The Blues Project

The Blues Project, along with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, helped start the blues revival of the late '60s. The group was formed in early 1965 with folk, bluegrass, and pop musicians. Danny Kalb, formerly one of Dave Van Ronk's Ragtime Jug Stompers, and Roy Blumenfeld, a jazz fan, had discussed playing folk and country blues on electric instruments and drums. Blumenfeld brought in Andy Kulberg, who had studied modern jazz theory at the New York University School of Music, and Kalb rounded up guitarist Artie Traum and folksinger Tommy Flanders. Traum dropped out during rehearsals, and Steve Katz, who had played with the Ragtime Jug Stompers and Jim Kweskin's Even Dozen Jug Band, replaced him. The final addition was keyboardist Al Kooper (one of the Royal Teens), fresh from Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited sessions. The group made its debut at Greenwich Village’s Cafe Au Go Go in summer 1965, toured the East Coast, traveled to San Francisco in spring 1966, then played campus shows all the way back to New York.

They made their debut album in May 1966. Flanders then left for a solo career and recorded Moonstone Verve in 1969. The Project continued as a quintet, which did three open-air concerts in Central Park in the summer of 1966 and gigs as backup band for Chuck Berry.

Projections yielded the FM standbys “I Can’t Keep From Crying” and the instrumental “Flute Thing,” but the Blues Project’s popularity was limited to New York and scattered college towns. Chief arranger and songwriter Kooper left the group after a second live album had been recorded in the summer of 1967, Kalb mysteriously disappeared, and the group soon disbanded. Katz joined Kooper in Blood, Sweat and Tears [see entry]; Kalb later returned to session work; and Kulberg and Blumenfeld went to California to form Seatrain. Planned Obsolescence was pieced together from recordings the Project had made as a quintet in 1967.

Kalb revived the Blues Project in 1971. Blumenfeld joined him and brought in Seatrain alumnus Kretmar. Lazarus sold no better than previous Project releases. The eponymously titled followup found Flanders again singing with the group, which now included pianist David Cohen, once of Country Joe and the Fish, and guitarist Bill Lussenden. The next year, Kooper reunited the original lineup - minus Flanders - for a concert in Central Park, documented on the live Reunion. There have been periodic reunion concerts since, continuing up into the early ’90s. Kulberg and guitarist Chris Michie collaborated on soundtrack music for PBS documentaries, independent feature films, TV commercials, and such shows as Starsky and Hutch. Kulberg, who settled in San Francisco, also won a local drama critics award for his 1985 stage musical, The Dead End Kid. Kalb continues to live in New York City, where he performs sporadically and teaches guitar.

from The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Simon & Schuster, 2001)