Blood, Sweat & Tears (also known as "BS&T") is an American jazz rock music group founded in New York City in 1967, noted for combining a brass section with rock band instrumentation. BS&T has gone through numerous iterations with varying personnel and has encompassed a wide range of musical styles. Their sound has merged rock, pop and R&B/soul music with big band jazz. The Canadian lead singer David Clayton-Thomas was added to the group in 1968 and stayed until 1972, marking their most successful period.
The group's second album, Blood, Sweat & Tears, spent seven weeks atop the U.S. charts in 1969, won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1970, and contained the hit recordings "And When I Die", "You've Made Me So Very Happy", and "Spinning Wheel". On the Hot 100, all three peaked at number 2 for a total of thirteen weeks. The follow-up album, Blood, Sweat & Tears 3, also reached number 1 in the U.S.
In addition to original music, the group is known for arrangements of popular songs by Laura Nyro, James Taylor, Carole King, the Band, the Rolling Stones, Billie Holiday and many others. The group has also adapted music from Erik Satie, Thelonious Monk and Sergei Prokofiev into their arrangements.
The group was inspired by the "brass-rock" of the Buckinghams (produced by James William Guercio) as well as the Maynard Ferguson Orchestra. BS&T's success paralleled that of similarly configured ensembles such as Chicago (also produced by Guercio) and the Electric Flag, but by the mid-1970s the group's popularity began a decline.
Contents
Al Kooper era
Al Kooper (keyboards, vocals), Bobby Colomby (drums), Steve Katz (guitar, vocals), and Jim Fielder (bass) played at the Village Theatre (later renamed Fillmore East) in New York City on September 16, 1967, with James Cotton Blues Band opening. Kooper was the initial singer and musical director, having insisted on that position based on his work with the Blues Project, his previous band with Katz.
Fred Lipsius (alto sax, piano) joined the others a month later. A few more shows were played before Lipsius recruited horn players Dick Halligan, Randy Brecker and Jerry Weiss. The octet debuted at the Cafe Au Go Go on November 17–19, 1967, then played The Scene the following week. Audiences were impressed with the innovative fusion of contemporary styles. After signing to Columbia Records, the group released Child Is Father to the Man which reached number 47 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart in the United States.
Artistic differences quickly developed, with Colomby and Katz wanting to hire a stronger lead vocalist, which led to the departure of Kooper in April 1968. Prior to leaving, Kooper had already arranged some songs that would be on the second BS&T album. He was soon hired as a record producer at Columbia. Trumpeters Randy Brecker and Jerry Weiss also left and were replaced by Lew Soloff and Chuck Winfield. Brecker joined Horace Silver's band. Jerry Weiss went on to start the similarly styled group Ambergris.
David Clayton-Thomas era
Colomby and Katz looked for a new vocalist and considered Alex Chilton, Stephen Stills and Laura Nyro, before deciding on David Clayton-Thomas, from Toronto, Canada. Trombonist Halligan moved to organ and Jerry Hyman was added on trombone. The new nine-member band debuted at New York's Cafe Au Go Go on June 18, 1968, beginning a two-week residency.
The second album, Blood, Sweat & Tears, was produced by Guercio and much of the album was arranged by Halligan and Lipsius. It featured fewer original songs but greater chart success. It included Nyro's "And When I Die", "You've Made Me So Very Happy" by Berry Gordy and Brenda Holloway, and Clayton-Thomas' "Spinning Wheel". The band enjoyed headliner status at the Woodstock Festival in August 1969. A film crew caught a few songs, but the band's manager Bennett Glotzer ordered the crew to turn off the cameras and leave the stage since the band had not agreed nor been paid for filming.
The band went on a United States Department of State–sponsored tour of Eastern Europe in June–July 1970. Voluntary association with the U.S. government was highly unpopular with American rock fans who opposed the U.S. war in Vietnam. The band was criticized for allowing itself to be co-opted by President Richard Nixon's government. It is now known that the State Department pressured the group into the tour in exchange for a U.S. residency permit for Clayton-Thomas, who had a criminal record in Canada, and had been deported from the U.S. after overstaying his visa. The tour and its aftermath is the focus of a 2023 feature-length documentary titled What the Hell Happened to Blood, Sweat & Tears?
While away on tour, the label released Blood, Sweat & Tears 3 in June 1970, produced by Roy Halee and Colomby. The album was another success, spawning hit singles with Carole King's "Hi-De-Ho" and another Clayton-Thomas composition, "Lucretia MacEvil". The group recreated the formula with more arrangements by Halligan and Lipsius. Reviews sometimes focused solely upon the band's work with the U.S. State Department, without discussing the music. Compounding the image problem was a decision to play a lucrative engagement at Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip. This was unpopular at the time with young underground rock fans who identified Las Vegas entertainers with the music of their parents' generation.
In late 1970, the band produced soundtrack music for the film comedy The Owl and the Pussycat, which starred Barbra Streisand and George Segal.
