Morning Glory

Blood, Sweat & Tears: Al Kooper (lead vocals, piano, organ), Fred Lipsius (alto sax, piano), Randy Brecker and Jerry Weiss (trumpet, flugelhorn), Dick Halligan (trombone), Steve Katz (guitars, lute), Jim Fielder (bass guitar, fretless bass guitar), Bobby Colomby (drums, percussion) and orchestral ensemble. From the album This Is Father to the Man (1968).

After Al Kooper quit the band, Steve Katz and Bobby Colomby chose David Clayton-Thomas as their singer. Then Dick Halligan took over the organ and Jerry Hyman replaced him with the trombone. In 1968, the band played again at Cafe Au Go, but this time for two weeks and with nine participants. The band’s second album, Blood, Sweat & Tears, was published later that year and was more into pop. It quickly reached the top of the charts, winning the Grammy Award as Album of the Year, and the group’s critical and commercial success reached its peak with its appearance at the 1969 Woodstock Festival, where they were the protagonists.

Although similar groups such as Chicago and Electric Flag were also becoming famous, Blood, Sweat & Tears struggled to maintain its counterculture image at a time when record company productors considered this feature as a way to attract young consumers. After touring Europe, the band returned to the United States and recorded Blood, Sweat & Tears 3 in 1970, which had a brief popularity. At the end of the same year the group made the soundtrack for the film comedy The Owl and the Pussycat, harming its underground renown.

In 1971 they asked jazz saxophonist and composer Don Heckman to be their manager and with Dave Bargeron substituting Hyman they recorded music for their album Blood, Sweat & Tears 4. Although it was the first time the group produced a number of songs written mainly by themselves and got a certified gold record, from then on their decline began.