28 August 2015.
  10. ↑ Wenner, Jann S. (April 6, 1968). "Archives | Mike Bloomfield Interview Part 1". Jann S. Wenner. Retrieved 2014-06-14.
  11. ↑ "Gibson – Gibson Guitar: Electric, Acoustic and Bass Guitars, Baldwin Pianos". www2.gibson.com. Retrieved 2009-08-23.
  12. ↑ "MVFF36 – Sweet Blues: A Film About Mike Bloomfield". Prod3.agileticketing.net. Retrieved 2014-06-14.

Sources

External links

Mike Bloomfield at Find a Grave

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