Jerry Fisher era
Clayton-Thomas was briefly replaced by Bobby Doyle and then Jerry Fisher. Fred Lipsius left as well and was briefly replaced by Joe Henderson, before Lou Marini settled into the new lineup. Founding member Halligan also departed, replaced by jazz pianist Larry Willis (from the Cannonball Adderley Quintet), and Swedish guitarist Georg Wadenius, from the popular Swedish outfit Made in Sweden, joined as lead guitarist around the same time.
BS&T released New Blood in September 1972, which found the group moving into a more overtly jazz-fusion direction. The album reached the top 40 on the Billboard chart and spawned a charting single "So Long Dixie", which peaked at number 44. Also included was a version of Herbie Hancock's "Maiden Voyage", featuring Wadenius. In January 1973 Katz left to pursue a career as a producer. In March Winfield departed as well and was replaced by Tom Malone.
The next album, No Sweat (June 1973), featured horn work from Tom Malone. He soon left to make way for trumpeter John Madrid. But Madrid's tenure was likewise short-lived and he never recorded with the band. Both Madrid and Soloff left in late 1973, making way for new horn player/arranger Tony Klatka on the next release, Mirror Image (July 1974), which also saw the addition of vocalist/saxophonist Jerry LaCroix (formerly of Edgar Winter's White Trash), sax player Bill Tillman, bassist Ron McClure and the exodus of original bass player Jim Fielder. This album shows the influences of Philly Soul, Herbie Hancock's Head Hunters and Chick Corea's group Return to Forever.
Jerry LaCroix left BS&T to join Rare Earth after playing a final show at Wollman Rink in New York's Central Park on July 27, 1974. Luther Kent, a blues singer from New Orleans, replaced LaCroix.
Reformations
By the close of 1974 Jerry Fisher was tired of BS&T's heavy touring schedule. Colomby and manager Fred Heller engineered the return of Clayton-Thomas in the hope of restoring the band's former success. Clayton-Thomas met the group at a show near Milwaukee in August 1974 while Jerry Fisher and Luther Kent were still with the band. All three singers appeared on stage before a wildly enthusiastic crowd.
The album New City, in April 1975, featured Clayton-Thomas along with new horn player Joe Giorgianni. It reached number 47 on the US Billboard album chart. The album has half original material along with songs from Janis Ian, Randy Newman, and Blues Image. The highest-charting song was the Beatles’ “Got to Get You into My Life" which peaked at number 62.
In the summer of 1975, BS&T recorded a live album that was released in Europe and Japan the following year as In Concert. And this album was eventually released in the US as Live and Improvised in May 1991. The album featured different guitarists on different nights: Wadenius, Steve Khan and Mike Stern, the last who took over permanently for a time (Jeff Richman filled in for Stern in mid-1976). Jazz percussionist Don Alias was also present for the live album. After recording, Giorgianni left and was replaced by Forrest Buchtel (formerly of Woody Herman's band).
Around the same period, Colomby discovered a talented bass player by the name of Jaco Pastorius in Florida. He produced Pastorius' first solo album which was released in the spring of 1976. In late 1975, Pastorius toured with BS&T subbing for Ron McClure and when McClure left in early 1976, Colomby arranged for Pastorius to join the band, though he stayed for only about three months. On April 1, 1976, Pastorius joined Weather Report. Pastorius was briefly succeeded by Keith Jones before Danny Trifan stepped in.
In 1975 the group was offered a slot at the Newport Jazz Festival in Newport, Rhode Island. The city government was concerned that a "rock band" would attract a rowdy audience; it threatened to revoke the concert permit if BS&T was not removed from the program. Ultimately, concert organizers were able to force the event forward via judicial injunction. The litigation reached the United States Supreme Court.
Members
Glenn McClelland: keyboards (1987–1993, 1998, 2005–present)
Dylan Elise: drums (2015–present)
Ric Fierabracci: bass, vocals (2016–present)
Ozzie Melendez: trombone (2018 - fill in, 2022–present)
Brad Mason: trumpet- MD (2015, 2016–present)
Anibal Rojas: sax (2017, 2019, 2021 - fill in, 2024-present)
Sam Ryan: vocals (2019 - fill in, 2023, 2024-present)
Bryan Davis: trumpet (2021–present)
Gabe Cummins: guitar, backing vocals (2024–present)
Past members
Original eight
Al Kooper: keyboards, vocals (1967–1968)
Randy Brecker: trumpet, flugelhorn (1967–1968)
Jerry Weiss: trumpet, flugelhorn, backing vocals (1967–1968)
Fred Lipsius: alto sax, keyboards (1967–1972)
Dick Halligan: keyboards, trombone, horns, flute, backing vocals (1967–1972) †
Steve Katz: guitar, harmonica, flute, mandolin, vocals (1967–73, and as a special guest at some shows 2008–10)
Jim Fielder: bass, guitar, backing vocals (1967–1974, special guest March 2022)
Bobby Colomby: drums, percussion, backing vocals (1967–1977)
Other members
Discography
Child Is Father to the Man (1968)
Blood, Sweat & Tears (1968)
Blood, Sweat & Tears 3 (1970)
B, S & T; 4 (1971)
New Blood (1972)
No Sweat (1973)
Mirror Image (1974)
New City (1975)
More Than Ever (1976)
Brand New Day (1977)
Nuclear Blues (1980)