The Blues Project Album Release Party at Sweetwater Music Hall, Thu Aug 28 - 7:00 doors - funky eclectic blues/ jazz / rock.
The Blues Project is alive and well, with Roy Blumenfeld leading a new powerful lineup that also includes a band of talented musicians including David Aguilar and Mark Newman on guitars, Tim Eschliman on bass and Ken Clark on keyboards and vocals. Touring in 2025 behind the Blues Project's new Album, "Live 2025."
In the fall of 1965, the Blues Project played alongside the likes of Big Joe Williams, Son House, Bukka White, Skip James, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters and Otis Spann, to name a few. It was these legendary sold-out performances at the famed Cafe Au Go Go in Greenwich Village that eventually led to the release of their phenomenal debut album, Live at the Cafe Au Go Go. The Blues Project made a musical revolution, turning many people on to the American blues heritage. More below...
Purchase Tickets:
https://www.etix.com/ticket/servlet/s/38216160
see also
http://www.bluesproject.net
and video playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOTwG2XEiO2NEYAT4Q7D8dZUJvDAR9H7s&si=3pC52-V2nPaEj1Ju
Back in the mythic Summer of Love, 1967—when the culture was turn-turn-turning—if you were in New York, the place to be was MacDougal Street. The club to be in was the Café Au Go Go, pedigreed in hipness by Lenny Bruce's famous profanity bust there by the NYPD. The Au Go Go's star band was The Blues Project, a group on the cutting edge of improvisational, classical, blues, and jazz.
Al Kooper was the Project's keyboardist and vocalist; Steve Katz, its guitarist and vocalist; founder Danny Kalb, lead guitarist and vocalist; Andy Kulberg, bassist and flutist; and the drummer—the heartbeat—for the group was Roy Blumenfeld.
Drummer, vocalist, and quietly legendary figure of the era, Roy Blumenfeld has not stopped shaking things up—making music that's both forward-thinking and nostalgic—in the decades since. Based in Sonoma County, California, since 1985, his professional bio traces the arc of funky, eclectic music from the golden '60s to the resurgent present.
In April of 2025 The Blues Project kicked off their Northern California tour with Blumenfeld joined by David Aguilar, Ken Clark, Tim Eschliman, and Mark Newman. Great crowds appeared, reviews came in and the momentum carries over into a fall run for Blues Project in The Greater San Francisco Bay Area.
Roy Blumenfeld • Drums, Vocals
Roy Blumenfeld had a ringside seat from his drum kit on some of the most exciting musical events in New York City during the mid-’60s. Born in the Bronx in 1944, he reached his teens as the first wave of American rock & roll was being created. He took up the drums and found himself drawn to blues, R&B, and jazz. Blumenfeld linked up with bassist Andy Kulberg through work with Al Kooper on the latter’s early solo recordings for the Elektra Records sampler What’s Shakin’. In 1965, he joined guitarist Danny Kalb in the latter’s new band, which, with the addition of Kooper to the lineup, became the Blues Project. Blumenfeld was one of the longest serving members of the renowned group, whose mixture of R&B, blues, jazz, folk, and rock & roll influences made them a major cult band of the ’60s, and a huge influences on generations of other musicians. He was there past its end: with Kulberg, he formed Seatrain out of the ruins of the Blues Project in 1968. He played on folk singer Mark Spoelstra’s self-titled album for Columbia Records in 1969, and also on the subsequent Blues Project reunions. Blumenfeld worked with Nick Gravenites in the ’70s and Robert Hunter at various times in the ’80s and ’90s, but his most visible gig was with Kooper on the live shows that became Soul of a Man.
https://www.facebook.com/roy.blumenfeld.9 Bluesproject.net
David Aguilar – Guitar & Vocals
Over the years David Aguilar has made memorable music, not only with harmonica virtuoso Norton Buffalo, but also with Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Brown, Barry Melton, Maria Muldaur, Lester Chambers (Chambers Brothers), Nick Gravenites and Bo Diddley. Aguilar is a true virtuoso who makes those guitars sing, shout, whisper, wail and even weep. Sometimes his guitars seem to play him and sometimes guitarist and guitar seem to blend into one. David and Roy Blumenfeld released a CD called The Aguilar Blumenfeld Project which includes a cover by legendary psychedelic artist Stanley Mouse. Both a team player and a solo artist, Aguilar says he enjoys making music nearly all the time and especially “in an ensemble when it all clicks and it feels effortless and it all flows together. There’s nothing like it.” Guitars have been at the heart of Aguilar’s life for more than a half-century. Legend has it he had a guitar in his hands when he was born. David Aguilar loves the life he lives and his many fans love the music he has made, from Sonoma to Sweden and from Florida to Wales.
