Blues for Butterfield

I was only sixteen when I first saw the Paul Butterfield Blues Band live in Boston, which then compelled me to buy their album "East-West", one of the first records I actually bought with my own money, along with "The Golden Road To Unlimited Devotion" by the Dead, and "Out of Our Heads" by the Stones. Paul Butterfield, who was born in December, 1947, was simply the best blues harp player I've ever heard.

Butterfield's technique combined the basic blues riffs from harmonica greats like Little Walter and Junior Wells with complex melodic runs suggesting jazz or fusion, especially evident in the harmonica solos on the band's monumental jam "East West" as well as "The Work Song." His transitions from note to note are seamless. Butterfield always seemed to coax the best out of the humble Hohner "Marine Band" harmonica, at times sounding like a saxophone or a keyboard. His playing style was unique, especially the fact that he played harp upside down.

Ironically, Paul Butterfield began his love of music by studying classical flute when he was a teenager, but soon developed a passion for the mouth harp. The nucleus of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band was formed when Paul met guitarist Elvin Bishop while both were students at the University of Chicago. They began hanging out with the likes of Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Otis Rush and Little Walter before stealing drummer Sam Lay and bassist Jerome Arnold from Howlin' Wolf's Band and forming a band in 1963. Guitar virtuoso Mike Bloomfield was added just before Elecktra released their debut album in 1965, just a few months after Bloomfield, Arnold and Lay backed Bob Dylan's electric debut at the Newport Folk Festival. Unfortunately, after the release of East/West in 1967, Bloomfield, Arnold and replacement drummer Billy Davenport all left the band.

Bishop took over on lead guitar with the release of The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw in 1967, Butterfield adding horns to the mix. One of my favorite tunes from Resurrection is actually a Bishop tune - "Drunk Again" - not exactly politically correct but full of sizzling guitar solos, but Butterfield also excels with tunes like "Driftin and Driftin' "as well as the Muddy Waters classic "Just To Be With You". "In My Own Dream" was the last PBB album I paid close attention to, once again a mix of traditional Chicago blues with jazz/fusion.

Butterfield had the distinction of playing  with a wide variety of artists, from Muddy Waters to The Band, but the music eventually consumed him. He died in Los Angeles on May 4, 1987, primarily from the effects of heavy drinking, joining a long list of talented artists who never got the monkeys off their backs, so to speak. 
I'll always be a Paul Butterfield fan - I just wish he had lived a bit longer.