Harvey Mandel

Self-taught on guitar, Harvey "The Snake" Mandel forged an innovative approach rooted in the electric Chicago blues he absorbed growing up. During the mid-'60s he advanced the controlled use of sustained feedback, and in the 1970s he pioneered the two-handed tapping method. Following stints alongside Charlie Musselwhite and Barry Goldberg, he delivered his widely praised all-instrumental debut Cristo Redentor in 1968 on Philips. He entered Canned Heat just in time for Woodstock, moved next to John Mayall for the albums USA Union and Back to the Roots, and was then tapped by the Rolling Stones, contributing to Black and Blue. Mandel navigates funk, psychedelia, surf, and hard rock with the same ease he brings to blues and jazz, a range showcased across the 1971–1973 trilogy Baby Batter, The Snake, and Shangrenade on Janus. Session work occupied him through the '80s and '90s, though he still issued projects such as 1997's Emerald Triangle. Cancer was diagnosed in 2011; after multiple operations he received a clean bill of health in 2014 and marked the occasion with the jazz-rock album Planetary Warrior. Snake Pit, issued to strong reviews by Tompkins Square in 2016, came next, followed by independent efforts that included Dragons at Play in 2017. He returned to Tompkins Square for the 2022 release Who's Calling.

Born in Detroit on March 11, 1945 and raised in Chicago, Mandel picked up the guitar in his early teens, drawing initial inspiration from the Ventures. Exposure to Buddy Guy and other players in West and South Side clubs expanded his horizons dramatically. He studied and performed with Guy, Albert King, Muddy Waters, and Otis Rush. Charlie Musselwhite, whose group Mandel joined in the early to mid-'60s, bestowed the nickname "The Snake" after watching his left hand glide fluidly along the neck; Mandel later earned the additional title "The King of Sustain" for the ringing, extended tones he produced.

His solo path opened in the late '60s once he departed the Musselwhite and Goldberg aggregations. A deal with Philips (distributed by Mercury) yielded the well-received Cristo Redentor, which found favor on California's emerging underground stations as well as in New York, Philadelphia, Detroit, and Los Angeles. Righteous appeared in 1969, the year Mandel joined Canned Heat for Woodstock, while Games Guitars Play followed in 1970, the same year he exited the Heat to record USA Union and Back to the Roots with Mayall. Also in 1971 he released Baby Batter on Janus, which achieved modest sales and favorable notices on both sides of the Atlantic.

Mandel produced Get Off in Chicago, a three-day jam session album, in 1972. After another short European run with Mayall he cut The Snake and the funk-oriented Shangrenade for Janus in 1972 and 1973; the label closed the relationship with the 1974 compilation Feel the Sound of Harvey Mandel. Recruited as Mick Taylor's replacement, Mandel auditioned with the Rolling Stones, and several of those performances surfaced on Black and Blue in 1976. Club dates filled the remainder of the '70s, '80s, and '90s. Much of the '80s was spent in Florida, where he played in the house band at Woody's, the blues venue owned by Ronnie Wood. His session credits encompass Jimmy Witherspoon, Don "Sugarcane" Harris, Dewey Terry, Freddy Roulette, Bobby Keys, and the Ventures. Because Mandel has never sung and has consistently followed his eclectic curiosity, his commercial reach has remained narrower than his reputation among guitarists, a profile comparable to that of pianist Mose Allison, whose work likewise hovers between blues, R&B, and rock.

Returning to the San Francisco Bay Area in the early '90s, Mandel recorded several strong albums for Western Front Entertainment. Twist City (1993) earned uniformly positive notices, and Snakes & Stripes appeared on Clarity in summer 1995; Mercury Chronicles simultaneously devoted a volume to remastered versions of his first three LPs. He collaborated with Henry Kaiser, Steve Kimock, and Freddie Roulette on The Psychedelic Guitar Circus in 1996, then issued the hard-driving Planetary Warrior on his own Electric Snake Productions imprint the following year.

Lick This, a self-described "techno collaboration" featuring his son Eric Mandel on vocals, opened the new century. West Coast Killaz, leaning toward hip-hop, arrived in 2003, as did NightFire with Freddie Roulette. Three years passed before Harvey Mandel & the Snake Crew emerged; in the interim Mandel toured with the Chicago Blues Reunion in 2008 and documented a live set with the Snake Crew in 2009. That same year he rejoined surviving members of the 1969 Canned Heat lineup, including Fito de la Parra and Larry Taylor, for select shows, and he formally rejoined the band in 2010. Numerous reissues, some of questionable provenance, surfaced over the ensuing years.

Mid-2013 brought a nose-cancer diagnosis; more than thirty reconstructive surgeries preceded a clean scan. Cleopatra assembled Snake Box, containing Mandel's first five solo albums plus a disc of rarities. November 2016 saw the Tompkins Square release Snake Pit, his first widely distributed record in two decades. Co-produced with label head Josh Rosenthal and tracked in two days at Fantasy Studios, the album introduced Mandel to keyboardist Ben Boye, drummer Ryan Jewell, guitarist Brian Sulpizio, and bassist Anton Hatwich. RockBeat issued the entirely self-performed Snake Attack, while the cinematic digital-only Dragons at Play followed in 2017. Live at Broadway Studios appeared the next year with an instrumental quartet. Smoke This, on which Mandel played every instrument except keyboards and violin, came out on Out the Box Records in 2019. Although the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020 interrupted activity and his cancer recurred, necessitating further surgery, he continued recording and performing.

In November 2022 Mandel attended the Los Angeles premiere screening of the documentary Born In Chicago, which traces mentor-apprentice connections between the first generation of Chicago blues masters and the younger white musicians they influenced. December brought Who's Calling on Tompkins Square, his sixteenth album, a trio session with drummer and co-producer Ryan Jewell and bassist Andy Hess.