The Butterfield Blues Band - East-West
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Free Music Notes for East-West
Free Music Review: Mike Vargo was kind
Hit: 2 Stars
He's right on the mark regarding the 2nd rate material.The US version of this is very sorry indeed.
Finally a CD that sounds even worse than well worn vinyl.
Electra should be ashamed of ever putting this out in the first place without remastering. Completely sonically challenged.
If you must, buy the double import - at least you get the 1st CD as well.
Free Music Review: a few other perspectives on this cd
Hit: 5 Stars
The Paul Butterfield Blues Band and the Rolling Stones are probably the sole reasons that most white people now even know that the blues exists: ... The Stones because of their incredible commercial success, and somewhat by-the-book covers...and Butterfield because of Mike Bloomfield's unceasing efforts to very publicly credit his inspirations, the original blues ,(and jazz),artists, along with the band's high-energy workouts on blues-based forms ... The -last- thing in the world Bloomfield wanted was for his fans to get 'stuck' on him; he was -the- ambassador between races and generations for the blues, (ask B.B.King where's he thinks his career would be now without Mike's help) ...With that in mind, follow his lead; go out and get some Little Walter, Muddy Waters, Albert, BB, and Freddy King, Elmore James, Howlin'Wolf,(the list goes on and on), and for the more experimental stuff; Coltrane and Ravi Shankar ... That having been said, this music is the turning point, definitely my personal introduction to the music, (along with the Stones), and an LP that I couldn't keep from playing many times every day for months when it first came out. Although upon current listening, much of this seems to have youthful enthusiasm winning out over taste, I recall clearly when I wouldn't have had it any other way....Check out the timeline of the PBBB's move to San Francisco with the music to soon follow from that scene: Santana credits Bloomfield as his major guitar influence,(his band was originally the 'Santana Blues Band'), the Jefferson Airplane's Jorma interviews speak of learning how electric guitar should be played from Bloomfield,(Jorma having mostly played acoustic up until then), and the _quite_ similar Grateful Dead jams that were so soon to follow 'East-West'...Extend that influence to all of the Dead-Inspired 'Jam' bands now, and you have an earth-shaking shift in the way music is played, as well as a dead-center point between what's happening now and the original blues,jazz, and 'world' artists .Free Music Review: Sixties vintage bravura . . .
Hit: 5 Stars
This album is music of the '60's to me. I remember learning about blues hiding in an alley next to the stairs leading down to the Unicorn Coffee House in Boston, listening to the likes of James Cotton and the Siegel-Schwall Band and just being knocked out. Then, on a rummage through the bins at a record store in Braintree, I just liked the look of the cover of this album. That choice changed my musical taste forever.I had listened to blues, a lot of it, by the time I got this record; but, this stretched my imagination. The first thing that grabbed me was the harp. Butterfield on "Work Song" just made me want to turn it UP! By the time I hit 'East-West' I was in magicland. With an apology to a forgotten reviewer of many years ago,Bishop was from Chicago, and Bloomfield was from EGYPT!
I still listen to this album a couple of times a month, and have gone through a dozen copies on records, tapes, and CD's, which always seem to be missing after parties. I don't mind . . . much. As I have aged, and have seen rock lose its bearings more times than I can count, and then return to its bare essentials, the blues and folk, I return to this album like Linus' blanket. It is comfort and joy for me.
In the many years since I have heard this music, which was ground breaking in its time, leading to much that followed, the odd consequence has been to send me back, to the old bluesmen to try and understand why 12 bars of repetitive use of three chords has been the hanger for a closet full of repressed feelings and release. If you can't hear John Lee Hooker, all the great blues guitarists and harpists, Robert Johnson and the Devil, and some whiskey in this record, you haven't listened to it enough.
Buy it. Often.
Free Music Review: The Filler Is The Killer, But The Meat Is Magnificent
Hit: 4 Stars
This album isn't exactly the flawless masterwork it's been cracked up to be since it first showed up in 1966 - for better or worse, the filler is the killer here. Butterfield wasn't exactly lacking in soul empathy, but picking "Get Out Of My Life, Woman" was something on the order of a freshwater fish taking a dip in the Atlantic Ocean; New Orleans soul Butterfield certainly wasn't, though it should be props to keyboard ace Mark Naftalin for a solo which gives it the old college try. Whoever suggested they have a crack at Mike Nesmith's "Mary, Mary" should probably have been shot - in the Monkees' hands the song was a pretty nice little medium rocker, but in the Butterfield band's hands it's as though they just wanted to have a soft laugh but no one got the joke. Likewise with "All These Blues," which sounds only too much like the Brill Building's idea of the real thing, even with Butterfield's howling harmonica break.That's a shame, because the good material is unforgettable. The album kicks off with their stomping re-arrangement of Robert Johnson's vintage "Walkin' Blues," bridged neatly by guitarmeister Mike Bloomfield's stabbing four-bar solo, handing off to Butterfield for an almost call-to-arms harp break. "I Got A Mind To Give Up Livin'," otherwise an easy, accessible slow blues, is ruled by Bloomfield, from his vocal-like fills to his shattering cry of a solo. Elvin Bishop's ballad, "Never Say No," was the sleeper surprise of the set, a surprising piece of blues songwriting with a moody accompaniment behind Bishop's oddly affecting, withering baritone vocal, punctuated by some choice whisperings from the Butterfield harmonica and Naftalin's organ. And, if nothing else, their snappy remake of Muddy Waters's chestnut "Still A Fool" into "Two Trains Running" is good clean bluesy fun.
