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True to his roots

Al Kooper keeps the real R&B spirit alive
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By Darrell Jónsson
For The Prague Post
October 17th, 2007 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
Kooper is an icon of '60s and '70s rock, both as a musician and a producer.
Al Kooper and The Funky Faculty

When: Oct. 22 at 8
Where: Divadlo Archa
Tickets: 790 Kč in advance through Ticketpro and at the venue; 990 Kč day of show

“I didn’t even know how to turn the damned thing on!” Al Kooper told Mojo magazine two years ago in talking about his Hammond B-3 audition with Bob Dylan. Reflecting on that moment in an interview with The Prague Post, he adds, “If [keyboardist] Paul Griffin hadn’t left the keyboard on, I’d still be playing bars in Long Island.”
A similar happenstance of bumping into Brian Jones in a hallway during the Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” session led to Kooper defining the song’s mood with a riveting French horn part.
Given those kind of incidents and Kooper’s self-effacing remarks, one might be tempted to think of him as the Forrest Gump of rock ’n’ roll. But the truth is, Kooper’s immense musical energy, skill and integrity had a lot more to do with his success than any accident.
Recounting his career for the Post, Kooper says, “I just tried to get myself into the music business any way possible. I actually started as guitarist in a band called The Royal Teens in 1958, when I was 14. Songwriting came next, then arranging. In the mid ’60s, I was in a group called The Blues Project, and then I formed Blood Sweat & Tears. After that I became a producer and later had my own record company. I have also scored films and TV series. I just followed my muse at all times.”
The richness of Kooper’s muse, which led to sessions with everyone from Hendrix, Dylan, Alice Cooper and Lynyrd Skynyrd to the Beastie Boys, can be heard on one of the hidden treasures of the ’60s, the first Blood Sweat & Tears album Child is Father to the Man. Mentioning BS&T today may be enough to make any hard-core rock fan cringe. Yet as Kooper originally built it, BS&T bore no resemblance to the mainstream band that developed after he left. Working with producer John Simon, he developed a sophisticated palate that stirred blues, 18th-century classical-flavored prog rock and lilting jazz into one of the era’s most cogent album-length statements.
In the face of his brilliant use of brass and studio experimentation, Captain Kooper would soon face a BS&T mutiny. Yet after walking the plank, he neither sank nor swam. In the realm of ’60s and ’70s rock, Kooper was fated to fly.
After all, who needed BS&T when artists like Stephen Stills, Michael Bloomfield and Shuggie Otis, all in their prime, were more than willing to jump on Kooper’s brassy Hammond B-3 musical ride? Over the following years, via his “Super Sessions” recordings, Kooper and his collaborators became an open FM underground radio secret. Just about everything Kooper and crew touched, from Dylan and Donovan to modal jazz and Curtis Mayfield covers, sizzled under his magical touch.
These days, Kooper is putting the finishing touches on his upcoming CD White Chocolate. Like his 2005 critically acclaimed Black Coffee, there will be no shortage of R&B. Speaking of this ongoing musical thread, Kooper says, “Well, Stax was an influence since its inception in my listening regimen in the early ’60s. I am constantly influenced by Stax, Motown and the Beatles middle-to-late period...so that never changes.
“The music I play, mostly classic R&B-influenced, is extinct. Maybe 50 known acts still play it, and many regional bands we don’t know about. I just try to get better at it as opposed to being interested in performing modern pop music. Last night, as I was working on the new album, I employed a musical part very influenced by the Chuck Jackson 1962 record I Keep Forgetting. Fortunately, I don’t keep forgetting when it comes to my roots.”
If the past is any indication, when Kooper and his crew take the Archa stage, anybody suffering from an R&B deficiency is bound to be immediately cured. The way he and the Funky Faculty hammer “Green Onions” live is rumored to be a near-religious experience. As former Rolling Stones manager Andrew Oldman once said, “Al always proselytized people into their perfect selves, a patriarchal maven of heal and shout.”

Darrell Jónsson can be reached at features@praguepost.com


Other articles in Night & Day (17/10/2007):

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