Easy Does It - Music

Al Kooper Born Alan Peter Kuperschmidt February 5 1944 Brooklyn New York Is An American Songwriter Producer And Musician Probably Best Known For Organizing The Group Blood Sweat & Tears Though He Didn't Stay With The Group Long Enough To Share Its Popularity. His First Musical Success Was As A 14-Year-Old Guitarist In The Royal Teens Best Known For Their Novelty Blues Riff "Short Shorts". In 1960 He Joined The Song-Writing Team Of Bob Brass And Irwin Levine Who Wrote The Hit "This Diamond Ring" For Gary Lewis And The Playboys. When He Was 21 He Moved To Greenwich Village. He Performed With Bob Dylan In Concert In 1965 And In The Studio In 1965 And 1966 Including Playing Hammond Organ With Dylan At The In Famous Newport Folk Festival Of 1965. He Worked Extensively With Mike Bloomfield For A Number Of Years After The Two Met As Studio Musicians On Dylan's Legendary Highway 61 Revisited Album. In 1965 He Co-Formed The Blues Project And Played Their Most Famous Gig At The Monterey Pop Festival In 1967. He Formed Blood Sweat & Tears In The Same Year Leaving After The Group's First Album Child Is Father To The Man In 1968. Kooper Played On Hundreds Of Records Including The Rolling Stones B.B. King The Who And Cream. On Occasion He Has Even Overdubbed On His Own Efforts As On The Live Adventures Of Mike Bloomfield And Al Kooper Album As Roosevelt Gook. He Discovered The Band Lynyrd Skynyrd And Produced Their First Three Albums Including The Single Sweet Home Alabama. Kooper Also Wrote The Score For The TV Series Crime Story And Has Also Written Music For Several Made-For-Television Movies. Kooper Also Produced A Now Rare Album By A Group Called Appaloosa. Al Kooper Has Published A Memoir Backstage Passes Rock 'n' Roll Life In The Sixties 1977 Now Available In Revised Form As Backstage Passes & Backstabbing Bastards Memoirs Of A Rock 'N' Roll Survivor 2007 Kooper Currently Teaches Songwriting And Production At Berklee College Of Music In Boston And Plays Weekend Concerts With His Band Jimmy Vivino And The ReKooperators. read less