Originally issued as a companion album to Moby Grape's sophomore set Wow in 1968, Grape Jam remains one of the more adventurous artifacts of late-'60s rock. As much as Wow demonstrated the San Francisco quintet's awesome s... more »cope and songcraft, this improvised studio set showed the band's chops. Months before the acclaimed Super Session, Grape Jam let contemporary pop musicians stretch, experiment and cook to their hearts' content. "Boysenberry Jam," "Black Currant Jam" (Al Kooper guests on piano) and the 14-minute "Marmalade" (Mike Bloomfield guests on piano) are juicy instrumental maneuvers, while "Never" is a tough vocal blues, and the effects-laden psychedelia of "The Lake" reminds you just what coast the band comes from.« less
Originally issued as a companion album to Moby Grape's sophomore set Wow in 1968, Grape Jam remains one of the more adventurous artifacts of late-'60s rock. As much as Wow demonstrated the San Francisco quintet's awesome scope and songcraft, this improvised studio set showed the band's chops. Months before the acclaimed Super Session, Grape Jam let contemporary pop musicians stretch, experiment and cook to their hearts' content. "Boysenberry Jam," "Black Currant Jam" (Al Kooper guests on piano) and the 14-minute "Marmalade" (Mike Bloomfield guests on piano) are juicy instrumental maneuvers, while "Never" is a tough vocal blues, and the effects-laden psychedelia of "The Lake" reminds you just what coast the band comes from.
CD Reviews
The least of it, and yet....
feralduck | Austin, TX USA | 10/13/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Of the original Columbia albums the Grape released, this is the slightest of the five. Yet, it does have some merits, even though as a jam session it doesn't equal the quality of, say, Super Session or Spare Chayne on Jefferson Airplane's After Bathing At Baxters. The saving grace of this album is the opening track, Never, notoriously "rewritten" by Led Zeppelin as Since I've Been Loving You on Led Zeppelin III.
The remainder of the album is pleasant, though hardly essential. One wonders what a true guitar jam between Jerry Miller and Mike Bloomfield might have been like, rather than wasting Bloomfield on keyboards at this session.
The Lake is psychedelic silliness, although the Grape can't be entirely blamed for it; this was a contest dreamed up by their then manager for the band to write a tune to a fan's lyric, much like Buffalo Springfield's In The Hour Of Not Quite Rain.
All in all, not the Grape's finest hour, but not a complete waste of time, either."
JAMMIN'
Charles Agee | Tahlequah, Oklahoma United States | 10/23/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"As I wrote in my review of WOW, I can't be totally objective about this album,which came as a "two-fer" with WOW.
For some reason, I never saw or was not interested in the group's debut. Of course, I've learned better.! Maybe my small town record shop never carried their first album. Or just maybe it was the more psychedlic cover, GUARANTEED to get a teen boy's attention in 1968.
Anyway, GRAPE JAM was my first exposure to rock "jams" and while others with greater musical knowledge than I at the time may have found them tedious, I was fascinated. It was a new world to me and I couldn't have been happier.
Someone else noted how Led Zeppelin ripped these guys off. Well, they stole from the masters, so I guess Moby Grape can be included in some mighty fine company.
This album may only appeal those of us who heard it first in 1968, but I can still say it's great fun."
Excellent
William R. Nicholas | Mahwah, NJ USA | 08/07/2009
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Before top rock names played arenas, they played clubs. So it was common for, just say, Hendrix to jam with Jack Bruce, Jack Cassidy with Charles Lloyd. Big money was not involved yet. Things were looser.
Grape Jam brings this crossbreeding to the studio: Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield and members of Moby Grape. This is a blues record, but an acidy, funky blues.
A different side of Moby Grape is shown. For a San Fransico band, circa 1968, they were song oriented. Here they are loose and loud and ragged. But they are great players, and have ample chops to carry the improvosation.
Al Kopper and Mike Bloomfield. If both were in front of me, who's feet would I kiss first? Thier feel for blues--from the grittiest to the most cosmopolitan-was 100% instinctive. Yet they give it a 1968 rock grit. Listen to Bloomfield's "Buysonberry Jam" Les Paul growl.
This is not the pristine studio Grape, but for top musicans ripping and crunching, you can't do better. Little known fact: Plant and Page wrote "Since I've Been Loving You" after hearing the first song on Grape Jam, "Never"
What is good for the goose is probably good enough for you.
"
Really good stuff (you get my meaning??)
Jersey Kid | Katy, Texas, America! | 03/26/2009
(4 out of 5 stars)
"I have always preferred Grape Jam' to `Wow.' This is due in great part to my predilection for that "this marriage will never work out (but it did)" combination of Chicago-style blues played psychedelically. I've had this love since I first heard Mike Bloomfield's heroin-driven (hmmm...heroin-driven...an oxymoron??) introduction on `The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper. This album - included with `Wow" as a two-fer is contemporaneous with that work, and included the aforementioned Bloomfield and Kooper (though how long Mike was there and how much he did is subject to conjecture).
Advertised and marketed as a jam, but far too well played and produced to be such, most of these pieces are linearly related to Miller's Blues on `Wow,' though played at a more leisurely pace. Boysenberry Jam and Black Currant Jam are intricate little trips within this genre that demand the listener get into a mellow state of mind (I won't say how, that's up to you!) and just drift with the groove.
Other works left me thinking how close some of the music from the original LP was to `Live Adventures.' I make this differentiation because the added cuts are a departure from the original LP and Moby Grape's style. These works have a horn section that moves the music away from the notional hippy-dippy psychedelic blues towards a more jazz-oriented genre. Given the partial pedigrees of Messers Bloomfield and Kooper - namely Blood, Sweat and Tear and the Electric Flag - this should be no surprise. I think it also provides a bit of confirmation that there were an element of planning in the composition and production.
The weak spot in this album is - and this should be no surprise whatsoever - The Lake. This misbegotten piece of tripe was the issue of corporate greed and marketing, whereby Matthew Katz, the band's manager who continues to obfuscate and litigate in a mean-spirited effort to hurt the band members - Columbia staged a lyric writing contest through an SF radio station in which the winner got to hear his words over the Grape's music. The result is best programmed out.
The rest of the material is - for those who relish the happy marriage (or at least, the shacking up together) of blues and horns and jazz (oh my!) will listen to this recovered gem repeatedly...maybe even habitually.
"
On Sundazed This is Just Amasing I wish It was Avalable !!!!
Mark A. Blom | Puyallup, WA United States | 03/17/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"When this came out on Record it was a free disc that came with the WOW Record It was more just goofing around that the band did with Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper. It was fun to listen to but a bit lacking of being real music becouse it was as it said a Jam.
But On the Sundazed reliese it just comes to life with Awsome remastered sound and Great Bonus Tracks. If your a Jam band Fan or a fan of Moby Grape This is a Must Have CD !! Buy the Sundazed Version I paid 40 Bucks used and I just sat and smiled while Jamming to it Worth Every Penny. This CD like WOW and Moby Grape were pulled right after Being Reliesed.
Track Listings (8) - Disc #1