Mike Bloomfield
- For the astronaut, see Michael J. Bloomfield
Michael Bernard Bloomfield (July 28 1943 – February 15 1981) was an American musician, guitarist and composer, born in Chicago, Illinois, into a well-off Jewish family on Chicago's North Side. The Bloomfield fortune was built on the back of his father's invention, the sugar dispenser ("shaker") with a flapper lid, which the family also manufactured and distributed, along with salt & pepper shakers, and the classic revolving pie display, developed by his uncle. It is documented that Bloomfield turned his back on the fortune he could inherit and turned his focus to music, in particular the blues.
During his teenage years he ventured to the blues clubs on Chicago's South Side and found his true calling. Here he connected with Paul Butterfield and Elvin Bishop, and in 1964 joined the Paul Butterfield Blues Band which included Howlin' Wolf rhythm section alumni Sam Lay and Jerome Arnold. Their electric Chicago blues inspired a generation of white bluesmen, including John Mayall & the Blues Breakers. Bloomfield's work on the the band's self-titled debut, and the subsequent record East-West, brought wide acclaim to the young guitarist. Especially popular was "East-West's" thirteen-minute title cut, an instrumental combining elements of blues, jazz, psychedelic rock and the classical Indian raga. Bloomfield's innovative solos were at the forefront of the ground-breaking piece. He had been inspired to create "East-West" after an all-night LSD trip during which, he later told his bandmates, he came to "understand" Indian music worked.[citation needed]
Bloomfield was also a session musician who gained wide recognition for his work with Bob Dylan during Dylan's first explorations into "electric" music. Bloomfield's sound was a major part of Dylan's approach, as featured especially on Highway 61 Revisited. His guitar style bridged the blues influence with rock and folk. Bloomfield, along with fellow Butterfield members Jerome Arnold and Sam Lay, appeared at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 with Dylan for the folksinger's controversial first "electric" performance. That historic set was greeted with hearty disapproval by many traditional folk fans in attendance.
Tired of the the Butterfield Band's rigorous touring schedule and wishing to create his own group, Bloomfield left Butterfield to form the short-lived Electric Flag in 1967 with two longtime Chicago cohorts, organist Barry Goldberg and vocalist Nick Gravenites. The Electric Flag was supposed to feature "American music" and incorporated an expanded lineup complete with a horn section, allowing the group to add soul music to its extensive list of influences. The inclusion of drummer Buddy Miles, with his gravelly voice and great stage presence, also gave Bloomfield license to explore soul and R&B as he had not be able to in adhering to his Chicago blues roots. The Electric Flag debuted at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival and issued an album, A Long Time Comin', in April 1968 on Columbia Records. Critics complimented the group's distinctive, intriguing sound but found the record itself somewhat uneven. Unfortunately, the band was already disintegrating; rivalries between members and shortsighted management—not to mention heroin abuse—all took their toll. Bloomfield himself left the band he'd formed shortly after its album was released.
Michael Bloomfield also made an impact through his work with Al Kooper, with whom he'd played in the Dylan band, on the album Super Session in 1968. Super Session was a jam-oriented record that spotlighted Bloomfield's own guitar skills on one side and those of Stephen Stills on the other. Issued in 1968, it received excellent reviews and became the best-selling album of Bloomfield's career. Super Session's success led to a sequel, The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper, which was recorded over three shows at the Fillmore West in 1968 and released the following year. That album featured Bloomfield's on-record singing debut. He continued with solo and back-up work from 1969 through 1980.
During the late 1970s, Bloomfield recorded for several smaller labels, including Takoma. Through Guitar Player magazine he also put out an instructional album with a vast array of blues guitar styles, titled If You Love These Blues, Play 'Em as You Please. Through the 1970s, Bloomfield seem satisfied to play in local San Francisco Bay Area clubs, either sitting in with other bands or using his own "Michael Bloomfield and Friends" outfit. But clearly, his best performing days were behind him and most of the decade was spent battling drugs and his own deep insecurities. A revealing look at his decline can be heard in the tapes circulated for Chet Helms' (of The Family Dog) Tribal Stomp held at Berkeley's Greek Theatre in 1978. The original Butterfield Blues Band reunited for this show and Bloomfield was featured in several solos. However, his guitar is out of tune at times and he simply misses licks he could have hit in his earlier days. For comparison, seek out concert recording from the Fillmore West with the Electric Flag, when he was in his prime. Bloomfield also was apparently suffering from arthritis in his hands in his last few years and that may have been a telling factor in both the decline of his playing and his mental attitude towards performing.
On February 15 1981 Bloomfield was found dead in San Francisco in his parked car. According to his friends, the size of the heroin dose that killed him meant that he probably did not drive to this spot and overdose, rather that the lethal dose had been administered somewhere else and he had been driven to this spot to avoid complications for his drug-ingesting cohorts. The official cause of death was ruled an accidental drug overdose.
He used Fender guitars, but is most commonly associated with the Gibson Les Paul because that is what he used at the height of his popularity with the Electric Flag and Super Session. His instrument of choice before and after this time was the Fender Telecaster. His use of the Les Paul influenced many others to use it in much the same way, using the front pickup and making judicious use of the guitar's inherent long sustain. Unlike contemporaries such as Jimi Hendrix and Jeff Beck, Bloomfield rarely experimented with feedback and distortion. Instead, he preferred a loud but clean sound with a healthy amount of reverb. One of his amplifiers of choice was a 1965 Fender Twin Reverb. Bloomfield's solos, like most blues guitarists', were based primarily on the pentatonic minor scale. However, his liberal use of chromatic notes within the pentatonic framework allowed a considerable degree of fluidity to his solos. He was also renowned for his vibrato.
Sources
- "Michael Bloomfield". Allmusic.com (accessed September 30 2006).
Selected discography
- The Paul Butterfield Blues Band - The Paul Butterfield Blues Band (1965)
- Highway 61 Revisited - Bob Dylan (1965)
- East-West - The Paul Butterfield Blues Band (1966)
- A Long Time Comin' - The Electric Flag (1968)
- Super Session - Bloomfield, Kooper and Stills (1968)
- If You Love These Blues, Play 'Em As You Please - Mike Bloomfield (1976)