Regrouping under Katz and Colomby, and fronted by David Clayton-Thomas (who had sung with a Canadian blues band, The Bossmen), BS&T entered a period of immense popularity. The band nearly broke up when Kooper, Randy Brecker, and Jerry Weiss left (Brecker to join The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra). Child Is Father featured songs by Harry Nilsson, Tim Buckley, Randy Newman, Gerry Goffin, and Carole King, along with Kooper originals and arrangements by Fred Lipsius for brass, strings, and studio effects. The horn players were recruited from New York jazz and studio bands. The nucleus of the original band was Steve Katz, also of the Blues Project Jim Fielder, who had played with the Mothers of Invention and Buffalo Springfield and Bobby Colomby, who had drummed behind folksingers Odetta and Eric Andersen. Kooper formed BS&T after leaving the Blues Project in 1967. When Kooper was forced out of the band soon after its eclectic debut, Child Is Father to the Man, BS&T became increasingly identified as a " jazz-rock" group, although its music was essentially easy-listening rhythm and blues or rock with the addition of brass. And I mean that in a good way.Blood, Sweat & Tears is a Canadian-American jazz-rock music group originally formed in 1967 in New York City by Al Kooper, Jim Fielder, Fred Lipsius, Randy Brecker, Jerry Weiss, Dick Halligan, Steve Katz and Bobby Colomby.įounder Al Kooper conceived Blood, Sweat and Tears as an experiment in expanding the size and scope of the rock band with touches of jazz, blues, classical, and folk music. Like much music from the time, BS&T sounds like an aural snapshot of the day. Flutes, horns, and cymbals are presented with plenty of studio air and atmosphere, all on a large soundstage arrayed across the room. The electric bass digs deep there’s a realistic snap to the drums. The songs range from “Variations on a Theme by Erik Satie,” which opens and closes the LP, to Billie Holiday’s “God Bless the Child,” Traffic’s “Smiling Phases,” and three hit singles that define the album: Lead-singer David Clayton-Thomas’ “Spinning Wheel,” Laura Nyro’s “And When I Die,” and “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy.” MoFi’s One-Step breathes a newfound immediacy and physical presence to these tunes, as well as impressive dynamic punch, detail, and instrumental texture. A huge commercial and artistic success, Blood Sweat & Tears has just been reissued as part of Mobile Fidelity’s outstanding One-Step series, which removes two steps in the plating process to bring us that much closer to the master tape. Over its lengthy ongoing career and countless personnel shuffles, Blood, Sweat & Tears achieved its peak of fame in 1968 with the release of this eponymously titled LP.
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