An Open Letter to a Friend : Danny Kalb
An Open Letter to a Friend : Danny Kalb Feb. 18,2014 By Stan Beinstein
The eternal struggle. The struggle to discover your true self. I grew up a child of the 50s and 60s when music became the cultural touchstone for communication . I can’t say definitively whether those levels were being newly tapped; but I believe so.
I believe that we used music intellectually, physically and viscerally in new ways . The lyrics of a young Bob Dylan captured the deepest crevasses of our imagination. When electricity was added the whole thing became physical.
I first saw Danny Kalb at a lecture hall at what was then the uptown campus of Hunter College in the Bronx. Now known as Lehman. In a lecture center with maybe 200 seats. His band The Blues Project had recently released Projections..It was either late 66 or early 67. Not only was it one of the first concerts I ever went to. I was able to walk there from my parents apartment.
The Blues Project were our heroes in the north Bronx. Five Jewish guys who had little else in common other than varied musical talent. They were able to blend rock, folk, jazz and blues like no one before them or since. Danny Kalb was the founder and leader ; a roll that he would slowly cede to Al Kooper . When Al suggested adding horns to the band Danny resisted. So Al went off and formed Blood Sweat and Tears and took Steve Katz with him.
Al and Danny both had ties to Bob Dylan . Al’s are well known as the organ player on Like A Rolling Stone. Danny was in the studio that day. So was another hot shot Jewish blues guitarist named Michael Bloomfield. Danny should have been playing on that session; but Danny’s life is a series of missed opportunities and blown saves. He burned bridges; but not intentionally. Danny Kalb is bi-polar and his survival is a testament to his art and perseverance.
Danny Kalb met Bob Dylan in the fall of 1960 . Danny was a junior at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He was the hotshot acoustic guitar player on campus and Dylan had recently left Hibbing for Minneapolis and was on his way east to meet Woody Guthrie. Dylan crashed on Danny’s floor . They were a duo for a week or two. Then Dylan headed east with Danny’s recommendation that Bob look up his guitar teacher; Dave Van Ronk. Dave would give Dylan shelter from the storm that winter in Greenwich Village, as well as guitar lessons and songs. Dave Van Ronk was a big gruff man with the heart and soul of a teddy bear.
Danny would wind up in a band with Van Ronk in 1963, The Ragtime Jug Stompers. Danny was already feeling the dark grip of mental illness. He attempted to take his own life. His will to live has been challenged five times. Danny Kalb is a survivor on many levels.
In the early 60s Danny blossomed into an in demand session player . He can be found on recordings by Phil Ochs and Judy Coillins. His bi-polar disorder manifest itself in ways that burned many bridges. Simply put when his meds were off he was not a nice guy.
In 1965 there were 4 young guitarists who were establishing new frontiers on the electric guitar. Eric Clapton with The Yardbirds in England, Jerry Garcia with The Grateful Dead in San Fransisco. And two Jews in the middle ; Michael Bloomfield with The Paul Butterfield Blues Band in Chicago and Danny Kalb with The Blues Project in New York. When the other 3 guitarists came to New York City for the first time it would be to play at The Café Au Go Go where Danny’s band The Blues Project was the house band.
Danny’s band, The Blues Project , got to host The Blues Bash in Oct. / Nov both in 65 and 66 at the Café Au Go Go; a Bleeker St. basement with maybe 175 seats.. These two mini festivals were watershed events for exposing young white audiences to the fathers of the sounds that they adopted. Danny still finds it weird that Muddy Waters opened for him; but it was an opportunity for Danny to mingle with and play with Muddy, John Lee Hooker, Otis Spann, Willie Dixon, James Cotton and more.
Danny remains the finest interpreter of Muddy’s music ; particularly the epic 12 minute version of Two Trains Running as recorded by The Blues Project on Projections. The Blues Project were managed by Sid Bernstein. Sid figured out how to put the Beatles in Shea Stadium and how to dress The Young Rascals up in period clothing, but he couldn’t figure out what to do with The Blues Project. Al Kooper decides to leave the band in the spring of 67 and the band soldiers on without him to the Monterey Festival which should have been their watershed moment. Al’s solo set was sloppy and so was The Blues Project.
Then Danny left the Blues Project. It was fall of 1967 and Danny disappeared from site. I was working in the Sam Goody record store in Yonkers and word had it that he had given away his guitar and was institutionalized. A year later he would re- emerge with an album wherein he was co-billed with Stefan Grossman titled Cross Currents. The album is terribly inconsistent, but not in a bold way like The Blues Project Projections. Danny is only featured vocally on two tracks.. Louise Louise and Death Letter Blues… and both would for-tell of the style he would establish and nurture a quarter of a century later.
