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Blood, Sweat & Tears

For a brief moment in time, Blood, Sweat & Tears were one of the biggest rock bands in America, scoring giant hits like “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy” and “Spinning Wheel,” winning a Grammy for Album of the Year — despite facing off against the Beatles’ Abbey Road — and playing a triumphant set at Woodstock.

But at the pinnacle of their fame in 1970, they went on a State Department-sponsored tour of the Iron Curtain nations Poland, Romania, and Yugoslavia. Thanks to the ongoing Vietnam War, it was a time of maximum distrust in government and the tour sparked a huge fan backlash. They were never able to regain the lost momentum and their fortunes rapidly waned throughout the Seventies.

The upcoming documentary What The Hell Happened to Blood, Sweat & Tears? will finally tell the band’s complete story, using 65 hours of unseen footage shot on the band’s infamous Iron Curtain tour, which was much more complicated than most fans understood at the time.

“Created with the full cooperation of Blood, Sweat & Tears,” reads a press release, “the film will overflow with great music, international political intrigue, compelling human moments, humor, and fresh insight into this strange never-before-told story.”

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5
Album Review

Blood Sweat & Tears: What The Hell Happened to Blood Sweat & Tears?

Read "What The Hell Happened to Blood Sweat & Tears?" reviewed by Doug Collette


The title of this release might rightfully be applied at various junctures of Blood Sweat & Tears' career, but for the purposes of this project, it's particularly apropos to the group's State Department-sponsored tour of 1970 behind the Iron Curtain. Innuendo about this band's hip cachet or lack thereof arising from this jaunt--the main premise of the film devoted to the occasion--becomes moot in hearing the 69 plus minutes of performances in Yugoslavia, Romania and Poland, from whence comes the ...

214
Album Review

Anders Nilsson's Aorta: Blood

Read "Blood" reviewed by Ty Cumbie


Out of Sweden comes new jazz sounds from guitarist Anders Nilsson's group Aorta, a group that glances briefly back at the late '60s and '70s, then forges ahead, showing some possible directions for the music to go if it is to remain vital. Aorta probably won't be doing a week at the Vanguard any time soon, but if there's any music that can even remotely be called jazz and has any chance of capturing the ears of teens and twenty-somethings ...

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96

Interview

Woodstock Jazz Memories: Blood, Sweat & Tears

Woodstock Jazz Memories: Blood, Sweat & Tears

Source: Michael Ricci

With all the media attention focused this week on the 40th anniversary of Woodstock, its worth noting that, while there was no jazz at the festival, there were some fine jazz musicians. Weve already looked at David Sanborns Woodstock memories; heres what some of the players in Blood, Sweat & Tears have said about the event.

Blood, Sweat & Tears were, hands down, the jazziest act to play Woodstock. What does it tell us, then, that most people remain unaware ...

Rodger Fox
trombone

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