BLOOD SWEAT & TEARS 4 [Vinyl]

Blood, Sweat & Tears: Steve Katz (vocals, acoustic & electric guitars, mandolin, harmonica); David Clayton-Thomas (vocals, guitar); Jim Fielder (guitar, bass); Dick Halligan (flute, trombone, piano, organ); Fred Lipsius (clarinet, alto saxophone, piano, organ); Lew Soloff (trumpet, flugelhorn, piccolo trumpet); Chuck Winfield (trumpet, flugelhorn); Dave Bargeron (trombone, bass trombone, tuba, baritone horn); Bobby Colomby (drums, percussion).
Additional personnel: Don Heckman (clarinet, bass clarinet); Michael Smith (congas).
Producers: Don Heckman, Bobby Colomby, Roy Halee.
Reissue producer: Bob Irwin.
Includes liner notes by Don Heckman.
Digitally remastered by Vic Anesini (Sony Music Studios, New York, New York).
Previous efforts having relied heavily on covers, Blood, Sweat and Tears fourth album was their first mostly self-composed set. The results were surprisingly impressive.
Leader David Clayton-Thomas penned the album's big hit, the bluesy "Go Down Gamblin'" and, for the first time on their albums, played raunchy lead guitar. The band's other guitarist, Steve Katz, contributed the folky "For My Lady" and "Mama Gets High," the latter being perhaps the first fully realized rock/dixieland jazz hybrid. There's also a radical deconstruction of the Motown standard "Take Me In Your Arms (Rock Me a Little While)," and "John the Baptist (Holy John)," a contribution by founding member Al Kooper that wouldn't have been out of place on the band's Kooper-led debut album.

• Format: Vinyl
• Genre: Pop