But the world knows what keeps this album in circulation (deservedly) in reality, and that's the two extended workouts. Taking on "Work Song," a spry blues instrumental cornetist Nat Adderley wrote for big brother Cannonball's classic quintet, was as inspired a pick as the young blues groups of the 1960s got; handing Butterfield's harmonica the theme was comparable to deciding it should be Sandy Koufax and not Don Drysdale to start the deciding game of the World Series. Then it's Bloomfield firing off that slick-fingered, melodiously climbing solo which spreads into a chorus of octave stabbing and a short sustained wail that hands off to Butterfield for a sweeping harmonica turn. Then, it's two choruses of a very swinging organ solo from Naftalin, before Bishop steps in for a spry, slash-and-dash solo in which he uses the short burst as effectively as Bloomfield used the sleek legato. From there, it's a round robin between the four soloists as though they're having a hearty laugh over what they've just peeled off, before Butterfield returns to finish off with a lickety-split restatement of the song's theme.
And, then, there's "East-West" itself. Yes, indeed, Mike Bloomfield wanted to experiment with a prospective union of Eastern music form with blues and jazz; and, his experiment was both a success and an albatross. A success because the Butterfield boys could and did bring it off with supple splendor - you start with eight quick bars Bloomfield punching out a rhythm comp right out of the Stax-Volt book over a skippety bottom from bassist Jerry Arnold and drummer Billy Davenport; then, Bishop starts off the soloing with a thick round of bursts and stabs that begins with just a little hesitation but settles steadily before he hands off to Butterfield for a harmonica round that flirts with just about every music form he's ever known, including a line or two which sound more like a flute exercise (in fact, the flute had been his first instrument as a boy), before the band surges up behind his high hollers and then stops short - extremely short - before Bloomfield reels off the solo for which he threatened to become best known for awhile, that jarring, raga-wrapped round into which he compressed any and everything he could glean from John Coltrane's earliest free-form experiments without entirely ignoring his own root (and it's worth it to note that the gleanings probably came as much from Coltrane's sometimes-overlooked "Coltrane Plays The Blues" album as anything else), a staggering object lesson in melodic adventurousness before the band surges up to him and comes to another short stop, followed by a lovely extended soft interlude in which Bloomfield nudges little lyric lines over some choice comp winging from Bishop, Naftalin and Butterfield, ending in a pleasantly rousing riff round and fiery sendoff.
But "East-West" also, unintentionally, provoked only too many attempts to beat it at its own game. You could probably count on one hand how many blues-rockers who appeared in the wake of the Butterfield band's experiment truly made freewheeling group improvisation useful and embraceable to hear - Cream on their best nights, the original lineup of the Allman Brothers Band, and Bloomfield with Al Kooper (listen to the raga-waltz "His Holy Modal Majesty" on the magnificent "Super Session") are three who come immediately to mind - while you might need a closet to hold all those who tried it and whose failures made it a disgrace rather than a gift. That wasn't the Butterfield band's fault, of course. And, 34 years after it first saw the light of day, the Butterfield experiment remains as striking a success as anything which sprang forth from their era.
Free Music Review: Absolutely Incredible
Hit: 5 Stars
After The Paul Butterfield Blues Bands' first album, most fans would expect little deviation from their basic blues flair. How wrong they would be. "East-West" is so ahead of its time, there is almost no room for musical expansion. The band's sophmore effort tightens the mesh, and puts them on a plataeu few blues bands have ever reached. Starting off with "Walkin' Blues," Butterfield growls on vocals and wails on harp in this chicago blues staple. "Get Out of My Life Woman" can be veiwed in the same context, which really gives the album a nice flow. Keeping in the blues vein, "I Got a Mind to Give up Living" allows Bloomfield a chance to show off his blues chops in this five minute tale of woe and sorrow. Butterfield's vocals are at their most soulful and heartfelt on this track, which only intensifies his love for the blues. "All These Blues" is probably the weakest track on the album. It is too short, and seems to be a little uninspired compared to the other tracks. "Work Song" picks up the slack, closing the first side of the album with a spectacular blues send up. Starting with a killer harp, one by one the band members start doing variations on the riff. Bloomfield tears in, playing a VERY LOUD and beautifully distorted lead guitar. He then lets Bloomfield wail away on harp which gives way to Marc Naftalin's organ. Soon the tempo picks up until they all go back to the main riff and end the song. When it's all done, eight minutes of amazing blues and jazz are left to listen again and again. The second side starts off with "Mary, Mary," which is the groups try (emphasis on the word "try") at commercial success. This fails rather miserably, but yet again another great song follows to account for the previous one. "Two Trains Running" is a classic Chicago Blues reworking with a nice fast/moderate tempo beat. My only complaint is that there is a fade ending. "Never Say No" is the slowest and most woeful song on the album. Moving along at a snail's pace Elvin Bishop's vocals make the song work along with the long moaning organ in the back. Next is "East West" which is so incredible and so risky for its time. Once again it involves round robin improvisation in which the band goes even farther than "Work Song." Starting out with a moderate tempo R&B groove, the music becomes louder, working its way to a crescendo. Then Elvin Bishop releases the musical tension and rips into an unbelievable eastern guitar solo. Billy Davenport provides fast bosanova drum rolls to accompany and underpin Bishop on his solo. Soon the band gets louder and works its way to another musical climax. When it's over, Butterfield is left to noodle some quiet eastern licks over a heavenly keyboard and a repiticous bass line. Soon the band gets louder again and the main eastern lick returns until the group ending finally closes the song and album. After +13 minutes, "East West" leaves you wondering what you just heard. After 45 minutes "East-West" leaves you wondering how a group could be so ahead of their time and if anyone could do it any better.