Artist: Joplin, Janis
Label: Columbia Records
Release: 1969
Rating: 4.5/5
After the split from Big Brother, Janis was already on the hunt for new triumphs. With Big Brother’s guitarist Sam Andrew she put together a new band called The Kozmic Blues Band, which was definitely a step forward in her musical evolution, her conscious search for a unique sound of her own. But it wasn’t all as smooth sailing as she’d imagined at the start. Her solo debut stirred up some seriously mixed feelings. The material is painted with horn and woodwind arrangements and leans hard into soul and blues rhythms, which neither fans nor critics expected from Janis. On top of that, she found herself in the role of bandleader for the first time, something she wasn’t used to after Big Brother, where everybody chipped in equally, so the beginnings were rough. Even the musicians themselves sound a little lost without the backing of her powerhouse vocals, which you can hear in the bits where they’re left to instrumental improvisations that only rarely come to the fore the way they do when that rasping voice of the charismatic singer is around.
Still, the album is fantastic, if you can dig up those deeply buried emotions that only the interweaving of soul and blues can awaken in you. The very idea of Janis dressing up her voice with horns is intriguing and gives the album a few triumphant moments. One of those is the opening track “Try”, which flows into the excellent “Maybe”, where her emotionally charged singing sweeps us off to sail through the realms of the unknown. The bluesy “One Good Man” is her own writing, with the famous guitarist Mike Bloomfield lending a hand, and “Work Me, Lord” hits us right in the heart, as we watch Janis give herself over to the flow of the music with everything she’s got. The lyrics of the latter are by blues rock and folk writer Nick Gravenites, who also wrote “As Good As You’ve Been To This World”, whose overlong horn intro might bore the listener a bit, but with that mighty voice in the house the vibe climbs back to a peak. Her take on the Bee Gees’ “To Love Somebody” is pretty interesting too, as is her arrangement of the Hart/Rogers classic “Little Girl Blue” about a sad little girl, which fills us with feelings of melancholy and sorrow, plus the half-self-penned title-giving track “Kozmic Blues”, where you can truly recognize the singer’s personality.
The remastered version boasts three extra tracks: “Summertime” and “Piece Of My Heart”, recorded live at the notorious Woodstock, and Bob Dylan’s “Dear Landlord”. The live recordings are excellent, but they still don’t reach the quality of the versions on Cheap Thrills, which Janis recorded with Big Brother And The Holding Company.
The Kozmic Blues Band was neither the first nor the last band Janis put together in the hope of finding her unique musical style, one that would go beyond the Big Brother era. With this album she was on the right track, even though she disbanded the group just a year after its release. With these songs Janis added new dimensions to soul, R&B and gospel music, combined of course with her mighty voice, which had no equal at the time and still hasn’t to this day.
Line-up
Janis Joplin: vocals
Sam Andrew: guitar, vocals
Michael Monarch: guitar
Brad Campbell: bass, brass
Richard Kermode: keyboards
Gabriel Mekler: keyboards
Maury Baker: drums
Lonnie Castille: drums
Terry Clements: tenor saxophone
Cornelius Flowers: baritone saxophone
Luis Gasca: trumpet
Production
Gabriel Merkel
Track list
1.Try
2.Maybe
3.One Good Man
4.As Good As You’ve Been To This World
5.To Love Somebody
6.Kozmic Blues
7.Little Girl Blue
9.Work Me Lord
bonus tracks:
10.Dear Landlord
11.Summertime
12.Piece of My Heart
Album length: 51.43
