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Bloomfield and Stills have very dfferent approaches to the guitar, and listening to the differences are one of the many perks to this album. On the bill are blues jams, a few Kooper tunes, and a fantastic jam on "Season Of The Which" by Donovan.
After the bands had finished their sets, late night jams were routine labratories. Back in 1968, rock was in clubs, not areans.
(Bloomfield was in the same band). Hendrix, Jefforson Airplane, all the bands now in the pantheon hanging out and playing.This album is gives you a good idea of what this sounded like.
Super Session is Al Kooper, Mike Bloomfield and Stephan Stills, backed by one of the most underrated bassists of the era, Electric Flag's Harvey Brooks. These are the best players, and the jams have the craft of most studio albums.
I remember this album from when I had a vinyl record of it. The music is classic and relaxing. This remastered CD is incredible. The talent in this recording session made this truly a super session.
This CD contains some of Mike Bloomfield's guitar hero work. He was the BEST white blues guitarist of all time (with Peter Green being a very, very close 2nd). When Bloomfield was 'on' no one could touch his playing.
I bought the original LP in 1968, still own it, and think it holds up well to the test of time. Heavy compression of about 6db (making it twice as loud for you non-techies) was applied to the final mix used for this "rematered" CD. BUT, this "24-bit remastered CD" sounds like somebody took sandpaper to the audio - All the dynamics and life of the original mix on the original LP are missing here. A quick extract of this CD and comparison to a 24-bit capture of the LP on my PC shows why. Yes it plays LOUD, but every single dynamic has been squashed - sax wails, guitar note bending, drum rims shots. Go find somone with a copy of the LP and rip a NOT-REMASTERED CD copy of the original mix, then, and only then, may you pass judgement on the "original" - Peace.
There's more than enough great playing here to make this disk well worth the price of purchase. Season of the Witch is totally re-imagined from the Donovan original. You Don't Love Me sounds really dated, in my opinion. His Holy Modal Majesty (what the hell did that mean). Alas, the version I had doesn't include the 4 bonus tracks. is a wonderful jam, it must have influenced Duane Allman who was just coming into his own around this same time. Albert's Shuffle & Stop get things off to a tremendous start. Still haven't decided what I think of it.
The Stills stuff is not quite as strong as the Bloomfield stuff. It Takes a Lot to Laugh., a Dylan cover, is pretty good. Man's Temptation & Harvey's Tune are not strong. I might have enjoyed hearing Albert's Shuffle & Train w/o the horns, which definitely feel like they were plunked down rudely on top of the rest of the mix.
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