blues project

in his allmusic.com bio of noo yawk's "jewish beatles," the blues project, richie unterberger rightly compares 'em to another crew of mid-'60s innovators from across the pond, the yardbirds. the similarities are undeniable: both bands were all over the map stylistically, eclectic 'n' experimental in the best sense, but came up short in the critical songwritin' and sangin' departments. the spawn of leftie radical parents (except for al kooper, a veteran rocker who had already been a member of the royal teens of "short shorts" fame, penned "this diamond ring" for gary lewis & the playboys, and played organ on dylan's "like a rolling stone"), the blues project boasted no less than three lead vocalists, and not a good one among 'em. closest thing they had to a decent lead voice was steve katz's gordon lightfoot-esque baritone; kooper's high, reedy voice wasn't well suited to the role of a soul shouter (which deficiency later got him shitcanned from blood, sweat & tears, a band that he founded). on their good album, 1967's projections, which has just been reished on vinyl, the sound ranges from psychedelia (their cover of blind willie johnson's "i can't keep from crying," replete with coltrane-influenced organ, was a ny free-form fm-radio staple back in the day) to what usedta be called "folk-rock" (the alb was mostly produced by tom wilson, the cat that invented simon & garfunkel; i still dig the katz-penned "steve's song," even tho it sounds kinda like something that coulda been sung by lorenzo st. dubois in the producers and my sweetie dismisses it as "ren-faire music") to rave-up ("wake me, shake me," sung by lightning-fingered gtrist danny kalb, a former folkie studio muso whose acid ingestion soon caused the fracturing of the 'riginal lineup a la peter green, and whose cousin bob taught social studies at my high school and owned the very first bmw i ever saw) to jazz (the band's signature toon "flute thing," sampled with admirable self-awareness by the beastie boys on ill communication's "flute loop") to not-bad whiteguy blooze (jimmy reed's "caress me baby" done up better 'n any of those limey usurpers coulda done it, if not more authentic caucasian bluesmen lahk paul butterfield or charlie musselwhite). if you make allowances for the subpar voxxx (something i'm inclined to do and you should be, too -- listened to the radio lately, have ya?), there ain't a bad cut on this rekkid. of course, i'm highly biased, having first copped it for a coupla bucks off a cutout rack back in 1971 or so.