Mike Bloomfield
For the astronaut, see Michael J. Bloomfield |
Mike Bloomfield album cover |
Michael Bernard Bloomfield (
July 28,
1943 –
February 15,
1981) was an
American musician,
guitarist and
composer. Born in
Chicago, Illinois, into a well-off
Jewish family on Chicago's North Side. The Bloomfield fortune was built on the back of his father's invention -- the ubiquitous sugar holder with the flapper lid one sees on most dinette tables. He became interested in music through the Southern radio stations he was able to pick up at night, which gave him a regular source for
rockabilly,
R&B, and
blues. He received his first guitar at his bar mitzvah and he and his friends began sneaking out to hear electric blues on the South Side's fertile club scene (with the help of their families' maids). The young Bloomfield sometimes jumped on-stage to jam with the musicians and the novelty of such a spectacle soon made him a prominent scenester. Dismayed with the turn his education was taking, his parents sent him to a private boarding school on the East Coast in
1958 and he eventually graduated from a Chicago school for troubled youth. By this time, he'd embraced the
beatnik subculture, frequenting hangout spots near the University of Chicago. He got a job managing a folk club and frequently booked veteran acoustic bluesmen; in the meantime, he was also playing guitar as a session man and around the Chicago club scene with several different bands. The young Bloomfield also made a conscious decision around this time to turn down any money that he could get from his father then or in the future, preferring to make his own way in the world and do so by leaving a mark in the musical world.
He was a
session musician who became famous through his work with
Bob Dylan during his first explorations into the "electric Dylan" phase. Bloomfield's sound was a major part of Dylan's sound, as featured especially on
Highway 61 Revisited. His guitar style bridged
blues influence with rock and folk.
In
1964, Bloomfield was discovered through his session work by the legendary
John Hammond, who signed him to
CBS; however, several recordings from 1964 went unreleased as the label wasn't sure how to market a white American blues guitarist. In early
1965, Bloomfield asked to sit in with the already locally revered
Paul Butterfield Blues Band, a racially integrated outfit with a storming, rock-tinged take on Chicago's urban electric blues sound. The group's self-titled debut for
Elektra, released later that year, made them a sensation in the blues community and helped introduce white audiences to a less watered-down version of the blues. Bloomfield became a full member of the band and played with
Paul Butterfield from
1964 to
1966.
Bloomfield's most famous work, on Butterfield's watershed
East-West album (
1966) (to which Bloomfield contributed the title song), was one of the first experiments in fusing blues and Indian-style raga music. Driven by Bloomfield's jaw-dropping extended solos on his instrumental title cut, East-West merged blues, jazz, world music, and
psychedelic rock in an unprecedented fashion. It helped to create the signature sound of late-60s Californian rock acts. According to fellow band member Mark Naftalin, Bloomfield brought the piece to the band following an all-night
LSD trip, after which Bloomfield claimed he "understood" Indian music. The piece's use of drones and modal scales was a marked difference to conventional blues improvising. Performed live, East-West ranged from just over ten minutes to extended jams of over twenty minutes, which was unprecedented in rock music (except perhaps for the West Coast band the
Grateful Dead) and especially for blues bands at the time.
Clashing with the ego of Butterfield and, as he revealed much later, intimidated by the harp player, Bloomfield left the band to form the short-lived but brilliant
Electric Flag in
1967 with longtime Chicago cohort Nick Gravenites on vocals. The Electric Flag was supposed to build on the innovations of East-West and accordingly featured an expanded lineup complete with a horn section, which allowed the group to add soul music to their laundry list of influences. The inclusion of drummer Buddy Miles, with his gravelly voice and great stage presence, also gave Bloomfield license to explore soul and R&B like he had not be able to in adhering to his Chicago blues roots. The Electric Flag debuted at the 1967
Monterey Pop Festival and issued a proper debut album, A Long Time Comin', in
1968. Critics complimented the group's distinctive, intriguing sound, but found the record itself somewhat uneven. Unfortunately, the band was already disintegrating; rivalries between members and shortsighted management all took their toll. Bloomfield himself left the band he'd formed before their album was even released.
He also made an impact through his work with
Al Kooper on the album
Super Session in
1968 whom he'd played with in the Dylan band, and cut Super Session, a jam-oriented record that spotlighted his own guitar skills on one half and those of Stephen Stills on the other. Issued in 1968, it received excellent reviews and moreover became the best-selling album of Bloomfield's career. Super Session's success led to a sequel, The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper, which was recorded over three shows at the
Fillmore West in 1968 and released the following year; it featured Bloomfield's on-record singing debut. He continued with solo work and back-up work from
1969 through
1980.
During the late
'70s, Bloomfield recorded for several smaller labels (including Takoma); through Guitar Player magazine, he also put out an instructional album with a vast array of blues guitar styles, titled -If You Love These Blues, Play 'Em as You Please. Through the seventies, Bloomfield seem satisfied to play in local Bay Area clubs either sitting in with other bands, or using his own "Michael Bloomfield and Friends" outfit. But clearly, his best performing days were behind him and most of the decade was spent battling drugs and his own deep insecurities.
On February 15, 1981 Bloomfield was found dead in
San Francisco in his parked car. According to his friends, the size of the heroin dose that killed him meant that he probably did not drive to this spot and overdose, rather that the lethal dose had been administered somewhere else and he had been driven to this spot to avoid complications for his drug-ingesting cohorts. In any case, the official cause of death was ruled an accidental drug overdose.
He used
Fender guitars, but is most commonly associated with the
Gibson Les Paul because that is what he used at the height of his popularity with the Electric Flag and Super Session. His axe of choice before and after this time was the Telecaster. His use of the Les Paul influenced many others to use it in much the same way, using the front pickup and making judicious use of the guitar's inherent long sustain. For example, observe Duane Allman and Dickie Betts of the Allman Brothers in the period of 1969-1971 and Bloomfield's influence is evident. He was also well-renowned for his
vibrato.
He is considered by many to be one of the most influential and pioneering white American blues guitarists. He is also a big influence to
Robben Ford.
The Paul Butterfield Blues Band - The Paul Butterfield Blues Band (1965)
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Highway 61 Revisited -
Bob Dylan 1965East-West - The Paul Butterfield Blues Band (1966)
A Long Time Comin' - The Electric Flag (1968)
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Super Session - Bloomfield, Kooper and Stills
1968If You Love These Blues, Play 'Em As You Please - Mike Bloomfield (1976)
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Official Mike Bloomfield Site
