The Blues Project

Blues Project
Blues Project in 1966
Background information
Origin	Greenwich Village, New York, United States
Genres	Blues, rock, psychedelic rock
Years active	1965–1968; 1970–1973; sporadically 1973–present
Labels	Elektra, Verve
Members	Danny Kalb Steve Katz Tommy Flanders Al Kooper Roy Blumenfeld
Past members	Andy Kulberg John McDuffy David Cohen Don Kretmar John Gregory Bill Lussenden Eric Pearson Richard Greene

The Blues Project is a band from the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City that was formed in 1965 and originally split up in 1967. While their songs drew from a wide array of musical styles, they are most remembered as one of the earliest practitioners of psychedelic rock, as well as one of the world's first jam bands, along with the Grateful Dead.

In 1964, Elektra Records produced a compilation album of various artists entitled, The Blues Project, which featured several white musicians from the Greenwich Village area who played acoustic blues music in the style of black musicians. One of the featured artists on the album was a young guitarist named Danny Kalb, who was paid $75 for his two songs. Not long after the album's release, however, Kalb gave up his acoustic guitar for an electric one. The Beatles' arrival in the United States earlier in the year muted the folk and acoustic blues movement that had swept the US in the early 1960s.

Kalb formed the Danny Kalb Quartet in early 1965, with rhythm guitarist Artie Traum, Andy Kulberg on bass and drummer Roy Blumenfeld. When Traum went to Europe during the summer, guitarist Steve Katz (like Kalb, a former pupil of guitarist Dave Van Ronk) joined as first a temporary replacement and then a permanent member. Later in 1965, the group added singer Tommy Flanders and changed its name to the Blues Project, as an allusion to Kalb's first foray on record.