Electric Flag

When guitarist Mike Bloomfield departed the Paul Butterfield Blues Band during 1967, he set out to assemble a unit that would fuse blues, rock, soul, psychedelia, and jazz into a fresh hybrid. Certain that a horn section belonged at its core, he started building the lineup alongside longtime associates keyboardist Barry Goldberg and singer Nick Gravenites. Although all three had deep roots in the Chicago music community, they chose to locate the project in the San Francisco Bay Area. The core was soon reinforced by bassist Harvey Brooks, whose résumé included sessions on Bob Dylan’s mid-’60s recordings, and drummer Buddy Miles, after which a horn section was added.

Before the group had performed even one live date, Electric Flag supplied the soundtrack to the 1967 psychedelic exploitation film The Trip, granting them an early chance to test their concepts away from public scrutiny. Their concert introduction occurred at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival—though the performance was omitted from the official documentary, it later surfaced in the DVD’s supplementary material—yet their debut studio album, A Long Time Comin’, did not appear until spring 1968.

That record anticipated the big-band rock approach later popularized by Blood, Sweat & Tears and Chicago, blending jazz-rock with soul-rock-psychedelia that occasionally spotlighted the horns. Despite evident potential that invited further development, the ensemble began unraveling almost immediately upon release. Goldberg exited first, soon followed by Bloomfield, whose conceptual leadership had been central. A depleted version of the band managed a weaker second album before Electric Flag disbanded in 1969. They reconvened with Bloomfield in 1974 to record The Band Kept Playing under producer Jerry Wexler, but the album attracted scant attention. The members again dispersed, returning to the stage together only once more for a 2007 concert marking the fortieth anniversary of the Monterey Pop Festival.