https://www.facebook.com/p/David-Aguilar-100064667624911/
Ken Clark • Keyboards, Harmonica, Accordian, EWI and Vocals
Ken Clark is a jazz-oriented organist who is also comfortable playing R&B, funk, and blues. This Boston resident (who plays electric keyboards and acoustic piano as secondary instruments) cites Jimmy Smith as an influence as well as Larry Young, John Medeski (of Medeski, Martin & Wood fame), and Charles Earland. Clark’s playing sometimes brings to mind German organist Barbara Dennerlein. Eternal Funkist Clark was born in New York City in the late ’60s and grew up in the Big Apple. But in the mid-’80s, he moved to Boston to study jazz with pianist Charlie Banacos and guitarist Garrison Fewell and attend the prestigious Berklee School of Music. Clark opted to remain in Boston and became a fixture on the city’s music scene. In 1992 he formed the Ken Clark Organ Trio, with Mike Mele (whom he knew from Berklee) on guitar. Clark’s group has used Steve Chaggaris (another Berklee alumni) on drums. As a sideman, Clark has backed various female vocalists, including Fatwall Jack and swing/jump blues artist Michelle Willson. Clark’s albums as a leader include The Ken Clark Organ Trio on Aspire Records and Eternal Funk, which the Severn label released in 2003.
http://www.kenclarkorgantrio.us
Mark Newman – Guitar, Mandolin and Vocals
Growing up in New York, Mark Newman’s musical journey has taken him around the world several times as both sideman and singer/songwriter. This ace stringman (guitar, lap steel, mandolin, dobro) and accomplished songwriter is the type of singer whose warm and expressive voice sounds like an old friend. Mark has released notable albums since 2006 including “Empirical Truth”, his latest (Danal Music/WBA Records) which won best CD from the Long Island Blues Society. Sharing the stage with such notables as soul legend Sam Moore (Sam & Dave), John Oates (Hall and Oates), Jim McCarty (Yardbirds, Renaissance),the late Willy DeVille (Mink DeVille), Bobby Whitlock (Derek and the Dominos) and Sam The Sham, has given Newman the perspective to craft an individualistic sound framed in straight-from-the-hip rock’n’roll, simmering with the subtle flavors of blues, R’n’B, funk, folk and soul.
https://marknewman.us
Tim Eschliman – Bass & Vocals
Tim Eschliman is an American Roots Performer, Musician, Songwriter and Producer from Back pOrchEstra, Christmas Jug Band, the Moonlighters (including the Nick Lowe-produced album “rush Hour”), Commander Cody & His Western Airmen, Etta James, Jesse Colin Young, New Copasetics, Rhythmtown-Jive, Mystery Dance (with Bonnie Hayes), Louisiana Time Travelers and Ugly Americans. He performed on the Grammy-nominated “Garden Of Joy” album by Maria Muldaur. He won a 1990 Indie Award for Country for “Aces High” by Commander Cody, developed at his partnership’s Mill Valley studio, Globe Studios. He recently started his youTube and podcast songwriting discussion series, “Where do the Songs Come From” with episodes from Mike Duke (Delbert McClinton) and Jack O’Hara (pub rock initiators, Eggs Over Easy). https//www.timeschliman.com
Gerorge Webber KSVY from the recent show in Sonoma: “Those people in Sonoma fortunate enough to be at the Sebastiani Theatre last Friday night witnessed an incandescent performance from the legendary band Blues Project! Sonoma drummer Roy Blumenfeld (original member of the famous East Coast band) presented his latest line-up of extraordinary musicians: East Coasters Mark Newman on guitar, and Ken Clark on keyboards and electric wind instrument ---- and locals Tim Eschliman on bass guitar, and David Aguilar on guitar. It was the single best performance I have ever seen at the Sebastiani...the band played at a level BEYOND smoking HOT. With newer originals.... and tasty tunes from the 1960s ... this current Blues Project deserves national acclaim.”
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