The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper

In 1968, former Blues Project/Blood Sweat & Tears organist Al Kooper and erstwhile Paul Butterfield Blues Band/Electric Flag guitarist Mike Bloomfield convened for the epochal *Super Session* album, and later that year they played three nights at the famed Fillmore West with a different rhythm section and some stellar guests (Carlos Santana, Elvin Bishop). The highlights, released in 1969, remain both a blues-rock milestone and a reminder of Kooper and Bloomfield\'s musical muscle. Keeping with the ad hoc approach of the original *Super Session*, the only tune from that album here is \"Her Holy Modal Highness\" (a slightly retitled variation on \"His Holy Modal Majesty\"), with Kooper wailing away on the electronic Ondioline. But mostly the band tackles covers, of everything from the smoldering \"Green Onions\" by Booker T. & The M.G\'s to Albert King\'s \"Don\'t Throw Your Love on Me So Strong.\" Bloomfield\'s passionate picking makes it clear why he\'s considered one of the greatest blues axemen, and Kooper lays down heavy Hammond riffs, mixing tonal colors like a master painter.

One of the seminal live albums of the late '60s, Live Adventures of Al Kooper & Mike Bloomfield was a natural, organic offshoot of the hugely successful Super Session album from 1968, which contained performances by both of these groundbreaking musicians, as well as Stephen Stills.