Danny Kalb
Encyclopedia
Danny Kalb is an American
blues
guitarist, and was one of the original members of the 1960s group, Blues Project
.
, and became a solo performer, as well as a session musician
with such folk
singers as Judy Collins
, Phil Ochs
, Pete Seeger
and Bob Dylan
. Kalb and Sam Charters formed The New Strangers. He joined Van Ronk's Ragtime Jug Stompers. Inspired by the African American
bluesmen Son House
, Skip James
and Mississippi John Hurt
, Kalb experimented with acoustic and electronic music. In 1965 Kalb joined with Steve Katz
and, Andy Kulberg
, Roy Blumenfeld and Tommy Flanders to form The Blues Project. Later, when Flanders left the band, he was replaced by Al Kooper
. They recorded three album
s, played quite frequently at the Cafe Au Go Go
and Murray the K
's last "submarine race-watching" spectacular at the RKO 58th Street theater in New York, and had several concert tours. In 1965 The Blues Project performed an eleven minute rendition of Muddy Waters
' "Two Trains Running" in electronic form with Waters in the audience. When asked what he thought of it, Waters said, "You really got me." Kalb later said, "If I'd dropped dead at that point on the spot because of what we thought of Muddy Waters, then my life would have been well spent." Personalities, drugs and the 1960s livestyle took their toll on the band. Katz left to join Blood, Sweat and Tears.
At the age of 15 Kalb formed the band Gay Notes, and 1961 performed with Bob Dylan on a WBAI
-FM concert broadcast. In 1963 Kalb performed in Ragtime Jug Stompers with his mentor Dave Van Ronk. In 1964 he recorded as Folk Stringers produced by blues ethnomusicologist Sam Charters. In 1964 Kalb played second guitar on Phil Ochs
' album All the News That's Fit to Sing
and in 1964 appeared on Judy Collins' Fifth Album. From 1965 to 1971 he was with The Blues Project. In 1968 he released Crosscurrents with Stefan Grossman. He was fairly quiet for the next twenty years, but joined Al Kooper for a Blues Project reunion recording at the Bottom Line in 1996. He currently performs solo acoustic gigs, plays acoustic and electric with his Danny Kalb Trio, including Bob Jones on acoustic bass and Mark Ambrosino on drums; and he occasionally performs with Stefan Grossman
and Steve Katz, as well as his brother Jonathan Kalb. The Danny Kalb Trio recorded I'm Gonna Live The Life I Sing About (Sojourn) in 2008, which received critical acclaim in the blues media.
Kalb still plays the vintage early 1960s Gibson J-200
with which he began his career, although he also uses a Martin electric-acoustic and a Greco Les Paul-style electric guitar. Solo projects include: Livin’ with The Blues (Legend 1995), All Together Now (self-released 2002), Live in Princeton (self-released 2003), and Live in Brooklyn (self-released 2006). Crosscurrents, the 1968 LP with Stefan Grossman was re-released as CD in 2006 and a new CD, Played a Little Fiddle, was released in 2007 by Kalb, Katz and Grossman.
According to Sam Charters;
Howard L Solomon (Cafe au Go Go owner and promoter) 1999;
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
guitarist, and was one of the original members of the 1960s group, Blues Project
Blues Project
The Blues Project is a band from the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City that was formed in 1965 and originally split up in 1967. While their songs drew from a wide array of musical styles, they are most remembered as one of the earliest practitioners of psychedelic rock, as well as one...
.
Life and career
Kalb was a protege of Dave Van RonkDave Van Ronk
Dave Van Ronk was an American folk singer, born in Brooklyn, New York, who settled in Greenwich Village, New York, and was eventually nicknamed the "Mayor of MacDougal Street" ....
, and became a solo performer, as well as a session musician
Session musician
Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...
with such folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
singers as Judy Collins
Judy Collins
Judith Marjorie "Judy" Collins is an American singer and songwriter, known for her eclectic tastes in the material she records ; and for her social activism. She is an alumna of the University of Colorado.-Musical career:Collins was born and raised in Seattle, Washington...
, Phil Ochs
Phil Ochs
Philip David Ochs was an American protest singer and songwriter who was known for his sharp wit, sardonic humor, earnest humanism, political activism, insightful and alliterative lyrics, and haunting voice...
, Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
and Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
. Kalb and Sam Charters formed The New Strangers. He joined Van Ronk's Ragtime Jug Stompers. Inspired by the African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
bluesmen Son House
Son House
Eddie James "Son" House, Jr. was an American blues singer and guitarist. House pioneered an innovative style featuring strong, repetitive rhythms, often played with the aid of slide guitar, and his singing often incorporated elements of southern gospel and spiritual music...
, Skip James
Skip James
Nehemiah Curtis "Skip" James was an American Delta blues singer, guitarist, pianist and songwriter, born in Bentonia, Mississippi, died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
and Mississippi John Hurt
Mississippi John Hurt
John Smith Hurt, better known as Mississippi John Hurt was an American country blues singer and guitarist.Raised in Avalon, Mississippi, Hurt taught himself how to play the guitar around age nine...
, Kalb experimented with acoustic and electronic music. In 1965 Kalb joined with Steve Katz
Steve Katz (musician)
Steve Katz is a guitarist and record producer who is best known as a member of the rock group Blood, Sweat & Tears. Katz was an original member of the rock bands The Blues Project and American Flyer...
and, Andy Kulberg
Andy Kulberg
Andy Kulberg was an American musician notable for his bass playing with the groups Blues Project and Seatrain....
