Mike Bloomfield, Al Kooper & Stills – Super Session (1968), The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper (1968), Fillmore East: The Lost Concert Tapes (1968)

“Super Session is an album by Al Kooper, with guitarists Mike Bloomfield on the first half and Stephen Stills on the second half of the album. Released by Columbia Records in 1968, it peaked at number 12 on the Billboard 200, and has been certified a gold record by the RIAA, spending 37 weeks on the charts. Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield had previously worked together on the sessions for the ground-breaking classic Highway 61 Revisited by Bob Dylan, as well as playing in support of his controversial appearance at the Newport Folk Festival in July 1965. Kooper had recently left Blood, Sweat & Tears after recording their debut album with them, and was now working as an A&R man for Columbia. Bloomfield was about to leave Electric Flag, and at relative loose ends. Kooper telephoned Bloomfield to see if he was free to come down to the studio and jam; Bloomfield agreed, leaving Kooper to handle the arrangements.  Kooper booked two days of studio time in May 1968, and recruited keyboardist Barry Goldberg and bassist Harvey Brooks, both members of the Electric Flag, along with well-known session drummer ‘Fast’ Eddie Hoh. On the first day, the quintet recorded a group of mostly blues-based instrumental tracks, including a modal excursion ‘His Holy Modal Majesty’, a tribute to the late John Coltrane that was also reminiscent of ‘East-West’ from the second Butterfield Blues Band album. On the second day, with the tapes ready to roll, Bloomfield did not show up. Needing to have something to show for the second day of sessions, to sit in for Bloomfield, Kooper hastily called upon Stephen Stills, also in the process of leaving his band Buffalo Springfield. Regrouping behind Stills, Kooper’s session men cut mostly vocal tracks, including ‘It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry‘ from Highway 61 and a lengthy and atmospheric take of ‘Season of the Witch‘ by Donovan. Harvey Brooks’s closing tune ‘Harvey’s Tune’ includes overdubbed horns added while the album was being mixed. … Along with the stereo version, Super Session was released as a 4-channel quadraphonic version in the 1970s. The quadraphonic version was released on SQ matrix encoded vinyl and discrete 8-track cartridge tape. On April 8, 2003, Legacy Records reissued the album on compact disc with four bonus tracks, including both an outtake and a live track with Bloomfield, and two with the horn overdubs mixed out. In the early 2000s, it was intended that it would be remixed for the new 5.1 channel version to be released on SACD. …”
W – Super Session, Discogs
W – The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper, Discogs
Fillmore East: The Lost Concert Tapes – Discogs
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YouTube: Super Session 50:24, The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield & Al Kooper 1:25:56, Fillmore East: The Lost Concert Tapes 12/13/68