Al Kooper

Fair recognition would place Al Kooper among the towering figures of 1960s rock, with stature comparable to Bob Dylan or Paul Simon. Beyond co-authoring the mid-decade pop-rock staple “This Diamond Ring,” originally conceived as an R&B piece, he contributed audible instrumental work to landmark mid-1960s sessions, most notably Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone.” Kooper helped form, directed, and later departed two significant ensembles—the Blues Project and Blood, Sweat & Tears—while also appearing on a pair of landmark blues-rock recordings alongside his friend Mike Bloomfield. Serving as a Columbia producer, he brought the Zombies aboard in time for their finest long-player, and he later unearthed Lynyrd Skynyrd and oversaw their strongest releases. Public awareness, however, has left him in a middle tier of esteem, positioned between John Mayall and Steve Winwood. Despite the enduring quality of the music he has created, this limited visibility remains the audience’s own oversight.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1944 to Sam and Natalie Kooper, he absorbed blues by singing along to the Bessie Smith discs his father favored; those sides opened pathways to gospel, R&B, and soul, the foundations of his subsequent style. Displaying innate ability, he seated himself at a piano one day in the early 1950s and reproduced a current hit without lessons or prior practice. Self-taught, he later added guitar. Gospel dominated his listening during the 1950s, yet the arrival of rock & roll drew him toward vocal performance; he organized a doo-wop group that harmonized on neighborhood corners late in the decade. Turning professional in 1959, he joined the Royal Teens (“Short Shorts,” “Believe Me”) on guitar. By the early 1960s songwriting occupied more of his time, and one early composition, “I Must Be Seeing Things,” became a hit for Gene Pitney.

His most prominent songwriting success arrived late in 1964 when he collaborated with Bob Brass and Irwin Levine on “This Diamond Ring.” Intended for the Drifters, the number instead reached Liberty Records producer Snuff Garrett, who assigned it to the newly formed Gary Lewis & the Playboys. Entering the charts at the close of 1964, the single occupied the number-one position through the first weeks of 1965. Although the finished track diverged from the R&B vision Kooper had held for the Drifters, the event set off a cascade of fortunate developments. Earning part of his income as a session guitarist, he accepted an invitation from producer Tom Wilson to attend a Bob Dylan date that spring and arrived with his instrument. When a second keyboard player was required for the organ on “Like a Rolling Stone,” Kooper talked his way into the chair; Dylan embraced the improvised part and raised its volume in the final mix.

Kooper subsequently performed with the ensemble that backed Dylan’s electric appearance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival and contributed to the Blonde on Blonde album. Later that year Wilson asked him to add keyboards to an audition tape by the newly assembled New York blues-rock band the Blues Project; Kooper accepted membership, became one of the lead vocalists, and participated in three widely praised and influential albums during his year with the group. Ready to assemble a jazz- and R&B-inflected outfit featuring a robust horn section, he formed Blood, Sweat & Tears. Signed to Columbia Records in late 1967, the band recorded a debut consisting almost entirely of Kooper originals. Titled The Child Is Father to the Man, the album ignited critical enthusiasm as one of the decade’s boldest and most consequential releases, standing alongside the era’s strongest work by the Beatles or the Rolling Stones.

Although the record generated abundant coverage, sales remained modest, hovering in the lower chart reaches for nearly a year. Internal friction and Columbia’s demand for a more commercial direction prompted Kooper’s departure. Returning to session work, he appeared on albums by Jimi Hendrix, the Who, and the Rolling Stones (“You Can’t Always Get What You Want”). Columbia offered him a production post, the indirect result of his exit from Blood, Sweat & Tears, whose revised lineup was then generating substantial revenue for the label. He supervised a live concert recording by Simon & Garfunkel that might have served as their first official concert album. More consequential were two projects with guitarist Mike Bloomfield: Super Session, which also featured Stephen Stills, and The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper. Both ranked among Columbia’s stronger sellers of the period and, alongside The Child Is Father to the Man, helped position the label at the forefront of contemporary music.

Another notable achievement was signing the Zombies, a British Invasion group that had gone two years without a hit, for a single album. Although the band was on the verge of dissolution, Columbia obtained the classic Odessey & Oracle and its massive single “Time of the Season.” Less visible at the time was Kooper’s own I Stand Alone, which revisited songs he had written or performed over the preceding ten years; the album failed to achieve significant sales. A follow-up, Kooper Session, likewise attracted little notice despite featuring blues prodigy Shuggie Otis, yet Kooper’s overall profile remained high.

In the early 1970s he operated the MCA-distributed Sounds of the South label, whose flagship discovery proved to be Lynyrd Skynyrd; he produced their first three albums, which later sold in the millions. Additional production credits during the decade included the Tubes, B.B. King, Nils Lofgren, and Joe Ely, among others. He also authored Backstage Passes, still regarded as the finest insider account of rock & roll. Recording slowed in the 1980s, though he performed with Dylan, Tom Petty, and Joe Walsh and contributed to film and television soundtracks. In the 1990s, after more than two decades, he resumed solo work with the instrumental ReKooperation, issued by MusicMasters, a label primarily associated with jazz and classical artists.

Live appearances by core alumni of the original Blood, Sweat & Tears—their first in twenty-five years—led to a series of birthday concerts at New York’s Bottom Line in 1994, documented on the double-CD Soul of a Man. Kooper revisited his own catalog with key members of both the original Blood, Sweat & Tears and the definitive Blues Project lineup, the latter having reconvened periodically since the early 1970s. He forged a cohesive sound rooted in soul, jazz, and gospel despite the disparate personnel, resulting in his most fully realized solo statement. Any tally of recordings in which Kooper has played an essential part—as songwriter, vocalist, keyboardist, guitarist, or producer—reaches many millions of units sold and extensive radio exposure. His trajectory echoes aspects of Steve Winwood’s career, though he has never scored a solo hit. Even in the 1990s Kooper remained a commanding live performer and one of rock’s most creative and perceptive figures.