An Anthology: The Elektra Years

Performer: The Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Artist: Elvin Bishop; Mike Bloomfield; David Sanborn; Al Kooper; Merry Clayton
Producer: Bruce Harris
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: Personnel: Paul Butterfield (vocals, harp, flute, harmonica, piano); Gene Dinwiddie (vocals, flute, tenor saxophone); Bugsy Maugh (vocals, bass); Phillip Wilson (vocals, drums, percussion); Mike Bloomfield (guitar, slide guitar, piano, Hammond organ); Elvin Bishop, Buzz Feiten (guitar, French horn); Ralph Wash (guitar, background vocals); David Sanborn (soprano, alto & baritone saxophones); Trevor Lawrence (baritone saxophone); Steve Madaio, Keith Johnson (trumpet); Mark Naftalin (piano, keyboards, organ); Ted Harris (piano, keyboards); Al Kooper (organ); Rod Hicks (bass, background vocals); Jerome Arnold (bass); Billy Davenport (drums, percussion); Dennis Whitted, Sam Lay (drums); Bobby Hall (congas, bongos); Big Black (congas); John Court, Clydie King, Merry Clayton, Venetta Fields, Oma Drake (background vocals). Includes liner notes by Tom Ellis III. All tracks have been digitally remastered. An Anthology -- The Elektra Years is a double-disc, 33-song set that offers a comprehensive overview of Paul Butterfield's eight years with the label. His first two albums, Paul Butterfield Blues Band and East-West, were seminal, groundbreaking records that blurred the boundaries between blues, jazz and rock, suggesting everything from blues-rock to psychedelia. They were stunning achievements which proved difficult to match, but Butterfield's remaining albums for the label all had a few good cuts. An Anthology does a nice job of rounding up those highlights, picking the best moments from uneven records; consequently, it's quite a valuable package for listeners who simply want a sampling from those later albums instead of purchasing them individually. Butterfield's first two albums remain necessary listens in their own right, but this set offers an excellent summary of his entire stint with Elektra. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine Everyone should own the Paul Butterfield Blues Band's first two albums, groundbreaking works that are among the most important and influential of the '60s. This two-disc distillation of the band's entire eight-year oeuvre is nonetheless a terrific overview, with a generous selection of tracks from those first two seminal efforts, plus all the crucial stuff from the band's inconsistent-but-still-worthy later LPs, along with a couple of early rarities making their CD debut. Disc One is by the original band, a musical powerhouse that began as the toughest blues band in the world and eventually evolved into a free-form psychedelic jam outfit. Disc Two collects the best stuff from Butterfield's late '60s horn band albums; this incarnation was the obvious model for both Blood Sweat & Tears and Chicago, but Butterfield's ensemble was far grittier and more musically adventurous.

Entertainment Weekly (2/13/98, p.71) - "...eloquently attests to the PBBB's formidable mastery of da blues, as well as its ability to stretch the genre's ostensible limitations to the snapping point..." - Rating: A

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