Mike Bloomfield-new release??

Subject: Mike Bloomfield-new release??
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 12 Feb 05 - 12:38 AM

The new Collector's Choice CD catalogue just arrived. They list a "new CD release" by my old Chicago friend, the late guitarist Mike Bloomfield. The title is "If You Love These Blues, Play 'Em As You Please". It is described as: The ultimate single CD showcase of the blues guitar force that was Bloomfield. He honors T-Bone Walker, B.B.King and his other heroes on this 1976 LP while 1979s Bloomfield/Harris finds him delving into gospel blues with fingerpicking Woody Harris. And the Kicking Mule session here is an instructional album he made for Guitar Player magazine.

Has anyone heard this material? And what is it like?

I'm fully aware that Michael B. could be great or terrible---depending on the moment you caught him. I'm also tired of spending money for CDs that don't live up to the blurbs.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Mike Bloomfield-new release??
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 26 Feb 05 - 11:49 AM

refresh

Subject: RE: Mike Bloomfield-new release??
From: GUEST,Wesley S
Date: 26 Feb 05 - 05:54 PM

Art - that one sounds tempting to me too. Lets hope someone has heard it.

Subject: RE: Mike Bloomfield-new release??
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Mar 05 - 04:02 PM

refresh

Subject: RE: Mike Bloomfield-new release??
From: Mark Ross
Date: 15 Mar 05 - 02:01 PM

Art,
I've heard the CD. I thought it was great. It's a teaching tool; he demonstrates all these different styles, from Robert to Lonnie Johnson,BB King, Muddy, etc. I heard it years ago. It's definitely worth the price of admission.

Mark Ross

Subject: RE: Mike Bloomfield-new release??
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 16 Mar 05 - 11:51 AM

Mark, THANKS!

That's what I figured. So I'll give it a try.

Bloomfield would sit in the lounge at Roosevelt University (Chicago) and do note for note re-creations of really difficult styles like Blind Lemon Jefferson's and just blow us away. It was 1960-61 and some years before his own blues band to be followed shortly by Paul Butterfield's band, of which Mike Bloomfield was the main electric guitar force.

Good memories of an old friend and a real musical giant who is recalled by too few these days.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Mike Bloomfield-new release??
From: Wesley S
Date: 16 Mar 05 - 01:06 PM

I guess because of the electric work I heard when he was with Butterfield I don't really think of Bloomfield as being a fingerstyle player.

Subject: RE: Mike Bloomfield-new release??
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 16 Mar 05 - 03:30 PM

Wesley S,

That's what amazed us so much back then. We had only heard Mike fingerpick, and then there were some sessions that preceeded the Butterfield Band where Mike and Paul and cohorts would practice every Wendsday in the lobby of a dorm at the University Of Chicago. (Wonderful sessions!!) All of a sudden, all Mike was doing was flatpick electric ala B.B. King. (Then I never heard him fingerpick after that. It was all or nothing with him.) He was the first I'd ever heard of the white guys who could play the amazing electric leads on the treble strings like B.B. did. I'm pretty sure this was before Clapton was doing some of that with Cream. Mike was the first one in Chicago with Mississippi John Hurt records and he made sure I heard those. He knew that the finger-style was where I was bound.

Art

Subject: RE: Mike Bloomfield-new release??
From: Wesley S
Date: 16 Mar 05 - 04:31 PM

Art - Thanks for the info. Those were years when I was able to buy records just to satisfy my curiosity. I'd heard that Mark Naftlin {sp?} was the son of the mayor of Minneapolis { my old home town } - so I picked up the record just to check that out.
I also remember buying the first Bonnie Raitt LP just because it had been recorded on one of the lakes I used to swim at as a kid. Minnitonka if I remember correctly. Plus there was a Koerner Ray and Glover connection.

Subject: RE: Mike Bloomfield-new release??
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 17 Mar 05 - 10:49 AM

It's strange what comes back to you when ya start remembering the old years that were so filled with mostly cool stuff. Back then--'64 to'67-- I was asst. manager of the Old Town Folklore Center in Chicago. Bloomfield started calling me the cuddle-bunny of Old Town, I think because, his then wife, Suzy, used to say something like that to Mike and he'd get ticked off.

