Blues guitarist, composer, and singer/songwriter Danny Kalb lived in Brooklyn for so many years that locals sometimes joked he deserved the title “mayor of Brooklyn.” His mentor, the late folk-blues singer and guitarist Dave Van Ronk, had become so identified with particular basket houses in Lower Manhattan that people routinely called him “the mayor of MacDougal Street.” Although Kalb later maintained a thriving solo career, he remains most widely recognized as the founder of the Blues Project, the pioneering 1960s blues-rock ensemble he assembled in 1965. During that decade’s folk and blues revival, Kalb helped introduce classic blues performers such as Mississippi John Hurt, Skip James, John Lee Hooker, Rev. Gary Davis, Muddy Waters, Big Bill Broonzy, and Big Mama Thornton to white suburban listeners who filled theaters and outdoor festivals, giving those artists renewed visibility and audiences.
Born in Brooklyn and raised in Mount Vernon, New York, Kalb grew up as the son of a lawyer father and a homemaker mother. A transformative experience occurred when, still a teenager at his first Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island, he heard John Lee Hooker perform “Tupelo,” the song about the devastating 1920s flood in Tupelo, Mississippi. In a 2009 interview Kalb recounted the 1964 moment: “…and the whole performance was just so mesmerizing, I didn't think about race matters, I didn't think about anything, I just knew that in my reaction to this great musician, that suddenly, the blues had tapped me on the shoulder. I didn't even know where it was going to lead me, but I knew I wanted to play this music.” Already experimenting with guitar, he intensified his studies upon returning to Mount Vernon and sought out Dave Van Ronk, whose music was then circulating on underground FM stations in New York City; the following Sunday he rode the train to Washington Square Park to meet him. Although his father practiced law, the family never enjoyed great financial comfort because the elder Kalb held progressive views shaped by the Great Depression. Looking back, Kalb observed, “My father was a good man. He liked all kinds of art and music and he didn't stop me when I wanted to become a white blues guitarist, of all things!”
Recognizing that electric rock and roll would soon eclipse the acoustic folk-blues wave of the early 1960s, Kalb formed the Blues Project in 1965 with fellow musicians from Mount Vernon and New York City, placing him among early white figures—including John Hammond in the United States and, in England, Long John Baldry, Eric Burdon, Rod Stewart, Mick Fleetwood, Eric Clapton, and Jeff Beck—who helped carry blues into rock. The original lineup, drawn largely from Brooklyn, comprised Al Kooper, Steve Katz, Andy Kulberg, Roy Blumenfeld, Artie Traum, and Tommy Flanders; Kooper himself later pursued a successful solo path. The group’s debut album, Live at the Café Au Go Go, exceeded 100,000 copies in its release year, confirming demand for their blues-rock approach. In 1966 they headlined sold-out shows in San Francisco and three large Central Park concerts. A two-CD Polygram retrospective later compiled their recordings, many of which had gone out of print on vinyl, offering newcomers an accessible entry point.
Once the Blues Project wound down around 1972, Kalb concentrated on solo work, regularly featuring the band’s material in his sets and typically performing with drummer Mark Ambrosino and bassist Bob Jones. He released the studio album I’m Gonna Live the Life I Sing About on Sojourn Records in 2009; earlier solo efforts available on compact disc include Livin’ with the Blues (1990), All Together, Now (2003), and Live in Brooklyn! (2006). The 1969 Danny Kalb–Stefan Grossman duo recording Crosscurrents was reissued by Collectables in 2005. Danny Kalb died on November 19, 2022 in Brooklyn, New York after a long illness; he was 80 years old.
