Back in the late 60s and early 70s, the music scene was fecund with a plethora of ideas. Jazz, rock, folk and classical were all influencing each other with fascinating combinations of sounds. The term “fusion” was not used at first, as “jazz-rock” was the first label. From the jazz side, you had bands like Weather Report, Return to Forever and Mahavishnu Orchestra. On the rock side of the tracks, exciting sounds came from groups like Chicago, and what we have here, in Blood, Sweat and Tears.People forget how revolutionary this band sounded. It was as fresh as a daisy, mixing rock beats and sensational horns. Vocalist David Clayton-Thomas had the perfect blue eyed soul voice, backed by the hip horns of Chuck Winfield/tp, Lew Soloff/tp, Fred Lipsius/sax-p, Jerry Hyman/tb and a rhythm team of Bobby Colomby/dr, Jim Feilder/b, Steve Katz/g and Dick Halligan/org-tb. This album finds the band ontour in Europe in June and July of 1970, and if you’ve never heard this band before (which will be a shock, as some of these songs are now standards), you’ll be amazed at how fresh this music still sounds.
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Clayton’s voice is perfect for the gospel-tinged pices like “And When I Die” and “Hi-De-Ho” and is exciting on Joe Cocker’s “Something’s Coming On”. The horns are rich as they surround him on a lovely read of “God Bless The Child” and are Gil Evansy for ‘Sometimes In Winter”. Soloff taps into his inner Don Cherry for a wild ride on “Spinning Wheel” ,Lipsus gives some soulful keyboard work on “Somethin’ Goin’ On/Blues Part II” and the band digs a deep groove on Traffic’s “Smiling Phases” before the anthem “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy” features tasty guitar treats from Katz, leading to a muscular finish on “I Can’t Quit Her”. This album is an embarrassment of riches, serving as an indictment on today’s contrived ideas of navel gazing.