I hadn't thought about that since.

Art

Subject: RE: Mike Bloomfield-new release??
From: Chris C
Date: 17 Mar 05 - 01:37 PM

Hi All:
Bloomfield's my favorite, and I have almost everything he recorded. The "If You Love These Blues..." was (as noted above) done for Guitar Player Mag. in '76. From what I'm told, Bloomfield usually cited it as his favorite of his own works. It was out of print for years. Then the music (w/out the spoken intros to the songs) was released under a new title a few years back, so some of you may have already heard it. Not sure, but I think that reissued CD of just the music made no mention of the original project in the notes(??). I think this new reissue might still be worth getting just for the spoken word parts.
The Bloomfield/Harris stuff I actually don't have(!). I'm bound to get it regardless, but would love to hear any further comments/reviews. (The stuff from the old Guitar Player album is great, to be sure).
Art: Thanks for the personal notes. I'm sure this is a good forum to share any other stories/recollections you may have about this wonderful guitarist.
Regards,
CC

Subject: RE: Mike Bloomfield-new release??
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 17 Mar 05 - 07:50 PM

Chris,

Just one unique night comes to mind. Me and Don Wilson (the cover artist on Robert Johnson's second LP of reissues released on Columbia) were standing by the curb somewhere around where Rush St. and State St. come together in Chicago--near a below ground folk club called the Fickle Pickle. A car screeched to a stop right where we were standing. It was Bloomfield, manic and excited, and he yelled something like, "Come on, John Lee Hooker is in town for one night." We headed out to a dance hall somewhere on the West side of town on W. Roosevlet Road (12th St.) Up a long steep flight of stairs was a really basic large space where things were happening. John Lee was doing his thing, folks were dancing and drinking and, as the night wore on, somehow, John Lee heard that his harp player was getting more money than he was because he was also taking tickets at the door there. John Lee was pissed and held a one-man work stopage; said he wouldn't play until he was given more money for the gig. As a result, Mike was asked to play a some. (It seemed that he was well known in that dancehall.) Well, he did that--and everyone loved him. Folks didn't want him to stop, but Mr. Hooker thought twice about his one-man strike in the light of this new scab labor. He made it known that he wanted to be back on that stage!! Mike moved graciously away and John Lee continued right from where he left off, I think. But it's hard to say because everything John Lee Hooker does sounds alike---at least it does to me--anyhow.

I don't think the problem with the pay went anywhere after that. All seemed forgotten---and/or forgiven.

Several years later after the Electric Flag and other ventures I had to write the obituary for Mike Bloomfield in Come For To Sing Magazine. It was one of the hardest writing jobs I ever did. All I really remember about it was how damn mad I was with Mike---for, seemingly, tossing it all away. Same with Butterfield and so many others. Just a huge damn waste.

Still, it's fun remembering this and writing it out. I can almost smell rhat place...

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Mike Bloomfield-new release??
From: Chris C
Date: 17 Mar 05 - 11:35 PM

Wow, Art.
Thanks.
First of all: Don Wilson?! That's a great cover: it's continued on the back. The portrayal is so much better than that old "composite sketch of Robert Johnson". (Turns out, based on the photos found later, Wilson's imagined RJ looks more accurate, anyway).
More importantly, thanks for sharing your wonderful (and well told) recollection. I read Ed Ward's Bloomfield biography, and If You Love These Blues (Bloomfield bio made from compiled interviews; title same as album discussd above). Both are great, but would be improved with your story included.

