As most people know, there are an awful lot of great restaurants in Alexandria, Virginia. Probably the most iconic sits proper within the heart of Previous Town…King Street Blues (KSB). Our restaurant showcase this month is about KSB, however extra importantly, with their twenty fifth anniversary developing this month, we thought that just a little historical past is so as.
As soon as within the Metropolis, Mike started forming a soulful blues septet that would include horns, which hadn’t been executed as much as that point (actually simply earlier than Al Kooper formed Blood, Sweat and Tears, an identical group using horns). This group, which might come to be often called the Electric Flag, featured guitarist Mike Bloomfield, drummer Buddy Miles, bassist Harvey Brooks, singer Nick Gravenites and a 3-man horn ensemble. The band’s first job was doing the movie score for the movie The Journey, starring Peter Fonda and written by Jack Nicholson. Then the Electric Flag performed on the Monterey Pop Competition.
Though King distanced himself from rock and roll when the new model emerged within the nineteen fifties, he soon began to add among the traits of early rockers like Little Richard (1932-) and Fat Domino (1928-) to his act. In 1962 he moved to the ABC label, and in 1965 he put out his first album, Dwell at the Regal. In 1968, after the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968), King performed an all-night time blues benefit with fellow guitarists Jimi Hendrix (1942-1970) and Buddy Guy (1936-) to raise cash for King’s Southern Christian Leadership Convention.
While the opening observe, Nothin’ Left to Stimulate” will draw nods of approval and a smirk in a country bitten by a downturn in economics and opportunity, programmers will wish to wade much deeper into the albums track listing to seek out gold. The albums title observe, Better Off” has a Stax R n’ B sensibility. Eric Michaels organ taking part in on the monitor, Tonight” harkens to these halcyon days when blues and R n’ B had been played side-by-side in jukeboxes and juke joints throughout the nation. Joe Asselin’s harmonica on Preserve Me Hangin’ ” offers a traditional Chicago blues observe to spherical out an already strong file.
Worsening Bronchial asthma affliction despatched him to a New York Hospital for 3 months,and he was carrying a sequence of manuscripts and new tunes and arrangements and was considering of beginning a brand new band to restart his profession when the ailment received the higher of him. He died on July 10, 1941 at age 51 or fifty six after an eleventh day stay in Los Angeles County Hospital.
