The Electric Flag

Guitarist Mike Bloomfield exited the Paul Butterfield Blues Band in 1967 intent on assembling an ensemble that would fuse blues, rock, soul, psychedelia, and jazz into a fresh hybrid. Determined to include a horn section, he launched the project with keyboardist Barry Goldberg and singer Nick Gravenites. Although the three musicians shared deep ties to the Chicago scene, the band located itself in the San Francisco area. Rhythm support arrived via bassist Harvey Brooks, who had appeared on Bob Dylan’s mid-’60s sessions, and drummer Buddy Miles, after which a horn section was added.

Without having performed publicly, Electric Flag supplied the soundtrack to the 1967 psychedelic exploitation film The Trip, an assignment that let the musicians test ideas with little external pressure. Their first stage appearance took place at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, an event from which they were excluded in the official documentary yet included in the DVD’s supplementary material. The debut studio album, A Long Time Comin’, finally appeared in spring 1968.

That record anticipated the big-band rock later associated with Blood, Sweat & Tears and Chicago by merging jazz-rock textures with soul-rock-psychedelia, at times spotlighting the horns. The material indicated room for continued growth, yet the lineup quickly unraveled. Goldberg departed first, soon followed by Bloomfield, whose vision had anchored the group. A reduced configuration issued a weaker second album before Electric Flag dissolved in 1969. The original members, including Bloomfield, reconvened in 1974 to record The Band Kept Playing under producer Jerry Wexler, but the release drew scant notice. The musicians parted once more, returning together only for a 2007 concert honoring the 40th anniversary of the Monterey Pop Festival.