Willard's Wormholes

Kooper Session (1970)
Just One Of Al Kooper’s Finest Hours

I’m a big fan of early Al Kooper. I won’t recount his credits here, but they’re a fun and surprising read. His late 60s “solo” albums – Super Session, Live Adventures of Kooper & Bloomfield, Blood Sweat & Tears’ Child Is Father To The Man, the excellent I Stand Alone and a handful of other Kooper & Kooper related projects – document a guy bursting at the seams with something to say and in a unique position (sometimes working for record companies) to get himself recorded. He shrewdly used a variety of different settings, bands and configurations to maximize his output, usually starring, but just as often sharing – as in this quick follow-up to the surprise success of Super Session, 1970′s Kooper Session. Historically, it features the work of 15 year old guitar sensation Shuggie Otis, but musically, it’s Kooper that’s writing, arranging, singing, jamming & producing, so it’s practically a Kooper solo album – even in name. His arrangements and solos sport an unshakable 60s atmosphere that have aged better than much of his contemporaries’ work, and that’s despite Al’s sometimes hopelessly white vocals. To really appreciate Kooper’s scope, listen to Child Is Father To The Man (his Blood Sweat & Tears debut and finale), Super Session (his studio jam album with Steve Stills and Mike Bloomfield) and his semi-psych debut solo LP, I Stand Alone. Three classics that would be a defining arc for most careers… for Al, those are merely his 1968 releases. Had he been blessed with a less reedy, more organically soulful voice, Al Kooper might be regarded as one of the dozen most important figures in rock. Some argue he is anyway.

Bury My Body
Double or Nothing
One Room Country Shack
Lookin‘ For A Home
12:15 Slow Goonbash Blues
Shuggie’s Old Time (Dee-Di-Lee-Di-Leet-Deet)
Shuggie’s Shuffle