There were the Blues Projects reunions. Starting with the one in Central Park in 73. A fine album and a loving audience larger than any they had ever had during their tenure. During the live version of Two Trains as Danny sings the line “people I’ve been crazy”..he gets the largest ovation of the day. It was one of respect and encouragement . The audience was hopeful for his recovery and return; but that return would not happen for another 20 years. There were the annual Blues Project reunions in the 80s and 90s. I remember the one at Bond’s in Times Square. I was standing next to John Belushi backstage as the Blues Brother studied the Blues Project; but after the reunion no word of Danny for a year.
I first experienced Danny solo acoustic at The Old Coat on Market St. in Poughkeepsie on a cold winter weeknight in the late 80s. He was shamanistic in his skills on that magnificent acoustic J-200 ( the only acoustic guitar which he has used on gigs and recordings since 1962 ) Danny had the audience hypnotized in a very slow blues. The problem was that there were four paid customers in the place. As he finishes a beautiful slow blues guitar solo he looks up toward the entry way from the bar room to the show room and sees two IBM types in suit and tie deciding whether to enter the room or not. Danny utters : “ You fellas don’t really wanna be here.” And returns to his guitar solo. As instructed the two gentlemen turned and left , talking 50% of the potential gate with them. As I recently recounted this incident to Danny he pointed out that today he would embrace those two and encourage them to join.
Sometime in the early 90’s I went to see Danny perform in a small place in Cold Spring NY called Karen’s Kitchen. We both still smoked cigarettes in those days and we probably split a pack outside the club during the break between sets. I was transformed back to the star struck teen and over the next months and years we became friends.
I did a house concert at my home for Danny and I called a number of friends in the booking and radio industry. I was in radio for 35 years and knew a few people. Everybody was afraid of him. They were aware of his bi-polar disorder. They were aware that you never knew which Danny you were going to get.
Danny has experimented with trios and quartets but he is at the top of his game alone with an acoustic guitar taking you on a journey from Reverend Gary Davis to Muddy Waters to Jimmy Reed to Mississippi John Hurt to Dave Van Ronk to Tim Hardin. They all distill into Danny Kalb with his profound Baritone range that rivals Johnny Cash to his flat picking solos which have a whirling dervish eastern quality that is immediately identifiable as him ; to his finger picking in the style of Reverend Gary or John Hurt. Dave Van Ronk referred to Danny as his best student , which was why Dave invited Danny into his band The ragtime Jug Stompers in 1963.
The latest Coen Brothers film Inside Llewyn Davis has created a multitude of controversies. People love it or hate it. I have talked to people who knew Dave Van Ronk, whose life is a loose template for the film . They say it held no bearing to his personality , history or style …but some …including Danny love the film . Danny feels that the film captured the essence of a moment in Greenwich Village in 1961. The moment just before Bob Dylan arrives. I must admit due to recent hip surgery I have not gone to see the film yet. So I will have to answer like Bill Murray did in the old SNL Oscar reviews: “ didn’t see it…don’t know.” But I will see it… and soon…… I am sure that it will effect me… probably piss me off…. And that is all good … if it succeeds in genuinely capturing the angst of the moment.
There is a Showtime documentary and accompanying concert that really brings the elements of how the Coen Brothers and T Bone Burnett came to put this film together. The concert was filmed at Town Hall in NYC and featured everyone from The Avett Brothers and Mumford to Joan Baez and Patti Smith. The concert and the documentary succeed in creating a thread that connects not just two , but 3 generations of folk artists. It encourages the new folk artists to connect with their heritage. Danny Kalb deserved to be on that show.
I once found a cd copy of Phil Ochs first album All The News That’s Fit To Sing ( April 1964 Elektra records ) . On the original vinyl 12 inch lp directly under Phil’s name in a smaller font it said : guitar accompaniment Danny Kalb; but on the cd it did not. I called Danny to tell him and his response was . “ There you have it Stanley. Once again I have been airbrushed out of the history of rock and roll.”
A few years ago Danny had a minor stroke. An event that challenged his guitar skills. Danny worked and trained like a prize fighter and I am glad to say that he is back at the top of his game as a solo acoustic performer in the old Gaslight school of folk / blues . Still playing that Gibson j-200 that has been by his side for over 50 years. The guitar tells as many stories as Danny does. Danny Kalb solo acoustic could very well be the finest show you see this year.
- Stan Beinstein, A 40 year veteran of radio management
p.s. Kudos go out to another hero of that Greenwich Village era of the early 60s. Danny Kalb recently informed me that John Sebastian got the Gibson Guitar Company to give him a brand new J-200 . A very classy homage from a peer.