, Roy Blumenfeld and Tommy Flanders to form The Blues Project. Later, when Flanders left the band, he was replaced by Al Kooper
Al Kooper
Al Kooper is an American songwriter, record producer and musician, known for organizing Blood, Sweat & Tears , providing studio support for Bob Dylan when he went electric in 1965, and also bringing together guitarists Mike Bloomfield and Stephen Stills to...
. They recorded three album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
s, played quite frequently at the Cafe Au Go Go
Cafe Au Go Go
The Cafe au Go Go was a Greenwich Village night club located in the basement of 152 Bleecker Street. The club featured many well known musical groups, folksingers and comedy acts between the opening in February 1964 until closing in October 1969. Originally owned by Howard Solomon who sold the club...
and Murray the K
Murray the K
Murray Kaufman , professionally known as Murray the K, was an influential rock and roll impresario and disc jockey of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s...
's last "submarine race-watching" spectacular at the RKO 58th Street theater in New York, and had several concert tours. In 1965 The Blues Project performed an eleven minute rendition of Muddy Waters
Muddy Waters
McKinley Morganfield , known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician, generally considered the "father of modern Chicago blues"...
' "Two Trains Running" in electronic form with Waters in the audience. When asked what he thought of it, Waters said, "You really got me." Kalb later said, "If I'd dropped dead at that point on the spot because of what we thought of Muddy Waters, then my life would have been well spent." Personalities, drugs and the 1960s livestyle took their toll on the band. Katz left to join Blood, Sweat and Tears.
At the age of 15 Kalb formed the band Gay Notes, and 1961 performed with Bob Dylan on a WBAI
WBAI
WBAI, a part of the Pacifica Radio Network, is a non-commercial, listener-supported radio station, broadcasting at 99.5 FM in New York City.Its programming is leftist/progressive, and a mixture of political news and opinion from a leftist perspective, tinged with aspects of its complex and varied...
-FM concert broadcast. In 1963 Kalb performed in Ragtime Jug Stompers with his mentor Dave Van Ronk. In 1964 he recorded as Folk Stringers produced by blues ethnomusicologist Sam Charters. In 1964 Kalb played second guitar on Phil Ochs
Phil Ochs
Philip David Ochs was an American protest singer and songwriter who was known for his sharp wit, sardonic humor, earnest humanism, political activism, insightful and alliterative lyrics, and haunting voice...
' album All the News That's Fit to Sing
All the News That's Fit to Sing
All The News That's Fit to Sing was Phil Ochs' first official album. Recorded in 1964 for Elektra Records, it was full of many elements that would come back throughout his career. It was the album that defined his "singing journalist" phase, strewn with songs whose roots were allegedly pulled from...
and in 1964 appeared on Judy Collins' Fifth Album. From 1965 to 1971 he was with The Blues Project. In 1968 he released Crosscurrents with Stefan Grossman. He was fairly quiet for the next twenty years, but joined Al Kooper for a Blues Project reunion recording at the Bottom Line in 1996. He currently performs solo acoustic gigs, plays acoustic and electric with his Danny Kalb Trio, including Bob Jones on acoustic bass and Mark Ambrosino on drums; and he occasionally performs with Stefan Grossman
Stefan Grossman
Stefan Grossman is an American acoustic fingerstyle guitarist and singer, music producer and educator, and co-founder of Kicking Mule records.-Early life and influences:Born in Brooklyn, New York, to Herbert and Ruth Grossman...
and Steve Katz, as well as his brother Jonathan Kalb. The Danny Kalb Trio recorded I'm Gonna Live The Life I Sing About (Sojourn) in 2008, which received critical acclaim in the blues media.
Kalb still plays the vintage early 1960s Gibson J-200
Gibson J-200
Gibson J-200 is an acoustic guitar model produced by the Gibson Guitar Corporation.Gibson entered into production of this model in 1938 as its top-of-the-line flat top guitar, initially called the Super Jumbo, changing the name in 1939 to the Super Jumbo 200. It was made at the Gibson Factory in...
with which he began his career, although he also uses a Martin electric-acoustic and a Greco Les Paul-style electric guitar. Solo projects include: Livin’ with The Blues (Legend 1995), All Together Now (self-released 2002), Live in Princeton (self-released 2003), and Live in Brooklyn (self-released 2006). Crosscurrents, the 1968 LP with Stefan Grossman was re-released as CD in 2006 and a new CD, Played a Little Fiddle, was released in 2007 by Kalb, Katz and Grossman.
According to Sam Charters;
- "It was generally conceded ... that ... Kalb was the most exciting of the new players."
Howard L Solomon (Cafe au Go Go owner and promoter) 1999;
- "Danny Kalb ... is up there with the best of all blues legends ... His work for me at Cafe' au Go Go was amazing ... I've worked with the greatest of all time and he is at the top ... Eric Clapton, Mick Taylor, Jimi Hendrix, John Mayall, Zappa, all greats, but Danny will emerge in the top 5."
Discography
- 1963 True Endeavor Jug Band The Art Of The Jug Band with Sam Charters - Danny Kalb - Artie Traum
- 1964 The New Strangers Meet The New Strangers with Sam Charters - Danny Kalb
- 1964 The Folk Stringers with Barry Kornfeld - Danny Kalb - Artie Rose
- 1964 Dave Van Ronk and the Rag Time Jug Stompers with Dave Van Ronk, Danny Kalb, Sam Charters, and Artie Rose
- 1964 The Blues Project (Electra) Various artists
- 1968 Crosscurrents with Danny Kalb and Stefan Grossman
- 1995 Livin' With The Blues
- 2007 Played a Little Fiddle Stefan Grossman, Danny Kalb and Steve Katz
- 2008 I'm Gonna Live The Life I Sing About with Bob Jones and Mark Ambrosino