I've had the honor of knowing & working with some of Bloomfield's friends/associates, but never got to see him play live. Thanks for bringing us a little closer.
~CC

Subject: RE: Mike Bloomfield-new release??
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 18 Mar 05 - 09:31 AM

Chris,

We are in an interim apartment right now while our place is being renovated by HUD for handicapped accessibility. BUT there is a box in storage now with a framed doodle by Don Wilson waiting to eventually be placed on the wall of our new pad. Don was trying to show me his early ideas for the Robert Johnson cover. (It was nothing like the eventual final cover.) We were having coffee in Googies coffee shop on State and Division in Chicago. Don was drawing with an ink pen on a very absorbent paper napkin---a quite surreal rendering--a line drawing of the supposed Johnson with his guitar. Somewhere in the mix is a bare light bulb that morphs into a busted whisky bottle---a naked gal with a dollar sign for a navel--and more. I grabbed that napkin after Don balled it up to throw away. The next day I took it to a frame shop near Rose Records on S. Wabash Ave. where I was working back then.--That was about '62 or '63. The ketchup stain from Don wiping his mouth with his drawing is still on it.

Don was a good guitar picker on his HUGE August Larsen guitar with the exagerated and ultra-narrow Hedy Lamar-type waist and the built-in metal rods device through the body for extra support of some kind. ----- In the summer of '64 I looked up Larsen and his guitar innovations at the Patent Office in Washington D.C. for Don. But I can't recall any of the details I found there...

Last I heard, Don had disappeared into Central America. I do sometimes wonder about him---whether he's still out there somewhere and what he's doing!?

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Mike Bloomfield-new release??
From: Chris C
Date: 18 Mar 05 - 02:07 PM

That's great! Don't lose that napkin!
(If you ever get a chance to take a digital photo of the thing, please let us know!).
Sorry if this is unduly forward, or the wrong forum for this, but I know you are a wealth of info, so I gotta ask:
You "designed" a nine string gtr, influenced by Joe Williams' (?).
Can you tell us anything about his instrument (tuning, etc), or yours.
In Bloomfield's book Me & Big Joe(I'm sure you've read this, if not please let me know), I think there's passing reference to that being a rather mysterious instrument. And it sounds like spending time w/ Big Joe was both an adventure and an education.

If you're interested, my band's website is also dedicated to blues info, etc. We have posted some brief stories/quotes by & about Bloomfield, includung a bit from Me & Big Joe. (NOT posted for self promotion, I promise:) http://www.triplethreatbluesband.com
I can be emailed from there.

I'd love to include the bit you posted here about Bloomfield & Hooker, but only w/ proper permission from you &/or the'Cat.

Most importantly, Art: thanks so much for sharing.
Wishing you the best,
~Chris

Subject: RE: Mike Bloomfield-new release??
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 18 Mar 05 - 03:59 PM

Chris,

I'll be glad to scan it -- when I find it again. That may be a while. I did scan it and sent it around a while ago but it was on another computer that gave up the ghost and that graphic got lost. But I will do it!

Now, Big Joe. He was one of a kind. I used to hear him at a place called the Blind Pig in Chicago and I did tail around after him in Chicago when I was about hobbit height. His 9-string was a regular 6-string with a metal strip of 3 extra tuners stuck onto the end of the tuning wood stock. One tuner was out there about an inch and a half off the neck and the string was guided to the right place by winding it around a screw head sticking up.

(The strings attached to a tail piece on that incarnation of Joe's guitar--but it would look different on occasion--if ya know what I mean.---Two ball-end strings to each single anchor hole. No idea how he tuned it except the last/bottom high 2 pairs were unison--like a 12-string guitar. The third pair may have been octaves. As I remember it, there were at least 2 pair of doubled stings--usually 3---but it was hard to say which of the third set of two would be doubled on any given day. Sometimes a string broke and was just ignored by Joe for the next week or two.)

The last I saw of Big Joe was in '64 before I headed East for the summer. I was asked by Bob Koester of Delmar Records (later Delmark Records) to, if I could, look into the Library Of Congress Archive Of Folk Song files to see what Blind Lemon Jefferson 78s they might have from the Broadway and Paramount Records labels and a few others. (They didn't have much in 78s back then, and they may not now. They weren't record collectors there.) ----------

I remember getting a postcard from Bob Koester while I was in D.C. saying something like, "Big Joe played a bar and a fracas broke out. Joe almost killed bluesman Jimmy Brown and left town pretty darn quick."---I don't remember Joe ever coming back to Chicago after that.

