
Blood, Sweat & Tears (also known as "BS&T") is an American jazz rock music group founded in New York City in 1967, noted for a combination of brass with rock 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 group's self-titled second album spent seven weeks atop the U.S. charts in 1969 and won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1970. It contained the hit recordings "And When I Die", "You've Made Me So Very Happy", and "Spinning Wheel". All of these peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100. The follow-up album, Blood, Sweat & Tears 3, also reached number one 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 and their producer, James William Guercio, as well as the Maynard Ferguson Orchestra. BS&T's success paralleled that of similarly configured ensembles such as Chicago and the Electric Flag, but by the mid-1970s the group's popularity had declined.
Well-arranged version of a classic blues-rock standard.
BS&T and Chicago were favorites of all us high school band members.
Well, this old boy in Georgia is cranking it up. This is an excellent song from and excellent album. Back in the day when there was such a thing as a format to an album.
Thanks Bill...
All that, just from hearing this song.
A moment in time... Pure American Jazz...
Holds up well....
Also thinking about Paul Butterfield, Seiji Ozawa and "Five Pieces For Blues Band and Orchestra"...
Sounds of experimentation and openness that lasted to short a time and hasn't come back as full force yet.
Most experimentation is individuals and local groups... Not quite as many learning from and leading ach other...
Good music is timeless... Keep the music playing...
When you throw in all the other instruments they're not nearly as obvious. I kinda miss that.
All that, just from hearing this song.
That's a beautiful set of memories. You just checked off a very similar list of mine, except with music from my Dad's collection of vinyl. :-)