Al Kooper

Al Kooper (born Feb. 5, 1944) is an American musician, producer, and composer from Brooklyn who emerged during the blues-rock boom of the 1960s. His first major band was the Blues Project, which issued the seminal 1966 album Projections. He and bandmate Steve Katz then formed the jazz-rock big band Blood Sweat & Tears. Their 1968 album Child Is Father to the Man signaled the emergence of stateside brass-rock-soul (Chicago, Sons of Champlin, Ten Wheel Drive). That same year, he teamed with Electric Flag co-founder Mike Bloomfield for Supper Session, a collection of blue jams with singer/guitarist Stephen Stills.

Kooper launched his solo career with the 1968 Columbia release I Stand Alone and issued eight further albums on the label up through 1982. His 1970 Kooper Session introduced the talents of Shuggie Otis. As a producer, he worked on 1969–83 albums by Appaloosa, Sweet Linda Divine, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Tubes, and Phil Judd.

Background

Al Kooper was born Alan Peter Kuperschmidt on February 5, 1944, in Brooklyn, New York, to Sam and Natalie Kuperschmidt. At age four, he moved with his family to Queens. His father Sam worked as a lawyer and played Bessie Smith records at home. Kooper first played piano at age six and later took formal lessons. Around age eleven, he taught himself guitar and chose a Danelectro solid-body from Sears as his first guitar.

At age thirteen, Kooper formed the Aristocats with neighborhood musicians and played temples and churches around Queens. Summer-camp friend Danny Shactman later brought him to a manager at 1650 Broadway, where Kooper passed a guitar audition. Bob Gaudio then brought the fourteen-year-old guitarist into the Royal Teens. Kooper spent roughly two years with the touring group on Alan Freed and Dick Clark package shows.

By 1960, Kooper worked New York recording sessions on guitar and apprenticed as an assistant engineer at a 1650 Broadway studio. At sixteen, he signed a staff-writing contract with Aaron Schroeder and worked with lyricists Bob Brass and Irwin Levine. Kooper graduated from high school in June 1961 and spent one year in a college music program centered on teacher training. In early 1965, he cut “New York’s My Home” for Schroeder’s Aurora label with arranger Artie Butler. Gary Lewis and the Playboys also took the Brass–Kooper–Levine song “This Diamond Ring” to No. 1 on the Billboard singles chart.

Producer Tom Wilson invited Kooper to a Bob Dylan session at Columbia Studio A in Manhattan. On June 16, 1965, Kooper played Hammond organ on the master take of “Like a Rolling Stone” beside guitarist Mike Bloomfield. Dylan retained Kooper for further Highway 61 Revisited tracks and the subsequent Blonde on Blonde sessions in New York and Nashville.

Later in 1965, Wilson summoned Kooper to a Columbia audition with the Blues Project. The band recruited Kooper alongside singer Tommy Flanders, drummer Roy Blumenfeld, bassist/flutist Andy Kulberg, and guitarists Danny Kalb and Steve Katz. The Blues Project signed with Verve/Folkways and recorded a live debut at the Café Au Go Go.

Kooper left the Blues Project in 1967 when the group rejected horn arrangements for his new songs. He then assembled Blood, Sweat & Tears with guitarist Steve Katz, bassist Jim Fielder, drummer Bobby Colomby, saxophonist Fred Lipsius, trombonist/keyboardist Dick Halligan, and trumpeters Randy Brecker and Jerry Weiss. In late 1967, Kooper led the group through sessions for Child Is Father to the Man with producer John Simon. Kooper left the group in 1968 when the other members sought another lead singer.

In 1968, Kooper joined the Columbia A&R department. In May, he booked two Los Angeles studio dates with bassist Harvey Brooks, drummer Eddie Hoh, pianist Barry Goldberg, and guitarist Mike Bloomfield, who left at the end of the first date. Kooper brought guitarist Stephen Stills into the second session and assembled the two dates as Super Session. In summer 1968, Kooper returned to Nashville and began sessions for his first solo album, I Stand Alone.

Discography:

• I Stand Alone (1968)
  
• Super Session (1968 • Mike Bloomfield / Al Kooper / Steve Stills)
  
• You Never Know Who Your Friends Are (1969)
  
• The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper (1969 • Mike Bloomfield & Al Kooper )
  
• Easy Does It (1970)
  
• Kooper Session (1970 • Al Kooper & Shuggie Otis)
  
• The Landlord (OST, 1970)
  
• New York City (You’re a Woman) (1971)
  
• Naked Songs (1972)
  
• A Possible Projection of the Future / Childhood’s End (1972)
  
• Act Like Nothing’s Wrong (1976)
  
• Championship Wrestling (1982)

Sources:

• Discogs: Al Kooper

References and notes

• Al Kooper official site: confirms the Royal Teens chronology, early guitar session work, Blues Project membership, formation of Blood, Sweat & Tears, Columbia A&R appointment, Super Session, and the transition into I Stand Alone. The official photo archive identifies the Aristocats as Kooper’s first band in 1957. (Al Kooper)
• Kooper retrospective booklet, Soul of a Man: gives Sam and Natalie Kooper, the family move from Brooklyn to Queens at age four, Bessie Smith records in the household, early piano activity, self-directed playing, June 1961 graduation, the Blues Project audition, and the summer 1968 start of I Stand Alone. (Al Kooper)
• Sean Wilentz interview with Kooper, Tablet: strongest source for the ukulele-to-guitar sequence, Danny Shactman, the 1650 Broadway audition, Bob Gaudio and the Royal Teens, Aaron Schroeder, Bob Brass and Irwin Levine, “This Diamond Ring,” and Tom Wilson. (Tablet Magazine)
• Recent Kooper interviews: Boston.com confirms piano at six and the Sears Danelectro; The Strange Brew confirms the Aristocats, church and temple jobs, 1650 Broadway studio work, and Kooper’s assistant-engineering experience. (Boston.com)
• College: Kooper confirms one year of college music study and says the curriculum prepared students for music teaching. I found no reliable interview or primary source that names the college, so I left the institution unnamed. (Classic Bands)
• “New York’s My Home”: Kooper himself states that he cut the Aurora single in early 1965 while working for Aaron Schroeder, with Artie Butler as arranger. (Spectropop)
• Dylan sessions: the June 16, 1965 date corrects a date error in one Kooper interview. Dylan session documentation places the released master of “Like a Rolling Stone” on the second Columbia Studio A date, with Kooper on organ. (HISTORY)
• Blues Project and Blood, Sweat & Tears: Kooper’s booklet and the Sound on Sound interview document the Blues Project audition and lineup; Kooper also explains that disagreement over horn arrangements prompted the next group. Producer John Simon confirms his work on Child Is Father to the Man. (Al Kooper)
• Columbia / Super Session / solo transition: Kooper describes assembling Bloomfield, Brooks, Hoh, and later Stills for Super Session. His own site identifies I Stand Alone as the 1968 solo debut, while the Nashville account confirms his return there to record it.