I carried memories of Joe's 9-string for a bunch of years. When my hands started going numb from what finally turned out to be MS, I began looking for ways to make picking easier. It seemed to me that a 9-string with single 6-5 and 4th (for clear bass tones) strings and doubled 1-2 and 3 would get more sound when strumming even though my picking was deteriorating. I added 3 banjo planetary gears to the center of the tuning stock of my Martin D-76 that I'd won in a raffle at the Old Town School Of Folk Music. It worked for a while--until I couldn't make chords any more. (I'd tried using an Alvarez factory made 9-string for a while but didn't like it at all.)

That nice Martin guitar cost me $3.00 in raffle tickets.

Somewhere else here at Mudcat I told about Big Joe Williams' set at the University Of Chicago Folk Festival in the early 60s. He sat down to play and it became pretty obvious that the crotch was worn out in his pants. Someone from the Folklore Society came out and whispered a few words to Joe. He left the stage and an un-announced intermission ensued.------------------ On returning to the stage, Joe sat down and did his whole set with about 25 or more safety pins holding his pants together--and when the spotlight hit those safety pins, it was like being at a dance with one of those big mirrored reflecting balls (no pun intended) shooting a light show everywhere.

It was just great!!! One of those things ya don't forget!!!!!!

Feel free to re-print any of these tales on your site. Lately, I don't get out much. And it's nice to still be making some musical waves in our music scene/pond.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Mike Bloomfield-new release??
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 18 Mar 05 - 04:08 PM

For my efforts that summer in D.C., Bob Koester paid me off in LPs--record albums. One was Big Joe Williams' PINEY WOODS BLUES.

Art

Subject: RE: Mike Bloomfield-new release??
From: GUEST,Big Mick Lane
Date: 19 Mar 05 - 11:53 AM

Thanks for pointing me to this one, Art. To me, this is why you are such a treasured friend. And another reason why the Mudcat is such a treasured resource. Where the hell else would one get these types of personal glimpses at folks we consider icons of the arts?

Thanks for sharing, my friend.

All the best,

Mick

Subject: RE: Mike Bloomfield-new release??
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 19 Mar 05 - 06:45 PM

Chris,

I cannot send you a P.M. because I am a GUEST here now. For tech reasons, I can't seem to log on and become a member. I did my signing in wrong a year or two ago and it's caused an electrical log jam of some kind that is hard to navigate with my limited compu-expertise.-------------------Whoops, I just found your notation above for your website. When I find the drawing, I'll scan it and send it on to you at your e-mail address.

Regards,

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Mike Bloomfield-new release??
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 19 Mar 05 - 09:58 PM

Chris, (and anyone else interested) Check out this site where all of the folk scene photos I took over the last 4 decades or so can be viewed. Several are of the bluesmen and women I encountered. When prompted, enter the lower case word mudcat for both the user name and the password. That'll get you in...

http://rudegnu.com/art_thieme.html

Regards,

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Mike Bloomfield-new release??
From: katlaughing
Date: 23 Mar 05 - 10:48 AM

Oh, you cuddle bunny, you!**bg** Thanks for pointing this one out to me, too!!! I just LOVE it when the stories start flowing from you, our Fine Art!

This is the BEST of the Mudcat, darlin'...

luvyakat

Subject: RE: Mike Bloomfield-new release??
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 24 Mar 05 - 10:41 AM

Good folks! All your insights have made the choice easier for me. Yesterday I ordered the CD.

thanks so much.

Art

Subject: RE: Mike Bloomfield-new release??
From: Art Thieme
Date: 16 Oct 08 - 01:05 PM

refresh to go along with the 2008 thread about Sleepy John Estes!

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Mike Bloomfield-new release??
From: GUEST,missouri
Date: 27 Mar 11 - 04:38 PM

This came up on a thread about Big Joe Williams. I was a friend of Big Joe's in the Village. Any questions?