Child Is Father To The Man – BLOOD SWEAT & TEARS*****

Overture/I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know/Morning Glory/My Days Are Numbered/Without Her/Just One Smile/I Can’t Quit Her/Meagan’s Gypsy Eyes/Somethin’ Goin’ On/House In The Country/The Modern Adventures Of Plato Diogenes & Freud/So Much Love-Underture

Child Is Father To The Man was an excellent debut album from the influential New York based jazz-rock ensemble Blood Sweat & Tears. Founder Al Kooper left after this release. (US:47)

"Child Is Father To The Man is a concept album, with very eclectic material, heavily tinged with jazz, blues, bossa nova and psychedelic rock. The work makes us understand how vast and rich was the band's repertoire, perhaps too large to fit on a single album; technically, a very difficult album to record."

"Kooper’s participation in the band he founded was short but sweet, as the album produced with him was one of the best of its era, and far different from the mega hit albums that would follow after his exit. Child Is Father To The Man would fuse rock, rhythm & blues, jazz, and even some classical elements with a brass section, into a unique sound. The music was a brilliant and eclectic hodgepodge that somehow all fitted together. It remains an interesting piece of music history, vastly different from most of what was being released at the time, and remains an essential listen today."

"Utterly fantastic, soulful, bluesy jazz-rock masterpiece from perhaps the originators of the genre. Stunningly solid all the way through and overflowing with musical ideas and creativity. I can't throw enough clichéd praise at this album."

"Child Is Father To The Man stands apart from the music of the band's contemporaries. The music is a fusion of progressive, psychedelic, blues and jazzrock. There are even elements of lounge music, and occasional orchestration adds to the mix. The listener is guaranteed diversity."

"This Al Kooper led band is very different from the later David Clayton-Thomas led BS&T, so much so that it should be thought of as being made by an entirely different band. So, taking this album for what it is, on its own merits, this is a masterpiece, with terrific songs, unique and magnificent arrangements."

"The music was a fully realized compendium of a lot of Kooper's ideas with the Blues Project: jazz fusion, contemporary rhythm and blues. One wonders what BS&T could have accomplished, had the band remained under the leadership of Al Kooper's bold, experimental and often eccentric vision."