All these blues (The Butterfield Blues Band) (LP 4225 - 4226)

The Butterfield Blues Band  East-West (CD, Elektra Records, 1966) *****  

The Butterfield Blues Band  Live at Woodstock (Vinyl, Elektra Records, 2020) ****  

Genre: Blues, jazz

Places I remember: HMV, JB Hi Fi

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Work Song (East-West)

Gear costume: Walkin' Blues (East-West)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6

Active compensatory factors: East-West was the band's second album and is widely regarded as their finest studio effort. At this point the band contained some heavy hitters. Apart from Paul Butterfield (vocals and harmonica), the band included Mike Bloomfield and Elvin Bishop on guitars, plus Jerome Arnold (bass), Billy Davenport (drums) and Mark Naftalin (keyboards). They jell incredibly well and even though Butterfield's harp and those twin guitars are the stars, the rest of the band reach for similarly high standards.

The album displays all of the band's talents - these include the ability to combine jazz, Indian raga (hence the title), with the blues (natch). East-West captures the band at their pinnacle. Bloomfield would soon leave to forge a new path with his Electric Flag.

So by the time Woodstock rolled around three years later the band had a radically different line-up. In fact only Paul Butterfield remains of the East-West version of The Butterfield Blues Band. An expanded horn section (including a young David Sanborn) and the other musicians used on the studio album that preceded Woodstock (Keep On Moving) were the Woodstock band.

They deliver a powerful set, full of passion and energy as the sun rose on that long ago August 18, 1969, Monday morning.

Where do they all belong? Paul Butterfield - master of the harp! He passed away in 1987 - far too young, but his legend lingers on thanks to these records.